Aurelia Mining Limited, a mining company based in the United Kingdom (UK), has declared it will invest 100 million U.S. dollars in gold mining in Nigeria.
This was disclosed by its Director, Mr Julian Hammond on Monday after a meeting with the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr Olamilekan Adegbite, on Monday in Abuja.
What the company is saying
Hammond revealed that the company plans to start preliminary gold drilling in Nigeria to discover the quantity of gold available in Nigeria and attract larger investments.
“We came to Nigeria to access mining project; the company will commence small mining operation with five to 10 million dollars first.
With time, if the gold deposit is big as expected, we will invest about 100 million dollars for the period of 10 to 15 years.
This is the early stage; we need to do our assessment and appraisal to get a much better idea of the quantity of mineral needed,” Hammond said.
We are planning to commence preliminary mining operation in Nigeria in the next six months.
We wanted to get an idea about the ministry’s impression as well, but we were received with open arms which encouraged us that Nigeria is the right place to invest.
We are pleased to tell investors in the United Kingdom and Canada that Nigeria is the right place to invest in Africa because we will get more support and confidence from the Government,” he said.
The Minister revealed that Nigeria has attracted large gold mining investments from companies including Canada’s Segilola Gold Resources, for exploration in Osun.
“We are encouraging foreign companies to come to Nigeria and invest in mining because the Federal Government has done lots of exploration on gold and other minerals to acquire data, making Nigeria a mining destination.
Today, we have recorded a success story that is worth celebrating and hope we will have more of these success stories,” Adegbite said.
What you should know
- Nairametrics reported earlier this year that Segilola Gold Mine, Nigeria’s first and largest industrial-scale gold mine owned by the Canadian mineral exploration company, Thor Explorations Limited, is set to be completed in the first half of 2021.
- The Mining Minister added that the Canadian Gold mining company in Nigeria’s Osun State looks set to commence the exportation of gold this year.
