Mining in Nigeria - Mekios and Tin Sheds

摘要

Mekios (comprising Mekios UK Limited and Mekios Limited) operates mining and trading activities: Mekios UK Limited controls the trading whilst Mekios Limited, located in Nigeria, has considerable landholdings in that country, where production occurs. Nigeria was and is highly prospective for niobium and tantalum minerals (as well as other metals) and currently nearly all production is in the hands of artisanal miners. Mekios is developing its own prospects as well as trading and further concentrating artisanal concentrates. Current artisanal practice is to wash alluvial sources during the wet season and provide a 'concentrate' to 'tin sheds' in Jos and other locations. Considerable material is lost in mining and washing constrained by a lack of fit-for-purpose equipment. Tin sheds (so-called as they were first set up to recover tin from the Jos granites) use primarily magnetic separation of sized concentrates bought from a variety of sources.