FG Discover Gold Deposit In Nasarawa

The federal government has announced the discovery of gold deposits along the Abuja, Nasarawa axis.

Naija News understands that the development was confirmed through the National Integrated Mineral Exploration Project being undertaken by the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development.

Announcing the discovery in Abuja on Wednesday, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, the FMMSD will do its best to avoid the repetition of what happened in Zamfara, where bandits took over gold mining.

Speaking while hosting the Governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule, in the Federal Capital, Adegbite said the ministry would develop the mineral resources in Nasarawa.

In his statement, the minister noted that the NIMEP project which had cost the ministry N15bn had generated many geoscience data that had foreign investors excited about the mining prospects across the country.

“Nasarawa State is the home of solid minerals in the country. We had an earlier discussion about the recent discovery of precious minerals in the Nasarawa, Abuja axis,” said Adegbite through his media aide, Ayodeji Adeyemi.

He added: “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 N15bn into exploration for minerals, one of which is gold.

“We have done this exploration across the country and we have discovered a very nice track of gold deposits especially between Abuja and Nasarawa where we share borders.”

Addressing Nasarawa State government on the menace of illegal gold mining snowballing in the state as a result of large deposits of gold in the state, Adegbite said the ministry was working with relevant security agencies to avert such unwanted activities from happening.

In his remark, Governor Sule said that his state was prepared to work with the ministry to prevent the snowballing of illegal mining in Nasarawa, adding that his administration was indeed concerned about the threat of illegal mining and its associated vices.

He noted that despite experiencing some form of illegal mining of gold in the area called Ukai, the area had attracted some respectable companies who were mining legally in the state.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government about two months ago announced its plan to construct a gemstone market in Ibadan, Oyo State capital.

Naija News reports that Mr Olamilekan Adegbite, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development while announcing the development said it was the initiative of President Muhammadu Buhari‘s led government.