Project description (www.igcp470.org): The Central African region (Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Gabon, Congo, West of Democratic Republic of Congo and NW Angola) is one of the poorly understood among the Neoproterozoic Pan-African-Brasiliano belts system, despite its mineral potential (Au, Sn, Nb, Ta, U, Cr, Ni, diamond, etc). The region is unequally surveyed and geological research in different countries are initiated and conducted by isolated teams. As a consequence, trans-national correlations of litho-structural units are difficult to establish. However, there are many topics of mutual interest that would have benefit from a regional treatment. Among these topics are: (1) the occurance of Proterozoic gold and diamond deposits identified in several countries; (2) understanding the Pan-African granulitic belt exposed north of the Congo craton in Cameroon, Chad and Central African Republic; (3) the contribution of the geophysical data to a better understanding of the Pan-African evolution of the region; 4) the relationships between the Pan-African belts of central Africa and their counterparts in Brazil; (5) the pre-Pan-African evolution of the belt