Oriole Resources (AIM:ORR) announced it has submitted an exploitation licence application for its Wapouzé limestone project in north-eastern Cameroon, moving the asset a step closer to commercial development.
The AIM-listed explorer, focused on Cameroon and Senegal, filed the application with Cameroon's Ministry of Mines, Industry and Technological Development, less than a month after publishing a maiden mineral resource estimate for the project.
That estimate, announced on 7 October, put the marble resource at 32.2 million tonnes with weighted average grades of 50.33% calcium oxide, 1.13% magnesium oxide and 6.06% silica, spanning four pit shells.
Oriole envisages a multi-pit quarrying operation paired with a processing facility, producing a crushed marble product aimed principally at the cement industry for clinker production.
As part of the application, the company has prepared an internal preliminary economic assessment based on quarrying an initial 38% of the resource, equivalent to 12.3 million tonnes, over a 24-year mine life at a rate of 500,000 tonnes per year, with output intended to go exclusively to a cement manufacturer.
Oriole has also submitted a local-level environmental and social impact assessment for Wapouzé to Cameroon's Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development, prepared by Cameroonian consultancy Jurilex International.
Chief executive Martin Rosser called the licence filing "a major milestone", noting that the project moved from maiden drilling to a substantial resource estimate to the licence application "in a short period of only a few months".
Read more about Oriole Resources
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- 22/07/26Oriole Resources completes maiden drilling at Wapouzé project
"The ELA will significantly bolster our current efforts to attract a major industry specialist partner to support our ongoing feasibility studies and ambitious development plans once the ELA is approved," Rosser said.
The company is in discussions with industry parties seeking to enter or expand capacity in Cameroon's cement market, which it says depends heavily on imported clinker material.
Wapouzé sits roughly 100km north-east of Garoua and 20km north of Oriole's Bibemi gold project, itself part of the company's wider Cameroon gold portfolio alongside the larger Mbe deposit.
Oriole holds an 85% interest in Wapouzé and is ultimately seeking a commercial arrangement that would generate income to support its gold exploration work elsewhere in Cameroon.