The Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development said it has discovered gold deposits along the Abuja, Nasarawa axis through the National Integrated Mineral Exploration Project.
Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, disclosed this in a statement while playing host to Nasarawa State governor, Abdullahi Sule, in Abuja.
According to the statement signed by the media aide of the minister, Ayodeji Adeyemi, the FMMSD would develop the mineral resources in Nasarawa state, adding that the N15bn NIMEP project had generated many geoscience data that had foreign investors excited about the mining prospects across the country.
Adegbite said the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development is determined to avoid a repeat of the Zamfara experience (where bandits were largely in charge of the gold mining) in Nasarawa State.
“Nasarawa State is the home of solid minerals in the country. We had an earlier discussion about recent discovery of precious minerals in the Nasarawa, Abuja axis.
“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 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,” he said.
The minister said his ministry is working with relevant security agencies to prevent the menace of illegal gold mining increasing in the state due to the large deposits of gold.
Responding to the gold deposits discovery, Governor Sule said Nasarawa state is prepared to work with the ministry to prevent the increase activities of illegal mining in the state.
Governor added that despite some form of illegal mining of gold in the area called Ukai, the area had attracted some respectable mining companies.