Nigeria Partners with South Africa to Develop the Mining Sector in Nigeria
Mary Odunuga
South Africa is currently the largest gold miner on the continent and the sixth largest gold miner globally. Nigeria has therefore decided to partner with South Africa in exploring collaborative ventures to develop artisanal and small-scale gold mining in Nigeria.This partnership will see Nigeria acquire mining equipment and expertise from South Africa owing to the many artisans operating in the country’s developing mining sector. Nigeria’s Minister of Steel and Development, Musa Sada reiterated this point in an interview in Abuja, “Our focus is on gold because we have a lot of artisanal and small-scale miners. We realized that we are wasting a lot of resources and not getting as much as we should from mining. So we need to improve on our mining technology and commodity pricing.”Most of Nigeria’s gold deposits can be found in the northern states and currently, gold mining in Nigeria constitutes less than one percent to the country’s GDP.
