Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, told potential
investors in April that a single local government in his state
has more gold than the entirety of South Africa.
But a research carried out by Africa Check, a project of AFP
Foundation, has punctured that claim, saying the governor
has no data to substantiate his assertion.
Opening the two-day Kadun Investment Summit last month,
el-Rufai said: “On solid minerals, you’ve seen the
presentation [of] the minerals we have in Kaduna, but they
missed out a very important mineral: gold.
“We’ve just confirmed that Kaduna state, indeed Birnin Gwari
local government alone, has more gold than South Africa.
This is proven, this is verifiable; we have all the data and we
are collaborating with the federal ministry of solid minerals
[development].”
Africa Check said it “sought to get hold of spokesman
Samuel Arwuan to ask for the data El Rufai had based his
claim on, but Arwuan neither took calls nor responded to
text messages”.
“Eventually, we dialled from a UK-based number and then
Arwuan personally called back after missing the call. But he
hung up immediately on hearing the reason for the call,”
Africa Check said.
EXCERPTS FROM THE RESEARCH :
Thomas Yager, country specialist for Nigeria and South
Africa at the United States Geological Survey, a US
government agency, explained to Africa Check that reserves
refer to the mineral deposits that can be mined economically
at a specific time.
Resources include the reserves but also deposits that would
be too expensive to extract at the time. And it is unclear
which El Rufai was referring to.
Data on Nigerian gold is hard to track down
Official statistics on gold thought to exist in underground in
Nigeria are not readily available. The Nigerian Mining
Corporation, established in October 1972 as the statutory
body charged with undertaking mining activities, is based in
Jos, a four-hour drive from Kaduna. But it has long since
been inactive, with most government attention going to the
oil and gas sector.
A 2010 report by the ministry of solid minerals showed that
Nigeria’s gold production totalled about 6 tonnes since the
1930s. Figures from the US Geological Survey’s 2016
Mineral Commodity Summaries put the production volume
for South Africa in 2014 at 152 tonnes and the quantity of
reserves at 6,000 tonnes – the 3rd highest in the world after
Australia and Russia.
Nigeria’s minister of solid minerals development between
2006 and 2007 and now professor of law at the University of
Arizona, Leslye Obiora, told Africa Check: “While I was in
office, we certainly had objective evidence suggesting
Nigeria’s considerable potential gold deposits. However, the
scientific research to buttress the findings and map out
specific details was still ongoing at the end of my tenure.”
Yinka Oyebode, spokesman for current minister Kayode
Fayemi, told Africa Check: “We are gathering data to
recalculate the quantity of gold deposits present in Nigeria
so I cannot categorically state the amount present now. The
minister has made it a priority to get things up to date and
collaborate with the state governments in the exploitation of
mineral resources including that of gold across the Kaduna-
Nasarawa belt.”
Conclusion: No available data shows that Kaduna state has
more gold than South Africa
The governor of Kaduna state in Nigeria, Nasir El-Rufai,
claimed that it is “proven” and “verifiable” that his region has
more gold than South Africa, for a long time the world’s top
producer.
However, his spokesman did not respond to queries asking
for this proof and neither did the Nigerian government have
data at hand.
Until El-Rufai shows us “all the data” that proves his
statement, it remains simply a claim and an unlikely one at
that. The suggestion that the claim is verifiable is, itself,
incorrect.
https://www.thecable.ng/africa-check-el-rufai-no-data-shows-kaduna-gold-south-africa

Uhmmmm so no data to show only noise bah