The Central African Mining minister has just received 15 Chinese engineers who are on a-month exploration mission to consider seeting up a cement plant in Damara commune,” the head of Exploitation at the Mining ministry, Felix Namkoe, explained to APA Friday.
“We are convinced that the Damara site will be operational soon, and we will start the cement production by early next year,” Namkoue added.
The Damara district has a huge cement deposit , discovered in 2000 following a prospection survey conducted by Chinese and Central Africa engineers under the rule of former President Ange Felix Patasse.
The prospecting works were suspended due to political and military unrest in 2001 which led to the toppling in 2003 of President Patasse by François Bozize.
The cement presently used in CAR is either imported from Cameroon or the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The cement is very expensive and its price varies between 10, 000 CFA and 13, 000 CFA francs per 50kg-bag.
