Aurelia Mining Company Ltd, a British gold mining firm, has announced plans to invest $100 million in gold production in Nigeria.
The company’s director, Julian Hammond, who spoke during a visit to the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Arc Olamilekan Adegbite, said they see Nigeria becoming a powerhouse in gold production in Western Africa and aspiring to diversify the economy away from oil and gas and have come to key into the country’s abundant mineral potentials.
Hammond said that if the gold deposit is as big as expected, the company will invest about US$100m for a period of 10 to 15 years.
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He said:
The company will commence a small mining operation with five to US$10m first.
Responding, the Minister said a Canadian firm is already scheduled to start gold exploration in Ogun state soon.
Adegbite said:
In the next couple of weeks we will start gold production from Illesha; it was a little bit delayed because of the COVID-19.
The Minister also said that it is the kind of success story Nigeria was looking forward to from Aurelia at the end of the day. He said the aggressive investment driving campaign embarked upon by the ministry in the recent past have started yielding results.
He said:
I was in South Africa, London, Toronto among others, and with all these we were able to convince investors, to say, look, Nigeria is a place to come to.
