Artisanal gold miners in Nigeria seek government help

Valentina Ruiz Leotaud | April 1, 2018 | 9:32 am Precious Metals Africa Gold 
Nigeria hopes gold mining reforms can bring in $500 million a year
Most of the mining in Nigeria is artisanal and the absence of gold refineries means value typically has not been added in the supply chain. Photo by Gudjohnsen007, Wikimedia Commons.

Artisanal gold miners in the Niger state of Nigeria are asking the Muhammadu Buhari government to help them operate under conditions that allow them to take better care of the environment and contribute to the local economy.

In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, the Chairman of the Association of Gold Miners in the Chanchaga Local Government, Michael Abida, said that his group has asked authorities to organize the local miners professionally.

In detail, the miners want the government to help them create and join cooperative societies, as well as issue them licences, provide equipment and train them on modern mining techniques. They say that such support would, in turn, help them reduce their environmental footprint and prompt them to pay taxes.

According to Abida, authorities have had to turn the blind eye to illegal mining operations due to the high unemployment rate that affects the country and that peaked at 18.8 per cent in the last quarter of 2017. “The government realised that right now many Nigerians are jobless, that is why they allowed us to help ourselves but with a warning not to destroy the natural environment,” he told the news agency.

In past months, officials have mentioned the need for a coordinated action that allows artisanal miners to perform their jobs under safer and environmentally friendlier conditions, but no concrete strategy has been put in place yet.

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4 Comments

  • Steve Canby

    http://www.minex.org – extensive experience in Nigeria & world-wide, particularly with artisanal and small scale mining. There are tried and tested ways to make such schemes work. The wheel does not have to be re-invented!

  • Chris Noyes

    We are trying at AOW.gold if the Niger government would speed up

  • Owen Chen

    We have project in Nigeria and if you need equipments for mineral processing, please contact me: [email protected]

  • noisemakers.com.ng

    these and minimise environmental impacts?

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