Buhari’s Minister Reveals How Gold Was Discovered In Abuja

Nigerian minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite has disclosed that Nigeria discovered gold along the Abuja-Nassarawa axis, through the National Integrated Mineral Exploration Project (NIMEP), a programme undertaken by the Ministry.
He said that the ministry was resolved to avoid a repeat of the Zamfara experience in Nasarawa State, in which bandits were largely in charge of the gold mining in that state.

Nigerian minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite has disclosed that Nigeria discovered gold along the Abuja-Nassarawa axis, through the National Integrated Mineral Exploration Project (NIMEP), a programme undertaken by the Ministry.

The minister revealed this via a statement issued during the visit of the Executive Governor of Nasarawa State, Engr. Abdullahi Sule to the Ministry on Tuesday.

Nigerian minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite

While assuring the Governor of the ministry’s intention to develop the mineral resources in the state, the Minister explained that the NIMEP project which had cost the ministry N15 billion had generated troves of geoscience data that had foreign investors excited about the juicy mining prospects in the country.

He said that the ministry was resolved to avoid a repeat of the Zamfara experience in Nasarawa State, in which bandits were largely in charge of the gold mining in that state.

The statement read in parts: “It is a pleasure to receive the governor of Nasarawa State in my office today and this should not be a surprise because Nasarawa State is the home of solid minerals in the country. We had an earlier discussion about recent discoveries of precious minerals along the Nasarawa, Abuja axis.

“As you probably might be aware, we have been talking about this for a while, there is a programme we call NIMEP executed by the ministry where the government has put about N15 billion into exploration for minerals, one of which is gold, and we have done this exploration over the country and have discovered a very nice track of gold deposits especially between Abuja and Nasarawa where we share borders.” he said