₦airaland Forum

The gold deposit in Osun state is worth about $5 billion in today’s price, according to a research finding by Olugbenga Akindeji Okunlola, a professor of geology at the University of Ibadan.

At the current CBN rate, $5 billion is equal to N1.5 trillion — whereas checks by TheCable revealed that for the whole of 2016, Osun state collected N62 billion in federation allocation and recorded an internally generated revenue of N8.88 billion.

Okunlola, who is also the president of the Geological Society of Africa (GSAF), was speaking at the 427th inaugural lecture of the University of Ibadan on Thursday.

His lecture was entitled “Riches Beneath Our Feet: Mineral Endowment and Sustainable Development of Nigeria”.

He said Iperindo in Ilesha, Osun state, has a proven reserve of one million ounces “in a 1km2 area up to a shallow 100m depth, comprising a series of gold bearing (Gold-quartz-carbonate) veins localised by subsidiary faults, hosted within biotite gneiss and mica schist. Grade ranges between 1–23.6g/ton. Currently, this deposit is worth over $1 billion”.

Iperindo is one of the clusters of seven gold deposits around Ilesha, he added.

“The worth of the Ilesha gold belt occurrences could be in the range of $3.1 to $5 billion at current price regime… Nigeria might well be the new frontier in the coming years for gold exploration in West Africa,” he said.

Okunlola further said that in Zamfara state, “two old gold mines are most important within Maru Schist belt. The Duki mine mineralisation made up of gold-quartz veins continues for over 1km of strike length. The other gold mine around Mararaba is a 300m long system”.

mikolo80:
where's the govt going to get the power from