Beneath the Surface: The Dark World of Illicit Tin Mining in Plateau

Emma Kago brags about how his tin mining business in Plateau State has been profitable. Some months ago, he bought a plot of land rich in tin on a hill in the Bassa Local Government Area (LGA) of the state.

He has seven people working on the site – three dig the ground, two extract the soil, and the remaining two wash the soil at a nearby river, separating the useful materials from the sand.

“Anyone can do this business…What you need is to buy the land,” he told this reporter, who approached him one Sunday morning in August as someone interested in the business. He promised to facilitate a plot of land for between N250,000 and N300,000.

Mr Kago does not possess a mining licence and has engaged in the extractive business for years. When questioned about regulatory officials, he said they only raid mining sites operated by foreigners.

“We also contact them whenever we see foreigners around,” he said.

Emma Kago’s mining site in Bassa LGA, Plateau State. [Picture Credit: Qosim Suleimann]

Artisanal mining is widespread in Plateau State, often done illegally and driven by illicit mineral traders. Mining is done in communities in Bassa, Barkin Ladi, Jos South, and parts of Jos North LGAs. A vast majority of the miners do not have the licences stipulated by the Nigerian Mineral and Mining Act (2007) and the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Regulations (2011).

Those with the know-how of extracting and washing the tin are found in the mining sites, or ‘bush,’ as the miners call it. Others, who described themselves as ‘city miners,’ buy the minerals from the mining sites or labourers and sell them at tin sheds.

Tin sheds serve as mineral buying centres for traders. They litter Jos, the capital of Plateau State. Through them, portions of illegally mined tin from different mining sites, like Mr Kago’s, find their way to companies selling or exporting the minerals. Collectively, they have created a supply chain of tin built almost entirely on illegal mining, bypassing regulatory frameworks and denying the government due revenues.

While Nigeria’s tin production has surged in recent years, with most of the mineral sourced from Plateau State, it has not yielded commensurate revenue for the government, said Raymond Daspan, the head of the Geology Department at the University of Jos.

The entire solid mineral sector (including other minerals like gold and lithium) contributed only 0.17 per cent to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) between 2018 and 2022, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

“Everywhere you go (in Plateau), you see a lot of mining activities going on. Currently, virtually every day, tin processing mills spring up in the Jos metropolis, in people’s homes. So, production is going on, but no revenue to the government,” Mr Daspan said in a telephone interview, sharing information from a recent stakeholders’ meeting organised by the Plateau State Government.

He said the state government, at the meeting, expressed concern that “there is so much tin production but no commensurate revenue.”

Miracle Audu ventured into illegal mining after multiple businesses she started failed. [Picture Credit: Qosim Suleiman]

The thriving nature of tin mining and trading has caused more residents to leave their regular jobs to venture into artisanal mining or trading.

In 2017, Miracle Audu started working as a labourer on different mining sites. Ms Audu, 52, said she had run several businesses but none was as profitable as tin mining.

“I sold food, firewood, roasted corn but I had to come back to this because I earn better here,” she said in an interview at a mining site in Jos.

More than 100 artisanal miners — including Danladi Daniel who left his farm in Mazah — gathered at this site, which was discovered less than a month before PREMIUM TIMES’ visit in August.

“I sampled two places before I found this space,” Mr Daniel, 34, said, elated by the tin deposit found in the location.

Increased demand for tin

Tin has been mined on the Plateau since colonial times. The tin reserves in Nigeria are “conservatively estimated” to be in excess of 31,000t (52,000t ITRI), with most of it concentrated in the Jos Plateau, according to the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development (now Ministry of Solid Minerals).

For most of the 1940s to 1960s, Nigeria contributed about six per cent of the global supply of tin, making it one of the top five producers of mineral resources. However, the discovery of crude oil and the crash of tin prices in the global market led to a steady fall in Nigeria’s tin production.

But demand has surged again as the world transitions into renewable energy, away from fossil fuels to reduce climate pollutants. Tin is now being used in the production of solar panels, electric vehicles, and semiconductors for computers, all of which are now in high demand.

Responding to the global demand, the price of tin per tonne more than tripled from $5,000 in the early 2000s to more than $20,000 in 2010. As of September, a tonne (1,000 kilogrammes) of tin costs $31,000, according to the World Bank Commodity Price Data.

Graph showing the price of Tin in the global market from the year 2000 to 2024

Resurgence of tin mining in Plateau

The increased global demand trickled down to Plateau, one of the states with the largest deposit of tin in Nigeria. Here, it means a lucrative business for the vast network of artisanal miners and traders like Nafiu Ishaq. Mr Ishaq was introduced to tin mining in 2013 when he worked as an operator of a mineral separating machine at a tin shed in Jos.

Nafiu Ishaq trades up to 500 kilograms of tin a week. He doesn’t ask where they are mined from. [Picture Credit: Qosim Suleiman]

Realising he could earn more trading the product, he quit his job and started buying the product and reselling it in tin sheds.

“It’s like a black market,” he said in August. “You buy it from one person and sell it to another person. That person will gather the product and take it to the final company.”

This reporter witnessed how Mr Ishaq sold over 90 kilogrammes of tin to another buyer in the Katako area of Jos. He claims to sell up to 500 kilogrammes (half a tonne) a week. “My customers come from different sources. Some people come from the bush and others buy from bush materials and sell to me,” he added.

In 2017, the International Tin Association noted a rapid increase in Nigeria’s tin production with exports from the first quarter of the year almost tripled compared to the previous year.

The ITA said in the report that “anecdotal evidence from local news sources suggests the number of miners working at sites on the Jos Plateau in Nigeria has swelled since 2016.”

However, a recent investigation by this newspaper showed that the mining boom witnessed in the past decade is on the decline. Mining pits are producing less tin, indicating the non-renewable nature of the product.

Illicit trading of tin on the Plateau

In Jos, PREMIUM TIMES counted more than 20 tin sheds operating as ‘mineral buying centres.’ Most of them started operations less than 15 years ago.

However, most of the sheds buy tin and other mineral resources without requesting or keeping records of the mining sites where they were extracted, in violation of the Minerals Mining Act. Section 96 of the Act requires that the buying centres “shall keep an up-to-date record of all purchases and sales of minerals acquired with details as to which mine within the country the minerals were won and obtained.”

Falalu Abdullahi of Madugu Mining Company Nigeria Limited, said his company also receives mineral resources from other states. [Picture Credit: Qosim Suleiman]

At least five tin shed owners interviewed by this newspaper said they buy tin and other mineral resources from miners who bring the products to their tin sheds without asking for mining licences or certificates.

“They’re not companies. It’s farmlands of some of them, so they just explore it as artisanal miners,” said Ishaq Kabir, the director of Azhar Minerals Nigeria Limited, established two years ago.

Falalu Abdullahi of Madugu Mining Company Nigeria Limited said his company also receives minerals from ‘rural sites’ in Bauchi, Kano and Kaduna states.

He acknowledged that more people are venturing into the businesses in Jos but attributed this to the country’s high unemployment. According to many accounts, Mr Abdullah trained many of the younger tin shed owners in Jos.

“Mostly it is owned by indigenous people. We call that artisanal mining. When they dig, they bring the material,” Mr Abdullahi said, adding that others form a group like cooperatives to sell their products.

Tin ore at a tin shed in Jos, Plateau State. [Picture Credit: Qosim Suleiman]

The tin sheds owners interviewed said they supply companies such as Malcomines, Ilera Mining Company, Kumar Mining Company, Zyin Mining Group, Associated Mineral Resource Ltd and Emirate Mining and Geominerals Limited.

When PREMIUM TIMES visited Malcomines in August, the manager was not available. A staff member, simply identified as Abdulhamid, who said he would speak for the company and asked to be reached on the phone, did not respond to phone calls and text messages sent to him.

Mr Daspan, the chairperson of the Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society (NMGS) Jos Chapter, said the companies and individuals trading the tin mined without licences are “leveraging on an illegality” and portraying it as a legal business.

“The whole gamut of the processes are one illegality upon another,” he said. “Somebody who is not licensed goes to the field, digs minerals anywhere, then brings it to your mill and you think it is legal.”

Tin mining favours big buyers’

This investigation found that although artisanal miners make money, traders and exporters make the largest profit.

The highest profit margin“eventually ends with the big buyers,” mainly the tin sheds and exporters, Mr Daspan said.

Artisanal miners and traders interviewed at different mining sites in August said they sell about 0.45kg of tin for between N10,000 and N12,000.

“We normally don’t measure it in kg,” said Sam Ezekiel, one of the buyers at a mining site in Jos. Mr Ezekiel said he buys up to 15kg a day and sells them for between N300,000 and N350,000. His profit depends on the difference between the price he bought it and how much he’s able to sell.

The profit margin increases based on the volume of the product traded, thus favouring the “big buyers,” mentioned by Mr Daspan.

Ailing solid mineral sector

Nigeria is losing up to $9 billion to illegal mining annually, according to the House of Representatives.

In 2016, the government launched the Nigeria Mining Growth Roadmap 2016 – 2025, setting an ambitious goal of increasing revenue from the solid minerals sector to at least three per cent by 2025. The roadmap listed seven minerals —gold, coal, bitumen, limestone, lead/zinc, iron ore and barytes— as strategic resources capable of diversifying the economy, boosting revenue earnings and sustainable development.

However, the average annual contribution of solid minerals to the GDP since 2019 has been 0.15 per cent.

Tin ore spread on a street in Jos, Plateau State. [Picture Credit: Qosim Suleiman]

Experts believe that the government’s exclusion of tin from the strategic solid minerals may have contributed to its continuous neglect.

In a progress report on the roadmap, PricewaterCoopers (PwC), a research and consultancy firm, suggested that the government re-evaluate the list to include other important minerals, such as tin.

“Minerals like lithium, nickel, cobalt and tin have been discovered in Nigeria in commercial quantities. However, none of these has been designated as strategic, thus the need to re-evaluate the list of national strategic minerals,” the PwC noted in the report last year.

“The new administration should intensify the exploration of these groups of minerals within NIMEP and ensure targeted development and support so Nigeria can play actively in the future of the global mining sector.”

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Earlier this year, the Minister of Solid Minerals, Dele Alake, inaugurated over 2,000-person mine marshals to check illegal mining across the country. Mr Alake said 60 marshals were deployed to each of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

However, Mr Kago, the miner, said he has never seen any of the officials.

“I think the government needs to take a more proactive measure,” Mr Daspan said.

The geology lecturer said he believes no one benefits from the current arrangement where the mineral resources are illicitly traded. He suggested the employment of more personnel and better training for regulatory officials to carry out proper supervisory roles on both the mining sites and the mineral buying centres.

“The regulatory agencies like the mines inspection should be strengthened, more employment, more vehicles to be able to carry out proper, supervisory roles in making sure they’re able to visit, once in a while, these mills (tin sheds) to enforce the issue of certification and other things that will make the system better regulated,” he said.

“At the end of the day, the monies that would have come to reclaim some value to those communities in terms of road and other facilities, is nowhere to be found. So, at the end of the day, you know, it’s not a win for anybody. It’s like, all of us are losing,” he added.