The Digital Black Market: Nigeria’s illicit lithium trade uncovered

Within three weeks this year, Oganyi Franklin made at least N7.6 million from selling illegally sourced lithium, a critical mineral needed for renewable energy transition. He often markets the materials on social media, such as Facebook and TikTok.

After selling one batch, Mr Franklin appeared in a Facebook live video on his friend’s page on 28 February. In the video, he held some whitish stones he identified as “lithium kunzite.”

Mr Franklin, dressed in a black T-shirt and jean hat, said the minerals are “high-graded and well-sorted.”

He then panned the camera to show his warehouse among some locked shops in a marketplace where such materials are openly sold in Bani, a restive lithium trading community straddling Oyo and Kwara states.

He is not the only one involved in this illicit business, which the Nigerian government claims is costing it a huge revenue loss. From mining to trading, thousands of Nigerians and foreigners are involved in the illegal lithium trade. In 2023, the mining sector contributed less than one per cent to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Lithium, increasingly in demand for batteries for power storage, electronics and electric vehicles, is now among the priority minerals for the Nigerian government, which is trying to better regulate the extractive sector after many years of neglect and revenue losses.

However, despite recent crackdowns, lithium is still mined illegally, and much of that occurs in Kwara and Nasarawa states, which serve as sources for online mineral vendors like Mr Franklin. Despite lithium being mined in many states across Nigeria, the National Bureau of Statistics does not capture its export data in the country’s official trade numbers, suggesting illicit financial flows.

A network of illegal traders

PREMIUM TIMES profiled over 20 social media handles marketing mineral resources mainly illegally sourced.

These social media handlers are members of the supply-and-demand Facebook groups such as Lithium Ore Nigeria Supply and Lithium Mining And All mineral resources in Nigeria. They often post their products, inviting interested buyers to chat with them via WhatsApp.

Posing as a buyer, our reporter interacted with some of the online traders. He subsequently traced them to Kwara and Nasarawa states, where the government had repeatedly arrested illicit miners, including Chinese nationals.

Two of the online traders — Joshfa Monday and Mohammed Dadi — directed this reporter to Kakafu village in Lade, a town in Patigi Local Government Area of Kwara State.

A large mining pit in Kakafu, Lade, Patigi LGA Area of Kwara State / PREMIUM TIMES

Messrs Monday and Dadi would later refer our reporter to their contacts in Patigi. The latter’s contact person, Usman, took our reporter on a Bajaj motorcycle to the mining village, where he saw a vast land with countless mining pits and a few labourers at the village’s entrance.

“Things are not like they used to be,” Mr Usman grumbled as he rode through the sandy road leading to Kakafu. “In the past, you would have seen trailers loaded with stones moving out of this place.”

Mr Usman said some labourers who dug the pits and “bring out the materials” have moved elsewhere, “making our market slow down.”

Usman showing our reporter varieties of lithium at Kakafu near Lade in Patigi LGA, Kwara State.

He would later give our reporter some samples of lithium varieties — lepidolite and kunzite — asking him to take them for a laboratory analysis “to determine the quality” before buying them in bulk.

Mr Usman told our reporter he would not need to return to Kwara. “Once the quality has been confirmed, just call me and we will talk about transporting the materials wherever you want.”

The illegal mining business was more coordinated in Bani where every corner of the restive lithium market is littered with mined minerals.

When PREMIUM TIMES contacted Adeshola Oladipupo, one of the online traders who posted the materials on his Facebook handle, he directed our reporter to Mr Franklin, whose face appeared in the video he posted on 28 February.

Oganyi Franklin/ Facebook

“[Ade]Shola was the one who posted my video on Facebook,” Mr Franklin said as he boasted of having sold more than two trucks of lithium this year. “I don’t post on Facebook, but I posted the video on my TikTok account.”

Mr Franklin said his business partner, Mr Oladipupo, “knows a little about the business and that is why he always directs people to me…”

PREMIUM TIMES’ findings showed that a lot of the minerals sold in Bani are illegally sourced from a forest between Igbeti and Soro villages around the Old Oyo National Park bordering Kwara State.

The multimillion-naira illegal business

Illegal mining and trading of lithium and other minerals is a multimillion-dollar business in Bani.

A kilogramme of lithium costs between N682 and N700, according to a market survey PREMIUM TIMES conducted in the lithium market.

“Fifty kilogrammes are contained in a bag of lithium,” one of the traders told our reporter. “It costs between N34,100 and N35,000.”

One of the traders in the Bani lithium market / PREMIUM TIMES

Many online traders we profiled on Facebook offered to sell the product per tonne at prices ranging from N1 million.

Mustapha Dakata, a Nasarawa-based online trader who uses his partner’s Facebook account — Hajaar Abubakar — to market varieties of lithium, pegged his price at between N600,000 and N1.1 million per tonne.

“A tonne of lithium lepidolite is N600,000,” he said. “And a tonne of lithium spodumene is around N1.1 million.”

A mining site in Rafin Gabas, Nasarawan Toto, Nasarawa State / PREMIUM TIMES

Mr Dakata would later give a discount of N100,000 on lithium spodumene.

“We are going to sell it to Chinese people at this price,” he said, adding that the minerals are stored in a warehouse in Nasarawa.

“We don’t go to the site in Nasarawan Toto for security reasons,” Mr Dakata explained when asked if he could take our reporter to the mining site. “The labourers and the villagers transport the materials to us and we buy, sort them, and store them in the warehouse.”

Kunzite is the popular variety of lithium in Bani and a tonne goes for N680,000 or N700,000. A 12-wheel truck loads at least 30 tonnes [600 bags] of lithium valued at N20.4 million.

A mining pit in Rafin Gabas, Nasarawan Toto, Nasarawa State / PREMIUM TIMES

Most of the minerals purchased from Bani are transported to Abuja, Nasarawa or Shagamu in Ogun State, one of the traders in the lithium market, Zephaniah Jonathan, told PREMIUM TIMES.

Mr Jonathan said one would spend about N3 million transporting the materials to any of these locations.

A miner inside a pit at a mining site located inside the forest straddling Igbeti and Soro villages near Old Oyo National Park / PREMIUM TIMES

“A truck conveying the materials from Bani to Shagamu would charge N1.5 million,” he said, adding that those who load the materials would charge N5,000 per tonne.

Among those who posted online seeking to purchase lithium were Facebook users who claimed or appeared to be Chinese and Taiwanese. PREMIUM TIMES profiled at least four of them, but none responded to our request for comments.

“I’m a buyer from China,” 元歌 — Yuan Ge — announced in a Facebook group on 7 February 2023. “I need spodumene and lepidolite… Please contact me if you have the right supply.”

His post garnered more than 20 likes and 25 comments from the network of illegal online traders.

At press time, 元歌 had not responded to messages sent via the WhatsApp line attached to his several Facebook posts.

Yuan Clint, a Taiwanese, has persistently sought to purchase varieties of lithium through several Facebook groups where such minerals are marketed. In one of the posts the Taiwanese made last year, he sought to buy kunzite, spodumene, and lepidolite, among other solid minerals.

“We are very serious and sincere buyers, interested in long-time regular buy only,” Yuan Clint, the manager of MIT Auto Tech, a Taipei-based company incorporated in 1999 in Taiwan, posted. He added that his company operates two warehouses in Niger and Ogun states.

The Taiwanese did not respond to questions when contacted via his WhatsApp line. He subsequently blocked our reporter from reaching him.

Alleged payment of revenue to Oyo and Kwara states

Several traders in Bani told our reporter that there are revenues each truck leaving the lithium market would pay to the governments of Kwara and Oyo states. According to them, no receipts were issued for these revenues.

“In Bani, you will pay N357,000,” Mr Jonathan continued. “Out of it, you will make a transfer of N330,000 as revenue [to Kwara State government] through a POS operator. You will pay N10,000 at a police station before Opa.”

However, a transfer receipt obtained from one of the traders showed a Moniepoint Microfinance Bank account belonging to one POS operator, ISSA MAITABLE RESOURCES NIGERIA Ltd, as the beneficiary, not an official government account.

Mr Jonathan added that a team of task force in the market will receive N25,000 and “thereafter issued you a pass.”

“If you are going to Ogbomoso through Igbeti Road, you’ll be given two passes. You will give one to forest guards and the other one to civil defense officers before getting to Ogbomoso,” he explained.

In March, this year, the federal Ministry of Solid Minerals Development unveiled a 2,200-strong mine marshals to fight illegal miners and all those who flout the nation’s mining laws.

The marshals were drawn from the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC). “With a command structure spread across the 36 states and the FCT, the mines marshal will have their command and control domiciled in the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development(MSMD), with an initial 60 operatives deployed in each state and the FCT,” the ministry had said in statement.

However, the traders who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES said they could get their ways by bribing the security operatives charged to clamp down on their illegal business, including the NSCDC from where the mine marshals were drawn.

“At Opa village, you will pay another N750,000 revenue to the Oyo State government,” Mr Jonathan said, adding the money is paid in cash.

According to Mr Jonathan, truck drivers may need to pay up to N300,000 in bribes to highway security officers, depending on the route they take.

“If you go through Oko Olowo, you will spend about N300,000 to bribe security [operatives] on the road. But you will not spend up to that when you go through Igbeti to Ogbomoso,” he explained.

Both the Kwara and Oyo state governments refused to comment when confronted with our findings.

The Kwara State Commissioner for Solid Minerals, Afeez Alabi told PREMIUM TIMES he was just deployed to the ministry “not long time ago.”

Mr Abolore who said the ministry is fighting hard to stop illegal mining, explained that only his directors — Kunle Adimula and Isiaka Adeigbe — including the permanent secretary, Yinka Oloruko-Oba, could address the revenue claim made by the illegal traders.

He would later arrange a conference call between our reporter, the directors, and the permanent secretary.

Mr Abolore and his colleagues said they could only offer explanations if our reporter could physically meet them. They said PREMIUM TIMES will also write to the ministry before the meeting.

PREMIUM TIMES sent an FOI request to the ministry on 30 September, requesting the ministry to provide a detailed explanation within seven working days as required by the law.

“I acted on the above document the same day it was received. It was sent to the PS to be treated as appropriate,” the commissioner said in a WhatsApp chat when our reporter sent him a reminder on 7 October.

The commissioner further condemned the seven working day deadline given to the ministry to respond to the FOI request. According to him, our request “requires a thorough investigation and a fair time to report back on it. Beyond that, the FOI Act above referred to in your document comes with legal implications that require input of our MOJ. So, brandishing deadlines on the ministry may not go down well, please.”

That same day, the commissioner, during an inter-ministerial briefing in Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State, disclosed that the state government is investigating [mining] revenue diversion.

“Our attention was recently brought to this disturbing issue, and we have initiated a thorough investigation. Once we have concrete information, we will make it available to the public,” Mr Alabi said.

Abiodun Oni, the director of Oyo State Mineral Development Agency could not be reached for comment. Calls placed through his lines were declined and a series of SMS and WhatsApp messages sent to him were not responded to.

A truck stuck in the mud along Bani-Opa road linking Kwara and Oyo states / PREMIUM TIMES

The problem is improper structure — Ministry of Solid Minerals

When contacted, Segun Tomori, the media aide to the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, said the ministry is aware that the country’s resources are being plundered, but not aware of the new pattern of marketing them online.

He blamed the problem on a poor structure that is inefficient to properly regulate the mining sector.

Mr Tomori believes that the challenges would soon be curbed “with the ongoing process of amending the 2007 Minerals and Mining Act and establishing Nigeria Solid Mineral Cooperation.”

“When we have that body, it will properly supervise and guide all these things,” he said.

This story was sponsored by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) under its Just Energy Transition Minerals Challenge Project.