President, Miners Association of Nigeria, Alhaji Sani Shehu on Thursday said the association would establish the first Gold Refinery in Nigeria in 2016.

Shehu disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

He said the association had concluded arrangement with a Dubai Gold Refinery Company, United Arab Emirate, to establish the refinery in Zamfara.

He said the refinery, which would be fully funded by its counterpart in Dubai, would create job opportunities for Nigerian youths and will generate foreign exchange earnings for the country.

``The Dubai refinery company sources for gold from parts of the world; establishing a refinery in Nigeria is like an expansion of the company.

``There will be no need for miners to take their raw gold outside the country for sale or refining when the refinery is established,’’ he stressed.

He also said that Nigeria had no database on the quantity of gold being extracted on a daily basis, adding that a good quantity of the mineral was being mined every month and taken to Dubai for refining.

According to him, the global business environment is being financed by financial institutions, but in Nigeria, financial institutions find it difficult to invest in the sector.

``Our financial institutions find it difficult to invest in the mining sector because they believed that mining is a risky business.

``We are advocating that government should conduct seminars for the institutions to educate them on the need to invest in the sector.’’

He said Nigeria could generate more money from solid minerals than oil if developed.

``If solid minerals are developed just like oil sector, the country will generate more income from the sector.

``The price of oil is dropping everyday and the international politics on oil prices is worrisome; we cannot experience such in solid minerals because their prices are fairly stable.’’ (NAN)

*Photo shows Zamfara Gov.

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