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The southern part of the Central African Fold Belt (CAFB) in Cameroon is a southward regional-scale nappe-stacking domain (the Yaounde ´Domain). It comprises the Neoproterozoic Yaounde ´Group, thrust onto the Congo craton, and the poorly known Bafia Group, which is classically assumed to be a (Palaeoproterozoic) tectonic slice of basement overthrusting the Yaounde ´Group to the north. New field observations, zircon U-Pb, and whole-rock and garnet Sm-Nd data allow a better understanding of the Bafia Group within the context of the CAFB. The Bafia Group is probably a Neoproterozoic metasedimentary sequence, comparable to those situated north of the Congo craton (Poli, Lom, and Yaounde ´). In addition to the Palaeoproterozoic to Archean source, the detrital zircons in the Bafia Group are inherited from 1617 AE 16 Ma granitoids. Our results also led us to discuss the source and provenance of the Bafia Group's gneiss protoliths, and the metamorphic evolution of this group.

Clay materials are used as raw materials in papermaking, ceramics, paint, rubber, plastics, pharmaceutical industries (Murray, 2000), agroalimentary industry for decolourizing vegetal oils (Nguetnkam et al., 2008a), and in environmental protection (Nkoumbou et al., 2001). There are numerous clay deposits in all the regions of Cameroon. Many authors have provided data on the deposits in central, southern and eastern regions (e.g., Nkoumbou