Overview#
Plateau is the tin state — for sixty years (c. 1905–1965) the Jos Plateau Tin Field was the world's largest single source of cassiterite and columbite, mined first by the Royal Niger Company-era Niger Company and then by Amalgamated Tin Mines of Nigeria (ATMN). The collapse of the tin price in the 1970s and the rise of the Bolivian and South-East Asian producers left Plateau with the largest single concentration of abandoned mine ponds in Africa and a continuing artisanal Ta-Nb-Sn economy.
Geology & Deposits#
Cassiterite (Sn), columbite (Nb), tantalite (Ta), zircon, monazite. Younger and older granite-related: Bukuru, Rayfield, Du, Bisichi, Bukuru-Rayfield, Jos South, Barkin Ladi, Mangu — the entire central Plateau is a continuous Sn-Ta-Nb province. Tin tailings. ~315 mineralised ponds (Jos South + Bassa + Barkin Ladi). Gemstones (sapphire, ruby, aquamarine, tourmaline). Same Pankshin-Mangu pegmatite belt. Coal. Bauchi-Plateau border seams (small). Limestone, kaolin, clay, granite, marble. Various. Hydropower. Kurra Falls (small). Agricultural produce. Irish potato (Plateau is the country's #1 producer), tomato, acha (fonio), cabbage, carrot, strawberry — temperate-zone advantage from elevation.
Operators & Output#
- Amalgamated Tin Mines of Nigeria (ATMN) — dormant since 1980s. - Nigerian Mining Corporation (NMC, Jos) — dormant. - Multiple small-scale Ta-Nb-Sn operators — Bukuru, Rayfield. Continuous output, no industrial concentrator. - Hill Station / federal mining-research presence — National Institute of Mining and Geosciences, Jos.
Host-Community & Revenue#
No oil derivation. Mining royalties to the federation. The unrehabilitated tin-mining ponds are a major public-health and ecological liability — radioactive monazite tailings, child drownings, vector-borne disease. The Plateau-wide Berom-Fulani crisis since 2001 has periodically shut down mining LGAs.
Current Status#
Producing: artisanal Sn-Ta-Nb (Bukuru-Rayfield-Mangu); Irish potato + tomato + acha at national scale; sapphires (Mangu-Pankshin). Dormant at industrial scale: every named major-mine.
References
Sources#
- Nigerian Mining Corporation, Jos — historical reports.
- National Institute of Mining and Geosciences, Jos — annual research bulletins.
- Plateau State Ministry of Agriculture.