By: ‘The Rock Post’ team
One of Nigeria’s foremost geologists, gold specialist and former president, Geological Society of Africa, Professor Olugbenga Akindeji Okunlola, speaks on Nigeria’s gold mining sector, the scourge of artisanal mining and how the nation can make economic meaning of her gold deposits.
Q. It is reported that, between 1913 and 1933, Nigeria mined a total of 1,400kg of gold. Given the nature of gold mining in Nigeria today, what was the method used; was it mechanized or manual?
R. Most of it was controlled artisanal mining. For example, if you looked at the Southwest areas, around Ilesha, where gold has been mined since the 1930s by prominent Lebanese and Asians like the Gambrahs and others, up to the 60’s when Ilesha was known as the main gold-mining area, it was mostly alluvial (especially around Iperindo, Igun and Itagunmodi). Also, there was a lot of mining going on around Niger and in fringe-towns like Isanlu, present day Kogi State. Those were the main gold mining area then, Zamfara was not in the big picture.
What they were doing then was mostly artisanal, but it was highly controlled. However, it could also be called minor mechanised, because they were using sluice, digging and using gravity – but it was controlled.
Q. If the recovery within that time-frame, an interval of 20 years or so, which yielded 1.4tonnes of gold. Could we say, back then, that we were a gold-rich country?
R. At that time, it was a minimal exploration that led to the gold findings and, between then and now, there were lots of breaks in mining. But new potential, from exploration conducted by the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency and the academia, revealed a lot of potentials which have not been followed up by mining.
However, the amount of gold recorded by uncontrolled artisanal mining is more than that recorded by the 1.4 tonnes between 1995 and now; only that it has not been recorded. Do you know the amount of gold recovered in Ilesha in the last two or three years (given that the number of artisanal miners in that area is over 2000, conservatively-speaking)? How about the amount recovered in Zamfara and Birnin Gwari in the last couple of years? These things are not recorded [but, without question, are very high].
If we recorded 1.4 tonnes officially, given the degree of order and the fact that there was less smuggling – also factor in the colonial times and how controlled things were, you had thousands involved and recoveries were recorded daily – we would have gotten more than five times that amount. If you looked at that, you could say “sure, this is a gold potential.” On the other hand, if you want to compare that to what you have in Ghana and other countries, you should look at the similarities in terms of the geology (I am talking about the Birimian-type mineralisation within the West African Craton). Of course, we are in the Accretion Belt –the mobile belt between the Congo and the West African cratons – but our gold is not Cratonic; rather, it is Orogenic in nature. You see, this came as a result of late Pan-African Hydro-thermalism, in most cases. But then, the extent of our gold potential is much more than that of Ghana. You can contain that of Ghana within the Ashanti Belt and a few places, but that of Nigeria stretches from the Southern fringes of Ilesha up to Zamfara and Southern Sokoto, the Iullemmeden Basin. You are talking about more than 1000km stretch with a width of over 400km.
Now, we are finding new deposits in Bauchi and a number of places. I was in Bauchi where we had the NEITI meeting and I took so much interest in the place. I was with the people in the fields and I saw what they recovered. The grams per ton recovery, I discovered, was no less than 25 grams per ton. Unfortunately, the way they go about it is not so correct, but these were areas we once said “oh, these are not possible gold-bearing areas,” but now stretch from about 100metres to over 200metres. I took the traverses of these places and I saw that the geological trends and structures were unlimited, the auriferous veins remain unlimited, but I had to stop because my time was limited. We could still see the potential, even in the ‘non-traditional’ gold-bearing belts.
Back to the comparison: Nigeria’s gold mineralisation is much more exciting because the potential is quite raw and needs more exploration. Another thing about Nigeria’s orogenic gold is that it is shallow. Let me talk about the Bauchi gold, the latest find. Once you dig for about 15metres, you start getting to the regolith. By 30 metres, you get to the lateritic or ferrugenised iron-regolith. In Ghana, you have to go about 500metres or 1kilometre to get to that. At the Obuasi mines in Ghana, you must go more than 500metres. It is not on the surface.
Now, if you look at the mines in Iperindo that has produced up to 1million ounces now going to 3million ounces, the maximum drilling depth per hole is 100metres. The deepest is about 150m. That is shallow. Yet, Ikperindo is one of seven; Igun, Itagunmodi, Iregun and all others are still underexplored.
I just finished working with my doctorate student in some new areas around Iregun with anomalies. He will be defending it soon. We even got some other methods to look at epidotes, altered feldspars and other areas outside the quartz veins. So, if you look at it, we can replicate what is happening in Ilesha in seven other areas. After that, we can begin to characterize and look at which one is refractory and all that. So, in my opinion, the potential is new, green and calls for more exploration frontiers. Sadly, it is uncontrolled, smuggled and unrecorded. There are no true figures that represent what is happening down there. That is the irony.
Q. Looking at these potentials, why is large-scale gold mining still elusive?
R. The investors will come when they see that they can be here for the long-run when they see success stories. That is the trick internationally.
I hope Iperindo will be a success story; they will not be begged to come. They will see it and flood this country to partake in it.
Are we begging people to come and see our Iron-Ore now? No. Why? We have success stories. Itakpe is proven, Ajagbanoko is proven as well. So is Kaku. For Agbaja, I was reading the other time that in spite of the phosphorus content, the iron is still great. These investors are looking for success stories, as a great excuse to get in on the action. Right now, [gold mining in] Ilesha is confusing and I won’t even put my money there, due to all sorts of illegalities. If you can tell these people there that “this is your tenure,” “this is your tenement,” “this is your property,” they will know you mean business and all fall in line. Others will flock in when they see the law and order.
I was in Bauchi and I told the deputy governor (after I gave him the data, He allowed me to say some things during the gathering) that: “one of the things we want to tell these governors is that there is no need to go queue in Abuja monthly when, right in your back-yard you can get N2billion or N3bilion per month, if you do it well.” Right now, they will continue going to Abuja, because there are no less than 500 or 600 miners who are ‘spoiling’ the ground in the states, while the man who owns the license does not know what to do because he is not doing any further exploration.
If you bring a great investor to that place, he will first engage in structural mapping, get the right veins, do some geophysical stuff, drill through the first 10kilometres and see what there is (in Iperindo, they have drilled to that depth and are still drilling). They may spend about N1.5billion on this process but what is that amount when over $1billion or more is buried underground, and you could get over four times that in the next 10 or 15 years?
This is why they are not here; they have seen nothing to spur them. If you have good laws, that could attract them, but there is no free place.
Q. How do we ensure proper statistics, in terms of artisanal mining?
R. Restructure the Mines’ division, strengthen them. Re-train them.
Q. When you talk about restructuring, how can what we have here be compared to what is obtainable, say, in Ghana?
R. You can’t smuggle gold in Ghana. Right from the airport, they tell the Chinese, “look, illegal mining is a crime. ‘’When you get to the Kotoka International Airport, you will see it there, recorded. They know how important it is to them, as the mainstay of their economy, so they do not joke with it.
The government over there know the amount going out, the amount recovered, the mining companies are organized, and government personnel are attached to them. You have to get really organized and it is beyond rhetoric, having conferences here and there. We will lose a lot if they do not come and they won’t come if the place is not organized. They won’t.
Our investment is another thing we have to encourage. Nigerians have still not listened to reason to invest in solid minerals, because they think the money is not ‘quick’. It is not like rice or production of biscuits. No. We must make conscious efforts to make this thing work. You cannot rely mainly on artisanal mining. We are too rich to be scratching the surface. You say you want to organize artisanal miners, good. How? Organize them to do what, really; continue to devastate the land? Have you helped them out with the knowledge aspect? Do they even know what they are looking for? Do they know how to look for these things? Are they ready to do these things? How knowledgeable are the people who want to organize them? These are the things we have to look at. Now they say they want to get this mega commission. Great, but again, if it is done accordingly and the department is really re-organized, the Mines’ officers should be trained to know what to look for. It is quite easy to be transparent. If the institutions get organized, corruption can be eased out.
There is still some confusion, as some say “there are many mining sites in the country we cannot get to.” That’s not true. Any knowledgeable officer in the South-west will know where all the mining is going on. If he doesn’t, he can ask and then you can know what to do. It is simply a matter of restructuring these institutions. Not political resolve, as people are saying, but restructuring the whole institution. We can get people to do serious mining here; we just need to stop horsing around with the rhetoric. Why was it controlled in South Africa? All the mining going on in that country is simply organized. When you want to see artisanal miners, you go to West of Mines in Johannesburg and all those other forgotten places. There is nothing there anymore because the serious miners have left the place. That said, the organized mining is so structured that one of the biggest trade unions in that country is the Miners’ Union. They can install or remove presidents. They are that powerful because they control the cost of metals in the stock exchange and if they decide to down tools. Sometime last year, they decided to down tools and the price of platinum suddenly dropped in the South African Stock Exchange. They are strong and any government in power has to take care of them.
You have to make the place fit to attract serious people who will go into exploration, develop mines and the artisanal miners made to understand that they will not lose their jobs, but will have to work in the mines. The mining companies who are coming in will be compelled to integrate these people into their employ and organize them. This free-for-all thing will not work. You say you are giving them a cooperative; who monitors the cooperative? Who teaches the cooperative? What extension work is going on in the cooperatives? We have to think about this. When we do this, we will get the maximum results and investors will flood in.
Q. Would it make any difference to have technocrats at the helm of this sensitive restructuring?
That is how it should be. In the mining industry, there are places for technocrats and strategists, but you must have technocrats. They may not necessarily all be earth scientists, but in the mining sector, you have technocrats who are mining economists, mineral economists, policy and strategy people and, then, earth scientists of all shades. That is what you need to develop capacity in the industry. This is what we lack now. Other people have their places in the commerce and information ministries, but when it comes to knowledge-based and science-based ministries, you have to involve the people who know it, the real earth scientists. There are geologists who are wasting away in other spheres of life, but I can tell you that they can still be absorbed into the system if things are put right. At least 20 geologists’ can be put to work to get data in Bauchi area or from a particular field. This is the best way to go about this.
All rights reserved. This material and any other digital content on this platform may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, written or distributed in full or in part, without written permission from The Rock Post Publications
