Fresh Statistics have shown that Nigeria mined a total of 222.272 trillion tonnes of coal, metal ore and other solid minerals from quarrying and other mining activities between 2010 and 2015.
Latest statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS on the state disaggregated mining and quarrying data within the period, showed that the volume was gathered from the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.
A breakdown of the figure showed that the country made a total of 620.337 billion tonnes of coal, 116.254 billions tonnes of metal ore and 221.536 billion tonnes of other mining and quarrying activities within the same period.
The data was collected from registered stakeholders in the mining industry excluding informal activities across the country. From the report, it was indicated that the highest volume of mined activities took place in Ogun state with 5.017 trillion tonnes of quarrying and other activities.
The FCT recorded the second highest volume with 3.729 trillion tonnes of quarrying and other activities while Kogi state came third with 7.768 billion tonnes of mined products in 2015.
In 2014, Ogun state also led the pack with 13.737 trillion tonnes of other mines and quarrying. It was followed by Kogi with 10.864 trillion tonnes of quarrying activities and others, while Cross River state trailed them with 4.878 trillion tonnes of mined products.
The report indicated that coal was mined only in three states of Edo, Gombe and Kogi. The study further showed that metal ore was mined only in Benue, Gombe and Kogi states Bauchi, Cross River, Ebonyi, Kebbi and Nasarawa, Zamfara, Taraba, Kaduna, Kwara, Plateau and FCT, while other mining and quarrying activities took place in the 36 states including the FCT.
Of the six years in view, 2014 recorded the highest volume of mining exploration with 51.935 trillion tonnes in quarrying, 37.742 trillion tonnes in metal ore and 385.893 billion tonnes in coal mining. 2014 recorded the second highest mining exploration with 45.353 trillion tonnes in quarrying, 28.634 billion tonnes in metal ore and 40.359 billion tonnes of coal mined within the year.
The mining activity showed a sharp decline in 2015, when only 39.852 trillion tones of quarrying was recorded and 22,638.96 million tones of metal ore and 144.88 billion tonnes of coal mined across the country.
