Cameroon Pledges Transparency On Mining To Earn Full EITI Membership -Min

In its bid to gain full membership to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, the Cameroon government has pledged to comply with the body's obligations, essentially more transparency in its mining and oil sectors, the country's minister of Finance, Essimi Menye told Dow Jones Newswires Wednesday.

Since its affiliation to the Oslo-based mining watchdog in 2005, Cameroon has been confined to the status of observer, despite its hunt for full membership.

An EITI delegation visited Cameroon to encourage it to meet transparency requirements that can enable it be considered for full membership by the body's next meeting in June.

The delegation, led by the organization's envoy Tim Bittinger, asked Cameroon to do more extensive "publication of data on its extractive industries".

Menye responded by saying Cameroon has already published three reports "since we joined the EITI in 2005...But it seems there's been discrepancies because the volume and figures of our report were produced in French [and] our report contained information on companies which had agreed to work in Cameroon, but had not become operational."

Australia's Sundance Resources Ltd.(SDL.AU), Colorado-based Geovic Inc. (GVCM), and aluminum smelter Rio Tinto PLC (RIO) are among the major operators in Cameroon's mining sector.

-By Emmanuel Tumanjong; contributing to Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]