From the mines to the refineries and trading hubs, gold’s journey to market is fraught with risk. The precious metal often crosses borders before it even reaches refining centres. These international movements offer criminal actors the opportunity to intermingle illegal product with legally mined metal. These risks have only grown since 2008, when the global financial crisis kicked off an unprecedented rise in gold’s value. Gold is mined mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and South East Asia. But the major refining hubs are concentrated in Europe, Eastern Asia, Western Asia, and Northern America (United Nations, 2025).
Mining activities existed in Nigeria before colonisation, albeit with little significance to the Nigerian economy. The exploration, production and development of solid minerals in the colonial era was marked by foreign domination and regulatory control by the British Colonial government. The domination of the solid minerals industry by foreigners resulted from the significant capital and technical know-how requirements, the lack of which, constituted a barrier to Nigerians.
A good portion of extraction occurs through artisanal and small-scale mining, which in 2019 engaged nearly 10 million people, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, in the Sahel region, artisanal and small-scale gold mining is closely linked to gold smuggling and transnational organized crime (United Nations, 2025). The rise in illegal mining highlights fundamental social, institutional and structural problems in Nigeria’s governance system. It reveals the prevailing socio-economic problems in the region, especially the inadequate responses to poverty and poor service delivery by the state. The youth in particular have limited income-generating opportunities, and this is where the sponsors of illegal mining recruit their labour force.
Nigeria’s security situation is deteriorating daily. There are rampant kidnappings for ransom in the Northwest, widespread Islamic insurgencies in the Northeast, a string of daily attacks on police in the Southeast and a surge of attacks by criminal herdsmen across other parts of the country, including the Southwest. The extraction of mineral resources, which occurs in some parts of the country without the necessary approval from the statutory regulatory authorities, has continued to generate security concerns. These illegal activities have caused a series of violence in rural mining communities.
Nevertheless, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative has estimated that the legal mining sector contributed N814.59 billion (US$527 million) in 15 years. Earnings were highest in 2021. Additionally, Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals, Dele Alake, asserted in late 2024 that powerful individuals engaged in illegal mining were sponsoring banditry in the country. An anti-terrorism financing expert, Tayo Yusuf, argued that “there is a nexus between illegal mining and instability, noting that the proceeds from illegal mining operations have for some time now been connected to the financing of terrorist organizations”.
Illegal mining has therefore led to insecurity and conflicts over control of mining sites and their resources and these conflicts have been on the increase since 2014, spreading across Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Plateau and Zamfara states. Over 5 000 people have been killed in Zamfara State in the past five years. In February 2020, soldiers killed 13 bandits during clashes in Zamfara and Kebbi states. In April, four soldiers were killed by robbers in Zamfara State, while the police arrested two Chinese nationals for illegal mining.
What Drives Nigeria’s Illegal Mining? Unveiling the Hidden Forces
Mining activities can be broken down into three types based on the extractive processes. Mining can be classified as either in situ leach mining, open pit mining or underground mining. Open-pit mining involves excavating materials from an open pit while underground mining involves the movement of waste rock and vegetation. The third type, that is, in situ leach mining is also done underground. Illegal mining is not just an environmental or economic concern; it is deeply embedded in organized crime networks and corruption, and it is fuelled by a complex interplay of demand, profitability, regulatory weaknesses, and external global factors.
In some instances, the illegal mining products seized by authorities’ let us know that they are profitable crime. For instance, a 2016 report estimated that in just five South American countries, between 28 and 90 per cent of gold production in 2014 and 2015 was illegal, with the market value of this illegally sourced gold reaching approximately USD 7 billion. Similarly, a 2016 assessment by INTERPOL and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimated that losses in market value from illegal gold mining ranged from USD 12 to 48 billion. Furthermore, profits derived from illegal extraction and trade of diamonds, gold, tin, tantalum, and tungsten have been linked with financing conflicts in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Gold trading in Nigeria occurs within a network of buyers, sellers and brokers, forming a small ecosystem compared to other commodities. Most participants in the gold market are familiar with each other,according to Oluwole Ojewale, a Research Fellow and Regional Coordinator at Obafemi Awolowo University’s Institute for Security Studies. He said criminals involved in illegal mining had strong connections in the gold market, both domestically and internationally. The transnational supply chain of the illicit economy extends through Chad, Niger, Libya and Algeria
The Truth Behind Ineffective Oversight: A Stakeholder’s Perspective
The expansion of illegal mining is frequently driven by insufficient government oversight in metal- and mineral-rich regions. Maurice Ogbonnaya, a Senior Research Consultant, ISS Pretoria indicated that the situation also highlights the contradictions in Nigeria’s legal and regulatory frameworks. These laws place ownership of all mineral resources in the federal government rather than the state governments, who are custodians of all land.
Ogbonnaya explains that Section 1(1) of the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act, 2007 gives the federal government ownership and absolute control over all mineral resources in the country, including the mining process. In North West and other regions, including the Niger Delta, state governments refuse to police and regulate mineral resources because they consider them federal property.
An estimated 80% of mining in the North West region is carried out illegally and on an artisanal basis by local populations. The mining of large untapped mineral deposits in the area, especially gold which has strategic importance and economic value, is at the root of community violence. The miners include nursing mothers, children and youth. They use crude tools such as axes, hoes, diggers and shovels, which make them expend much energy to achieve their aim. Besides, they conduct the business amid the fear of environmental officials who randomly arrest them.
Unfortunately, most of these mining companies have continually violated Nigerian laws by exporting minerals without beneficiation, an action that has come at a huge cost to Nigeria and has affected the country‘s revenue base significantly. The Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act 2007 require that any exporter of solid minerals must request for a permit to export – evidence of a request for a permit to export minerals by the exporters are not provided according to the report. The continuous presence of foreign nationals, who are the major patronisers of mined products from artisanal and small miners have led to reduced value addition, revenue leakages and inaccurate transaction records.
A report says, collaboration between politically connected Nigerians and Chinese corporations in illegal gold mining drives rural banditry and violent local conflicts in some parts of Nigeria. This includes the North West, North Central and to some extent South West regions such as Kishi, an agrarian community in Oyo State. Last year, Jimoh Bioku, a Kishi community leader, told VOA that there had been “clandestine searches” for the mineral at remote sites tucked away in the bush in the past years by Chinese nationals before “they engaged people to dig for them and turned the market into a transit point.” The community was “particularly worried about the insecurity that usually follows illegal mining and that was why we reported to the state government,” he said.
Real Measures: Nigeria’s Bold Steps Against Illegal Mining
The Federal Government remains committed to sanitising the mining sector. Hence, the operations of the Mining Marshals will be unrelenting until the mining environment is secure and safe for genuine investors. While speaking at a press conference in March to mark the one-year anniversary of the Mining Marshals Corps, Alake stated that the unit has significantly disrupted illegal mining activities, restoring investor confidence in the sector.
He warned that the government would stop at nothing to rid the industry of unscrupulous operators. “The activation of the corps to enforce provisions of the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act (NMMA) has struck fear into illegal operators, largely curbing their operations and serving as a deterrent,” Alake said.
In addition, Australia, the United Kingdom (UK) and France have also recently renewed their economic engagement with Nigeria, with prime focus on mining (with Australia adding trade, and agriculture) to harness Nigeria’s mineral wealth. France has taken concrete steps signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at tackling some of the key industry challenges (KPMG, 2025).
Urgent Measures Needed: Tackling Illegal Gold Mining in Nigeria Today
The federal government, moreover, must work with states to achieve a common purpose regardless of existing political differences, and conflict prevention mechanisms must become part of Nigeria’s political process. Ogbonnaya indicates that the situation shows the deep-rooted structural problem facing Nigeria’s fiscal federal system which favours the central government. To address the challenge, the mining act should be amended to place ownership and control of mineral resources on state governments rather than the federal government.
Nigeria also needs to deal, through diplomatic channels, with the involvement of foreign nationals and corporations in organised crime in the country. To further curb this disaster, according to experts, Nigeria government should enforce the laws that ban any private individual or group of individuals from mining, mineral without being licensed by the appropriate government agencies.
Akinade Olatunji, a professor and president of Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society (NMGS) state that, it requires equipping states offices of the federal mines with equipment and vehicles as well as funding for running costs to enable the officials to travel to all parts of their states to check the illegal mining activities, noting that illegal mining activities do not take place in the cities but in rural communities. Olatunji said apart from increasing the staff strength of the miners in state offices, the federal government should place mining officers and engineers in a special salary scale to motivate them adding that state offices should be provided with vehicles to enable them to do their work effectively.
Besides, Ojewale recommend that it requires enforcing the law and strengthening accountability. He noted that large areas of north-west Nigeria are ungoverned. The federal government should enhance border policing and law enforcement capabilities by upgrading security and intelligence gathering infrastructure.
Nigeria should also introduce advanced contraband-detection technologies, such as spectroscopy, at land borders. These techniques analyse the chemical composition of materials. They can identify specific substances and detect trace amounts of contraband. And individuals with ties to illegal gold trade and supporting criminal activities must be identified, apprehended and prosecuted.
Ojewale said further that any steps taken by the government must involve the participation of people living in the affected communities. The security agencies can foster community partnerships to source human intelligence on the activities of bandits, illegal miners and mineral smugglers. In conclusion, he added that the government should consider tackling elite collusion through targeted sanctions and asset freezing. This could disrupt their ability to finance and perpetuate violence.