Cameroon has announced a major crackdown to recover more than 500 million US dollars in unpaid taxes and customs duties linked to undeclared gold exports. Authorities said the issue was not missing gold but lost state revenue, as some operators exported gold through unofficial channels without paying required taxes and customs duties. The ministry said the recovery exercise could generate at least 300 billion CFA francs (about $524 million) for the state, helping to address revenue losses identified in the EITI report. Cameroon also plans to introduce a real-time gold production tracking system to prevent future revenue leakages. The move comes as the government projects that income from new mining projects and reforms in the gold sector could exceed 1 trillion CFA francs (about $1.75 billion), potentially making mining the country’s largest source of state revenue ahead of oil.