2025-08-23 19:10
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2025-08-23 19:10
Illegal extraction of valuable minerals, including gold in Nigeria, has become a powerful business for bandits and terrorists. And the country loses about $ 9 billion a year for this – revealed at a press conference in Abudża the Federal Police Commissioner of the Capital Territory (FCT), Ajao ADEWALA.
These losses mainly result from illegal exports of gold, lead, zinc, tin and coal mined in various parts of the country. Recently, lit.
One of the most important policemen in Nigeria announced that in Abuda alone, in 2023-2024, over 72 people for illegal mining activities were arrested.
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Inhabitants of mining areas with illegal gold mining are blamed for China citizens, who also often lead illegal refineries, where they cleanse gold, melting them in staffs and take them out of the country. Locals accuse Chinese miners of cooperation with extremist fighters, corrupting state officials, destruction of agricultural land and pollution of water with mercury and lead.
In 2023, the British Times published a report about Chinese companies that gained access to mines, paying for Nigerian jihadists. SBM Intelligence, an analytical group based in Lagos, then made available to the newspaper video recordings of fighters from Boko Haram and the province of the Islamic State in West Africa, who boasted that Chinese employees in their territory must pay them “rent”.
But the Commissioner Adevalek of supervision over this procedure and contacts with terrorists accused “some of the Nigerians” who use foreigners only as a cover.
Nigeria has over 44 different types of officially identified minerals, including many rare, occurring in over 500 locations throughout the country. The Fund for the Development of the Deposits, which is a partnership of Nigeria and the African financial corporation (AFC), estimates the potential of the mining industry in this country at $ 700 billion.
Nigerians have little benefits of this wealth. Last year, about 46 percent The inhabitants of Nigeria lived in poverty, and according to the World Bank, this indicator is to deteriorate until 2027 (PAP)
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