Nigeria produces gold worth $194.4 million in one year

• FG Backs Mining Firms Implementing Local Content
The Segilola Resources Operating Limited (SROL), a solid minerals firm in Nigeria, announced on Friday, that it had produced 84,609 ounces (2,398.6 kilogrammes) of gold, valued at $194.4m at current prices in 2023.

It also emphasised that the company, which is a world-class project run by Nigerians, is seeking support from the Federal Government to expand its operations and make a greater contribution to the country’s economy.

Its Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer, Segun Lawson, disclosed this while receiving the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, on site tour to SROL in Ilesha, Osun State.

Presenting the achievements of the company to the minister, he said the company operated an open pit system, involving drilling and blasting, hauling and loading the rocks before processing into gold.

He said: “Last year, it produced 84,609 ounces (2,398.6 kilogrammes) of gold amounting to $194.4m at current prices. The company spent N29b on local procurement and has 1,993 workforce with 98 per cent local employees.

He. however, noted that they paid $ 4.3m compensation till date and spent N1b on 25 community projects, which benefitted 11,112 indigenes, 135 fish and vegetable farmers, and 4,479 community members.

In response, Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, pledged the Federal Government’s support for SROL, particularly because “it promotes local content and positively impacts the host community with developmental projects.”

He expressed the commitment of the federal government to support mining companies that place a premium on local content in their operations.

Alake expresses delight that over 95% of the SROL staff are Nigerians, urged other mining companies to emulate their methods in order to develop the sector.

He advised mining companies to emulate the international best practices of the Segilola gold project to develop the sector.

Commending the high Nigerian component of the project, Alake remarked that the firm has applied local content in its procurement and employment policies.

The minister, in a statement by its Special Assistant on Media, Segun Tomori, praised the company’s tenacity of purpose and efficient methods deployed to push through with its vision, despite daunting challenges at  inception.

Stressing that his focus has been to redirect local and international attention to the mining sector, Alake revealed that the implementation of  his seven-point agenda is to reposition the mining sector.

He said: “I have made sanitizing the security  environment  one of the critical points of my seven-point agenda. Recently, as part of the process of actualising that policy, I had to unveil the creation of a mines marshal. They have a base in all the states of the country.”