Nigeria produced 54million tonnes of gold, other minerals in 2014 – Official

 

Mr Dauda Awojobi, the Director of Mines Inspectorate, Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, says  Nigeria produced 53.76 million tonnes of gold and other minerals in 2014.

Awojobi made this known in an interview in Abuja. He disclosed that the minerals were gold, coal, iron ore, lead/zinc, limestone and tin ore.

Others, according to him, are tourmaline, feldspar, clay, dolomite, barite, beryl, clay, copper, columbite, corundum, dolorite, garnet and granite. He added that they also included gypsum, kaolin, marble, ruby, red alluvium, sapphire, topaz, wolframite and zircon. “Last year, of all the minerals produced, limestone had the highest volume of 25.96 million tonnes while zircon had the lowest volume of 0.02 tonnes,” he told NAN.

NAN recalls that in 2009, Nigeria produced 18.62 million tonnes of various minerals, 25.08 million tonnes in 2010 and 23.55 miilion tonnes in 2011. In 2012 and 2013, the country produced 36.53 million tonnes and 50.12 million tonnes, respectively.

Awojobi said that the government generated N1.50 billion mining royalty from various minerals it produced in 2014, and had a projection of N2.5 billion to be generated from the source in 2015.