Nigeria partners with South Africa to develop artisanal and small-scale gold mining in Nigeria.

12 June 2014 Ventures Africa informs us that Nigeria and South Africa are exploring the possibilities of working together to develop artisanal and small-scale gold mining in Nigeria.

South Africa is the perfect partner for Nigeria on this as it is the largest gold miner on the continent and the sixth largest miner of gold globally. Nigeria has discovered commercial quantities of gold in Kogi, Osun, Niger and Zamfara States; however, the precious metal contributes only 1% to the National GDP.

Nigeria’s Minister of Steel and Development Musa Sada has stated that under the terms of the partnership, Nigeria will acquire both mining equipment and expertise from South Africa. In his words, “Our focus is on gold because we have a lot of artisanal and small-scale miners. We realised that we are wasting a lot of resources and not getting as much as we should from mining. So, we need to improve on our mining technology and commodity pricing.