A UK-based firm, Aurelia Mining Limited, has concluded plans to invest a total of $100m in gold mining in Nigeria.
Aurelia’s Director, Julian Hammond, revealed this when he led a delegation on a courtesy visit to the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, on Monday in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
According to him, the Aurelia group’s visit to Nigeria was for preliminary and testing, known as drilling, to determine the amount of gold available and also to woo other mining investors to Nigeria.
After assessing Nigeria’s mining potentials, the firm plans to start a small mining operation worth between $5 and $10m and expand its investment to about $100m within 15 years.
“With time, if the gold deposit is as big as expected, we will invest about $100m 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 minerals needed.
“We are planning to commence preliminary mining operations 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.
On his part, the Mining Minister noted that Nigeria had recorded success in mining through Segilola Gold Resources, a Canadian company conducting gold exploration in Osun.
He stated that Nigerian delegations had exhibited Nigerian minerals at mining events in Canada, London, and South Africa in order to entice investors to Nigeria.
“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 this success stories.”