Rescuers yesterday found the wreckage of a crashed plane carrying an Australian mining tycoon and 10 other foreigners but there were no survivors, Cameroon's communications minister said yesterday.
The plane carrying the entire board of the Sundance Resources mining company including tycoon Ken Talbott went missing over thick jungle last Saturday on a flight from Yaounde, Cameroon's capital, to Yangadou in Congo-Brazzaville.
"The wreckage has been found in Congo. Unfortunately there were no survivors," Cameroonian minister Tchiroma Bakary told AFP, adding that he would make a full statement later. Six Australians, two British, two French and one US national were on the twin turboprop Casa C212 plane, which had been chartered by Sundance.
The French military had earlier joined the frantic search in thick forest on the Cameroon-Congo border, while Congo-Brazzaville authorities said they would call on pygmy tribesmen to join the hunt.
Fog over the jungle hampered efforts to locate the plane using two Cameroon government helicopters along with a French military C-160 transporter and Cougar helicopter.
Australian, American and Canadian officials had also been said to be helping.
Sundance's ex-chairman, George Jones, said the board had shared the flight as Talbot's private jet was unable to land on the airstrip at Yangadou, a remote mining town where only small planes can land.
"It's unusual for an entire board. It actually breaches corporate governance and obviously relates to the fact they could only get on one plane," Mr Jones told Fairfax Radio.
Sundance, an iron ore miner, halted its African operations and had ordered staff to help find the plane carrying Talbot, whose fortune is estimated at A$965 million (US$840 million) by BRW business magazine. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had expressed his concern yesterday.
Ground controllers lost contact with the plane shortly after it took off from Yaounde. As well as Talbot, the four other members of the Sundance board, Geoff Wedlock, Don Lewis, Craig Oliver and John Carr-Greg, were on the plane.
Natasha Flacon Brian, a French woman based in Australia who worked for Sundance, a consultant and a British citizen and the British pilot were also on board. Trading in Sundance shares was halted and chief financial officer Peter Canterbury was named acting chief executive.
"This is a deeply distressing time for the families of the missing, their friends and work colleagues," Canterbury said.
Reports said Mr Talbot, a truck driver's son, first made his fortune through a network of pubs before founding mining company Macarthur Coal, reports said. He left Macarthur over corruption charges and was due to go on trial in August.