The Federal Government has announced that global gold mining giants, Barrick Gold Corp. and Rio Tinto Group have expressed interest in Nigeria’s rapidly growing gold mining industry.
This was disclosed by Nigeria’s Minister of Mines and Steel, Olamilekan Adegbite at a mining conference in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, according to Bloomberg on Wednesday.
Nigeria’s mineral production in the mining and quarrying sector rose by 17.95%, amounting to 64.3 million tons in 2020 from 54.5 million tons in 2019, according to the NBS last month.
Read: FG begins process to allow CBN buy all gold from local miners
What the Minister is saying
Speaking in an interview at the mining conference, the Minister said the gold mining companies are looking at the possibility of keying into opportunities in Nigeria.
“We’re so happy and delighted because they have succeeded and so give the right signal for investors,” he said.
He added that Barrick Gold has interested in coming to Nigeria and that talks have commenced with London-based Rio, the top iron ore producer, about opportunities in the country. He also added that the FG intends to auction rights to mine gold, lithium, copper and limestone in 2022.
On gold smuggling, he noted that the FG has also started discussions with the UAE government to stop such practices and currently getting some traction.
Read: Nigerian-Canadian company to start gold export from Nigeria in June 2021
What you should know
Recall Nairametrics reported last month that Nigeria mineral production in the mining and quarrying sector rose by 17.95% amounting to 64.3 million tons in 2020 from 54.5 million tons in 2019, according to the Nation Bureau of statistics Mineral Production Statistics Report for 2019-2020.
The report classified the contribution of each state to the mining sector the report said, “Aggregate production in 2020 (64,286,308.01 tons) grew by 17.95% compared to 2019 with 54,505,048.23 tons, indicating an improvement in production. In 2020, Kogi State, Ogun State and Cross River State were top three States with the largest share of production with 12.50 million tons, 12.11 million tons and 8.90 million tons respectively. The least State was Borno which recorded 5,060 tons. Similarly, Ogun State, FCT and Kogi State were the top three States with the largest share of production in 2019.”
Read: Nigeria has lowest gold export Royalty fee in the world
Last August, Segilola Gold Mine, Nigeria’s first and largest industrial-scale gold mine owned by the Canadian mineral exploration company, Thor Explorations Limited poured its first gold from the mine in Osun state on Friday.
The Canadian company has spent $100 million to build the mine, while Africa Finance Corp, its largest shareholder, provided $86 million in debt and equity financing.
Good
Wow
Yeah