Dike Onwuamaeze

The operator of Nigeria’s first and only large-scale commercial gold mine, Segilola Resources Operating Limited (SROL), has declared that Nigeria’s solid minerals sector is not just promising but investable and profitable.

The declaration was made by Country Manager for SROL, Mr. Austin Menegbo, in his keynote speech at the recent Nigeria South Africa Chamber of Commerce (NSACC) breakfast session, themed: ‘Unlocking Africa’s Hidden Wealth: Mining as a Catalyst for Bilateral Investment’.

According to Menegbo, “I have been part of the Segilola journey for sixteen years and have watched different owners come and go. The gold was always there; the challenge was never geology. It was capital and conviction: who would have the courage to invest and stay the course?”

He added: “Securing finance for a first-of-its-kind project was daunting, but the process itself became a catalyst for multilateral investment.

“International financiers, technical partners, and local stakeholders came together, demonstrating that Nigeria’s solid minerals sector is not just promising; it is investable and profitable.

“But capital alone is never enough. Success rests on something more fragile and far more valuable: trust with regulators, with our host communities, and with our workforce.”

He said Segilola would continue to expand from near-mine exploration to greenfield prospects, which underscored its confidence in Nigeria’s future as a mining jurisdiction.

He identified power, poor or inexistent road networks and water as the major infrastructural challenges being faced by miners.

“In terms of infrastructural challenges, the first one I will mention is power. The national grid collapses regularly. To continue to operate you have to rely more on diesel generated power, which is very expensive and adds to your cost of production.

“What we have done is to transition largely from diesel to compressed natural gas energy. It has helped us to reduce not only our cost but to also reduce carbon emission.

“Another major infrastructural challenge is road networks. Most exploration or mining sites in Nigeria are in very remote areas where you have underwhelming road networks that are very poor or may be non-existent road networks.

“You are left with creating or building roads that will allow you to transport not just people or heavy equipment and machinery from the port to the mine or to the site. Again, that adds significant cost.

“And finally, water that is required for processing the solid mineral and those that need water to survive on the plants,” he said.

He suggested that private and public partnerships could “upgrade the current infrastructure to a standard that we want these infrastructures to be.”

Menegbo also canvassed for the regularisation of artisanal mining in Nigeria as provided for the country’s mining law.  

He said: “Countries in Africa are embracing this model and I think that it is something that we need to do here. We need to operationalise this part of our mining Act by formalising artisanal miners.”