By: Africa intelligence

After an absence of more than a decade, Rio Tinto is looking to get back into Cameroon's mining sector. The multinational has recently doubled its efforts in Yaoundé, notably in soliciting the interim mining minister, Calistus Gentry Fuh. 

The Anglo-Australian company is interested in potential deposits of rutile, a strategic mineral used in the technology and aeronautics industries and which is part of the mineral sands sector. Rio Tinto is one of the market's world leaders, notably in southern Africa with its subsidaries QIT Madagascar Minerals (AI, 17/04/24) and Richards Bay Minerals (AI, 26/02/25). 

The company hopes to obtain exploration licences as Cameroonian authorities, anticipating the presidential election of October 2025, seek to revitalise the country's mining sector. 

Recon visits

In April 2025, the first Rio Tinto delegation, led by Jonte Beswick, general manager of exploration for Africa and Eurasia, visited the mining and industry ministry in Yaoundé to discuss the potential of reviving mining projects.

Rio Tinto geologists have carried out two recon missions in Centre Region in recent weeks, notably near the Akonolinga rutile deposit, where Eramet of France abandoned its own search in 2023. UN firm Tronox is also interested in Cameroonian rutile (AI, 07/07/25). 

Neither Rio Tinto's London headquarters nor its southern African mineral sands operators wished to respond to Africa Intelligence's request for comment on the Cameroon missions.

In the 2000s, Rio Tinto held a major stake in Alucam, Cameroon's only aluminium manufacturing plant, which was supplied with imported alumina. Despite its initial investments, Rio Tinto met with operational difficulties and did not manage to stabilize the company in the long term (AI, 11/02/25). The mining giant's departure more than 10 years ago left Alucam in great financial difficulty. Restructuring plans, notably to supply the plant with alumina derived from the refining of local bauxite, did not attract any investors, aside from the Indian industrial Gagan Gupta through Arise IIP (AI, 15/04/25).