BWA Group Extends Its Cameroon Exploration Footprints with Second Licence

BWA Group Plc has been awarded second exploration licence at Dehane in addition to the licence already awarded at Nkoteng, Cameroon. The emerging investment player has placed its focus at the centre of mining sector to develop a portfolio of mining exploration permits for researching rutile sands in Cameroon through its wholly-owned subsidiary BWA Resources (UK) Limited.

The company listed on the AQSE exchange in London was originally established in 1932 as a textile company in Lancashire. Until five years ago, BWA Group was a ‘shell’ company. And it was just then the group acquired a stake in small mining exploration company, Mineralfields, out of which BWA has grown its interest in rutile sands in Cameroon. Rutile sand is a mineral that is known for its composition of titanium dioxide widely used in the production of titanium metal and welding rod fluxes.

In an exclusive interview with KalkineMedia, BWA Non-Executive Chairman Richard Battersby told that ‘the ultimate objective is to build BWA up to a significant size, providing material investment growth to our (BWA) shareholders, through the development of the existing 7 licence areas, which exhibit opportunities for the significant growth of future values.’

II Exploration Licence at Cameroon: Dehane: The second exploration licence acquired through its subsidiary, BWA Resources (UK) Limited, covers 132 square kilometre of Central Cameroon in an area known as Dehane. This would allow BWA to carry out research in the area and evaluate the feasibility of commercial exploitation of rutile sands and other minerals such as gold, ilmenite, kyanite and other associated minerals.

In its media release, BWA informed that local resources are being used in preliminary work at Dehane and it believes that the methods established have the potential to lessen the impact of ongoing virus-induced travel restriction scenario.

‘Work starts at Dehane in marking out the site this week. Again, that will be followed by an initial survey of the area,’ told Richard Battersby to KalkineMedia last week.

BWA further reported that the life span of the permit is three years that includes a financial commitment of £275,000 in year 1 and £207,000 each for the next 2 years at existing exchange rates.

I Exploration Licence at Cameroon: Nkoteng: Just after few months of Kings of the North Corp’s acquisition, BWA Group secured its first exploration licence at Nkoteng in December 2019. The permit granted the right to exploit the area covering 497 square kilometre of Central Cameroon in search of rutile sands and other minerals including kyanite, zircon, ilmenite and other related minerals.

Cameroon and Recent Developments: Cameroon is an underexplored but highly mineral-rich country in Central Africa, which was created by the unification of a British and French colony in 1961. The mining landscape in Cameroon is considered underdeveloped with not much of industrial history. The region gained attention when United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) first discovered the potential of several minerals including cobalt-nickel-manganese-iron laterite deposits in a joint project with the Cameroon Ministry of Mines, Water and Energy in southeastern Cameroon during 1981-1986.

Diverse in geographies and culture with decades of authoritarian rule, Cameroon houses several mining companies in the East, the West, the North, the Centre and in Adamaoua regions for the exploration of extensive minerals ranging from rare earth, gold, nickel, uranium, zinc and rutile to manganese.

On 14 April 2020, Mining companies in Cameroon had been notified to restore the sites within 60 days where operations have been completed recently. It was further stated that any failure to do so would risk their operation license to be revoked. The announcement came in an official notification published by Minister of Industry, Mining and Technological Development Dodo Ndocké in the wake of environment degradations, landslides and deaths caused on mining sites due to gaping holes left after exploitation by the companies.

Impact of Coronavirus: Due to the outbreak of coronavirus worldwide, Africa also joined the bandwagon of countries going into lockdown in a bid to control community transmission of the virus. But the community members and scholars believe that a one-size-fits-all lockdown could not be the answer to coping with a fallout; rather the economic impact of the lockdown in the mining sector dominated countries of Africa could be dire if the vulnerable countries do not get considerable support.

On 16 April 2020, the lockdown regulation had been amended in South Africa, permitting miners in the country to restart operations at a 50 percent of capacity with proper control in place to detect and contain the virus including the screening of employees for COVID-19 symptoms.

Stock Price Performance

Listed on the AQUIS Exchange, London, BWA shares last traded at GBX 0.35 on 24^th April 2020. The 52-week low of the stock price was recorded at GBX 0.1 while 52-week high stood at GBX 0.425.

In the last few years, BWA Group has ramped up its investment in mining sector and now seeks a partner and opportunity to capitalize the benefits across the mining industry once having proved the value of claims.