NIGERIA (Abuja) –The Director-General, Nigerian Cadastre Office, Abuja, Malam Mohammed Amate, said four foreign companies would begin the mining of gold and iron ore in the country this year.
This was disclosed by the director in an interview held in Abuja yesterday.
According to him, the mining activities of the companies will take place in Kebbi, Osun and Kogi states.
He added that Mines Geotechniques Nig. Ltd., an Australian firm, and Northern Numero Resources Ltd. from the UK were granted licences to mine gold in Kebbi, while two other Australian companies, Segilola Nigeria Ltd. and KCM Mining Ltd. would mine gold in Osun and iron ore in Kogi, respectively.
He noted that companies had completed exploration programmes in areas approved for them and they would commence actual mining this year.
He explained that KCM Mining Ltd., which started exploration activities about four years ago in Kogi, completed the exercise last year and had delineated about 500 million tonnes of iron ore.
Segilola Nigeria Ltd., also an Australian company, would operate in Osun, and had concluded exploration programmes and had delineated more than one million ounces of gold there.
According to him, other firms from Canada, UK, Italy, China, Niger, India, South Africa and Ukraine had indicated intention to mine mineral resources in Nigeria.
“The companies have to conduct exploration first before mining to ensure that the area is rich in minerals or not and to know the types of minerals therein,’’ he explained.
“You can see the number of foreign companies that are coming to take exploration licences and have even carried out exploration programmes.
“We are now getting foreign mining companies that are coming to invest in Nigeria and it is a good thing for the industry.
“Mining is a major sector that employs a lot of labour and with the coming of the mining companies, many Nigerians will be employed.’’
“We insist that any company that wants to pick up a licence must employ qualified Nigerians and the companies are complying,’’ he said.
