YAOUNDE, Cameroon -(Dow Jones)- Cameroon's minister of industries, mines and technological development, Badel Ndanga Ndinga, said Saturday that Australian mining company Sundance Resources Ltd. (SDL.AU) is well placed to secure authorization to mine its huge iron ore reserves discovered southeast of the African nation.

"After signing the convention of memorandum of understanding, a mining permit will be signed and issued by the head of state, paving the project to follow its course normally," Ndinga said Saturday on state radio. Ndinga has held talks with the company's acting chairman, George Jones, who is visiting Cameroon.

Jones had talks with Cameroon Prime Minister Philemon Yang on Thursday.

Jones is in Cameroon to see his company ink a memorandum of understanding leading to Sundance securing a mining permit. Jones said Friday that drilling has resumed at the company's iron ore project in southeastern Cameroon.

George Jones became chairman after the company's board of directors were killed in June when their plane crashed in Congo.

The company had initiated closer negotiations with Cameroon to secure permission to start extracting the Mbalam iron ore.

Sundance has a 90% stake in Cameroon Iron Ore Company, or Camiron SA, which owns 1,800 square kilometers of fields with estimated reserves of 2.2 million tons of combined inferred mineral resource of enriched itabirite and direct-shipping-quality hematite.

Sundance Resources has completed feasibility studies for its US$3.4 billion project, which should last for 25 years.

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