By Bisola Adeyemo
The Federal government through the Ministry of Mines and Steel is set to establish a gold production in Ilesha, Osun State.
The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Arc Olamilekan Adegbite, said this on Monday.
He said this while responding to the delegation led by the Director, Aurelia Mining Company Limited, United Kingdom, Julian Hammond, on a courtesy visit to his office at the Ministry’s headquarters in Abuja. Vangaurd reported.
Adegbite said the start up of the gold production in Osun state was a little delayed because of COVID-19.
He said: “The whole essence of this is to promote the industry in Nigeria. We have a success case in Nigeria. The more success stories we have the better for us because others will become convinced.
“We all know about Segilola gold is also in Nigeria, is actually a Canadian company into exploration and they are quoted on the Toronto Exchange, and recently in the last three weeks quoted in the London Exchange as well, and that is a success story in Nigeria.
“But the whole essence is to go out there and to convince more investors to come to Nigeria and do mining. The government is spending so much money, and we have a project called the National Integrated Mineral Exploration Project, NIMEP, the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency, NGSA, is doing exploration, Nigeria’s gold is one of them, and apart from data and the was the same data I met as Honourable Minister in 2019, and we took out before the pandemic started in 2020. I was in South Africa, London, Toronto, and of course with all these we are still able to convince investors; look Nigeria is a place to come to.”
Earlier speaking, the leader of the delegation, Julian Hammond, described the Minister as ‘Great Ambassador’ of the minerals sector in Nigeria based on his effort to put the nation’s minerals sector on an enviable height in the international market.
He said it is important for diversification in his country and the Minister in his interviews he sees it as very important for indigenous Nigerians who have been abroad to come back to Nigeria and break investments for projects to push those projects forward for the benefit of the country.
