KEY POINTS
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Nigerian mining entrepreneurs are driving formal investments in minerals.
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The global rare earths race is boosting Nigeria’s mining visibility.
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Legitimate mining ventures are replacing informal, illegal operations.
Nigeria is sitting on gold. Real gold. And not just gold, but also columbite, tantalite, lithium and a cluster of rare earth minerals that power everything from electric vehicles to smartphones and missile systems. Whoever shapes those supply chains will help define the balance of global economic power in the years ahead.
Nigeria’s minerals draw rising interest
On paper, that gives Nigeria enormous potential. In practice, much of the country’s mining belt has long been trapped in disorder. Across Zamfara, Niger, Nasarawa, Plateau, Benue, Taraba and parts of the North-Central region, mining activity has flourished in the shadows. Pits have devastated farmlands, streams have turned orange with runoff, and convoys of ore trucks move at odd hours. Villagers tell of unidentified groups arriving after dusk, mining by floodlight and leaving before sunrise while armed escorts guard the minerals heading out.
Authorities link many of these operations to loosely regulated Chinese-backed ventures, local fronts, and protection rackets that exploit insecurity. In some areas, banditry has forced communities to flee, conveniently freeing land that sits atop rich mineral seams. Civil society investigations have documented hillsides stripped of vegetation and rivers clogged with waste.
This is the challenge confronting Dele Alake, Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals. Since 2024, his ministry has deployed a dedicated mining marshal unit under the Civil Defense Corps, revoked licenses, and shut down illegal pits. The ministry has arrested hundreds of illegal operators, including Chinese nationals, and reclaimed almost 100 sites for legitimate activity. It is an admission of how much Nigeria had allowed to slip away.\
The rise of Nigerian mining entrepreneurs
Meanwhile, Nigeria has become part of a wider geopolitical scramble as the world tries to reduce its reliance on China, which controls over 80 percent of global refining capacity for rare earths. The country’s deposits of lithium, tin, columbite, and tantalum across Nasarawa, Kogi, Plateau, and Benue now represent a strategic frontier for investment. And a few Nigerian entrepreneurs are leveraging this opportunity to conduct mining responsibly. They are betting on transparency, community engagement, and scalability, proving that mining in Nigeria can be done profitably and legitimately.
Below are eight Nigerians that are quietly building fortunes and reshaping the country’s mining story.
1. Segun Lawson – Thor Explorations (Gold)
If one project proves Nigeria can host serious, industrial-scale gold mining, it’s Segilola. And the man most closely associated with it is Segun Lawson, CEO and president of Thor Explorations Ltd.
Lawson has helmed Thor since 2011, steering its acquisitions, financing, and, crucially, the move to Segilola in Osun State, which was billed as the highest-grade open-pit gold project in West Africa when it was brought to development. Today, Segilola runs as a 24-hour operation, with a processing plant that has turned Thor from a junior explorer into a cash-generating producer.
Lawson’s bet was contrarian. For years, serious gold investors wrote Nigeria off as too messy: weak regulation, security risk, and unclear titles. He went the other way, betting that if the geology checked out and the company built strong relationships with regulators and communities, the risk premium would eventually compress and the asset would be re-rated. It did.
Segilola has become the flagship for Nigeria’s attempt to prove that world-class mining can exist within its borders, and Lawson, the man who placed the bet early, has been rewarded accordingly.
2 & 3. Raj and Alok Gupta — African Natural Resources and Mines Limited (Iron Ore)
When people talk about diversifying Nigeria away from oil, most of it is wishful thinking. Raj and Alok Gupta, through African Industries Group, chose the hard route: steel.
Their mining arm, African Natural Resources and Mines Limited (ANRML), is behind a $600 million integrated iron ore and steel project in Kaduna State, one of the largest non-oil industrial investments in Nigeria’s modern history. The operation mines locally, processes on-site and feeds a direct reduced iron (DRI) plant that supplies both local and regional steel demand.
4. Innocent O. Ezuma — ETA-Zuma Group (Coal and Power)
Coal may not be fashionable in the era of ESG, but Dr. Innocent Ezuma doesn’t care. His ETA-Zuma Group is one of Nigeria’s biggest private mining conglomerates, with operations spanning coal, power, and industrial fuel.
When he returned to Nigeria in the mid-2000s, Ezuma saw opportunity in the country’s neglected coal belt. He built one of the first serious processing plants in Kogi State, later expanding into coal-to-power projects. The company’s briquette factory, with a capacity for 5,000 tonnes per day, remains one of the few in Africa capable of producing cleaner-burning industrial coal.
5. Murtala Laushi — Malcomines (Iron Ore, Tin, Rare Earths)
In a sector filled with noise, Murtala Laushi keeps his head down. His company, Malcomines, is one of Nigeria’s largest privately held mining outfits, with interests in iron ore, tin, columbite and rare earths across the north-central corridor.
Tin and columbite once made Jos famous; Laushi’s team has returned to those fields with modern geology and patient capital. Malcomines also holds concessions in battery-relevant minerals — a quiet but strategic hedge as global demand shifts.
Wealthy, discreet, and deeply embedded in local operations, Laushi represents the old-school miner reinvented for a modern commodities cycle. His story isn’t about headlines — it’s about endurance, and it has made him one of Nigeria’s richest men you rarely hear about.
6. Abdulfatai Yahaya Seriki — Kursi Investments Limited (Base Metals & Gemstones)
A businessman and politician, Ambassador Abdulfatai Yahaya Seriki built Kursi Investments Limited into one of Nigeria’s most diversified mining houses. Operating across more than 20 states, Kursi handles exploration, processing and export of base metals, gemstones and rare earths.
Seriki’s strategy is to stay nimble: pick undervalued prospects, fund early exploration, then scale or partner. That approach has kept Kursi profitable while many peers collapsed under debt or overreach.
At mining summits, Seriki has become a steady voice for local beneficiation, pushing for Nigerian firms to move beyond extraction and into refining and manufacturing. Behind the diplomacy is a sharp operator who knows how to turn ground data into gold.
7. Jegede Abiodun Paul — Japaul Gold & Ventures Plc (Gold, Lithium, Copper)
For most of its life, Japaul was known for something else entirely: offshore logistics and dredging for the oil and gas sector. Then its founder and chairman, Jegede Abiodun Paul, made one of Nigeria’s boldest corporate pivots: from oilfield services to solid minerals.
Rebranded as Japaul Gold & Ventures Plc, the company obtained licenses for gold, lithium, copper, lead, and zinc, raising over ₦20 billion on the Nigerian Exchange and securing a $20 million investment commitment from GEM Global Yield.
Jegede’s vision was timing perfection. As the world shifted toward clean energy and the need for critical minerals surged, he repositioned Japaul from offshore workboats to onshore mining rigs. Today, Japaul stands as one of the few listed Nigerian companies with a real foothold in precious and strategic minerals, and Jegede, once an oil-services man, is now a mining mogul in his own right.
8. Emotan Josephine Aburime-Shine — Emotan Global Ventures (Gemstones & Industrial Minerals)
Emotan Josephine Aburime-Shine doesn’t just mine; she refines, polishes, and exports value. Her company, Emotan Global Ventures, and its affiliate Piramen Ventures, focus on gemstones and industrial minerals.
Unlike most Nigerian miners who sell raw ore, Emotan has invested in processing facilities for cutting, carving, and finishing gemstones for both domestic and international buyers. Her argument is simple: exporting raw stones is exporting jobs. By controlling more of the value chain, she’s managed to create both impact and profit.
