{"id":609,"date":"2017-10-18T18:11:34","date_gmt":"2017-10-18T17:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/?p=609"},"modified":"2019-08-26T17:42:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-26T16:42:00","slug":"nigerias-kaduna-state-gold-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/nigerias-kaduna-state-gold-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Nigeria\u2019s Kaduna State have more gold than South Africa?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The governor of Kaduna state in Nigeria, Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, told potential investors that the state has \u201call the data\u201d to prove that it has more gold than South Africa. Where is it? Africa Check went looking.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Researched by Eromo Egbejule<\/strong><\/p>\n

From his time as a minister in the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, Nasir El-Rufai, has not been one to shy away from speaking his mind.<\/p>\n

And since becoming governor of\u00a0Kaduna state<\/a>\u00a0in Nigeria\u2019s north-west region on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015, Mr. El-Rufai\u2019s pronouncements\u00a0have become even more controversial<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Opening a two-day\u00a0Kaduna Economic & Investment Summit<\/a>\u00a0last month, Mr. El-Rufai gave a keynote speech. TheCable.ng\u00a0reported that he said<\/a>: \u201cOn solid minerals, you\u2019ve seen the presentation [of] the minerals we have in Kaduna, but they missed out a very important mineral: gold.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve 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].\u201d<\/p>\n

(Note: Incidentally,\u00a0<\/em>TheCable.ng illustrated their report\u00a0<\/em>with a picture of Ghanaian gold miners<\/em><\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Is all that glitters gold in Mr. El-Rufai\u2019s claim?\u00a0We set out to look for the data.<\/p>\n

Was he talking of gold\u00a0reserves<\/em>\u00a0or gold\u00a0resources<\/em>?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A YouTube video from Channels Television\u00a0confirms that El-Rufai was quoted correctly<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Over the space of a week, Africa Check sought to get hold of spokesman Samuel Aruwan to ask for the data Mr. El-Rufai had based his claim on, but Mr. Aruwan neither took calls nor responded to text messages.<\/p>\n

Eventually, we dialled from a UK-based number and then Mr. Aruwan personally called back after missing the call. But he hung up immediately on hearing the reason for the call.<\/p>\n

To verify Mr. El-Rufai\u2019s claim, we would need to know whether he was suggesting that the gold said to exist in Kaduna State qualifies as\u00a0reserves<\/em>\u00a0or as\u00a0resources<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Thomas Yager, country specialist for Nigeria and South Africa at the\u00a0United States Geological Survey<\/a>, a US government agency, explained to Africa Check that\u00a0reserves<\/em>\u00a0refer to the mineral deposits that can be mined economically at a specific time.<\/p>\n

Resources<\/em>\u00a0include the reserves but also deposits that would be too expensive to extract at the time. And it is unclear which Mr. El-Rufai was referring to.<\/p>\n

Data on Nigerian gold is hard to track down<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

A 2010 report<\/a>\u00a0by the ministry of solid minerals showed that Nigeria\u2019s gold production totalled about 6 tonnes since the 1930s. Figures from the\u00a0US Geological Survey\u2019s 2016 Mineral Commodity Summaries<\/a>\u00a0put the production volume for South Africa in 2014 at 152 tonnes and the quantity of reserves at 6,000 tonnes \u2013 the 3rd highest in the world after Australia and Russia.<\/p>\n

Nigeria\u2019s minister of solid minerals development between 2006 and 2007 and now professor of law at the University of Arizona, Leslye Obiora, told Africa Check: \u201cWhile I was in office, we certainly had objective evidence suggesting Nigeria\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yinka Oyebode, spokesman for current minister Kayode Fayemi, told Africa Check: \u201cWe 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\u00a0exploitation of mineral resources including that of gold across the Kaduna-Nasarawa belt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conclusion: No available data shows that Kaduna state has more gold than South Africa<\/strong><\/p>\n

The governor of Kaduna state in Nigeria, Nasir El-Rufai, claimed that it is \u201cproven\u201d and \u201cverifiable\u201d that his region has more gold than South Africa, for a long time the world\u2019s top producer.<\/p>\n

However, his spokesman did not respond to queries asking for this proof and neither did the Nigerian government have data at hand.<\/p>\n

Until El-Rufai shows us \u201call the data\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Edited by Anim van Wyk & Peter Cunliffe-Jones<\/em><\/p>\n

This report was first published by our partner, Africa Check<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0<\/em>a non-partisan fact-checking organisation. We have their permission to republish. You can follow then on their\u00a0Twitter account: @AfricaCheck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The governor of Kaduna state in Nigeria, Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, told potential investors that the state has \u201call the data\u201d to prove that it has more gold than South Africa. Where is it? Africa Check went looking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"hannibal_claim_source":"","hannibal_source_label":"","hannibal_card_color":"blue","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[120],"tags":[77,78,60,73],"verdict":[],"ppma_author":[873],"class_list":["post-609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","tag-gold","tag-kaduna","tag-nigeria","tag-south-africa"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R6dE-9P","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":873,"user_id":10,"is_guest":0,"slug":"dubawa","display_name":"Dubawa","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f70a877f6d81734de0ca299eabb33d20687f41f5a4cb83ae8d754fc9412ee293?s=96&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":"Strengthening Investigative Journalism for the fight against corruption in Nigeria."}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/pic.-8.-gov.-el-rufai-visits-scene-of-bomb-blast-in-zaria-resized-800.jpg?fit=800%2C600&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609"},{"taxonomy":"verdict","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verdict?post=609"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}