NIGERIA

Geography

Nigeria’s most expansive topographical region comprises the valleys of the Niger and Benue Rivers.
Plains rise to the north of the valleys. To the south-west of the Niger River lies rugged highlands and,
to the south-east of the Benue Hills, mountains extend up to the border with Cameroon. A plain
extends along the coast. Nigeria is covered by three types of vegetation: forests, savannah and
mountainous terrain. Nigeria can be divided into three regions according to climate: the far south, the
far north and the rest of the country. The far south is defined by its tropical rainforest climate, where
annual rainfall amounts to 1500–2000 mm. The far north is defined by its almost desert-like climate
reflected in an annual rainfall of less than 500 mm. The rest of the country is savannah, where annual
rainfall is of the order of 500–1500 mm.

Petroleum plays a major role in the Nigerian economy, accounting for 40% of GDP. The country is
the 12th largest producer of petroleum in the world, the 8th largest exporter, and has the 10th largest
proven reserves. Other mineral resources include coal, tin, tungsten, columbite, tantalite, iron ore,
limestone, niobium, lead and zinc. Despite having large deposits of these mineral resources, the
mining industry in Nigeria is very underdeveloped [1].

Geology

Precambrian rocks cover a sizeable portion of the country (Figure 1). It is commonly described as a
large zone of gneisses, mica schists, schists and amphibolites that has been invaded by batholiths of
older granites. Tin-bearing pegmatites are associated with the older granites.

FIG. 1. Regional geological setting of Nigeria showing the distribution of selected uranium deposits and
occurrences. For the general uranium deposit and occurrence legend see World Uranium Geology,
Exploration, Resources and Production, IAEA, 2020. A general global geological legend is shown although not
all geological units necessarily occur on this particular map.
In the Benue valley, the Lower Cretaceous (Continental Intercalaire) consists of about 500 m of
sandstones, marls and variegated shales, which are sometimes saliferous (Lower Grits, Bima
Sandstone, etc.). In the west, in Sokoto State, near the Burkina Faso–Niger border, the Lower
Cretaceous is represented by the Illo Group, whose shaly sandstones contain silicified wood, and by
the Gundumi Group. These Lower Cretaceous continental sandstones are covered in certain places by
the transgressive marine Upper Cretaceous and also by Tertiary rocks. The youngest of these Upper
Cretaceous strata, in the south-eastern part of Nigeria (Noukka-Enugu Coal Basin), consist of some
1000 m of sandstones and black shales containing five beds of coal, of which the most important is
1.5 m thick.

Southern Nigeria was invaded by the Palaeocene Sea resulting in the deposition of foraminiferal
shales, shaly sandstones and phosphatic shales. In the south of Nigeria, there is an undated post-
Eocene continental succession, the Lignite Group, which comprises about 25 m of sandstones and
shales containing two beds of lignite, one of which is nearly 3 m thick [2, 3].

Uranium exploration

In 1947, pyrochlore containing uranium was recognized by the Geological Survey Department in
small granite bodies on the Jos Plateau. They were surveyed in more detail in 1949–1950 by the
Atomic Energy Division of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. The survey conducted
considerable laboratory work, while the geological survey of Nigeria completed 12 boreholes (700
m). The pyrochlore contains about 2.8% U but no commercial means of extracting the uranium has
yet been developed. In 1959–1960, the Atomic Energy Division carried out road traverses with a
scintillometer, but nothing of economic significance was found. In 1969, an airborne radiometric
survey covering 85 000 km² was undertaken by the International Resources Corporation on behalf of
Ocean Exploration. The survey covered two areas underlain by sediments of the Gundumi and Ilio
Formations in Sokoto State, and the Bima and Yolde formations in Bauchi, Borno and Gongola
States. Radiometric anomalies were detected, although no ground follow-up was carried out.

In 1973, the Geological Survey Department contracted airborne gamma spectrometer surveys of four
contiguous areas:
(i) Sokoto and the middle Niger area (122 000 km²);
(ii) Central north (144 000 km²);
(iii) Lower Benue and adjoining area (120 000 km²);
(iv) Upper Benue and adjoining area (146 000 km²).

The surveys were completed and reports submitted by 1975–1976. In 1976, the Geological Survey
Department commenced ground follow-up utilizing its own staff. This programme consisted of
traversing with gamma spectrometers and scintillometers followed by radiometric survey gridding,
geological mapping, pitting, trenching and diamond drilling. Areas covered included about 20 000
km² in Sokoto State, 10 000 km² in Cross River and Benue States and 8000 km² in the confluence area
of the Niger and Benue Rivers, in central Nigeria.

During 1974–1975, Italia’s AGIP held two exclusive prospecting licences over essentially the same
areas as those covered in the 1969 airborne work. It carried out some photogeological interpretation
and very limited ground checking. In 1975, the Nigerian Mining Corporation entered into an
arrangement for the preparation of a prefeasibility report on the uranium prospects in Nigeria.
Subsequently, France’s Office of Geological and Mining Research (BRGM) acted as contractor to the
Nigerian Mining Corporation and undertook field work in 1976–1978, with further work planned.
This field programme consisted of geochemical and reconnaissance ground traversing with
scintillometers, followed by more detailed geological mapping and radiometric surveying. A total area
of some 35 000 km2 in north-east Nigeria was investigated.

The News Agency of Nigeria reported on 17 October 2005 that uranium deposits of great value had
been discovered in six Nigerian States, but no details were given. Deposits have been discovered in
the States of Cross River, Adamawa, Taraba, Plateau, Bauchi and Kano, citing a report released by the
Ministry of Solid Minerals Development of Nigeria. Exploration data are summarized in Table 1.

TABLE 1. URANIUM EXPLORATION DATA [4]

Aerial radiometric surveys (km²) Other surveys (km²) Drilling (m) Expenditure

Pre-1975 495 000 0 700 2 250 000

1975 122 000 0 0 900 000
1976 0 20 000 0 600 000
1977 0 24 000 210 1 000 000
1978 0 29 000 0 1 200 000
1979 0 20 000 500 1 000 000

Total 617 000 93 000 1 410 6 950 000

Exploration expenditure in other countries

In 1977, Nigeria invested US $2.4 million in the Afasto-Ouest uranium project in Niger [3, 5].

Uranium resources

There are no known uranium resources in Nigeria. Speculative resources estimated by the 1983
IUREP report are in the range 10 000–50 000 tU, hosted in sandstone and vein-type environments [6].
Only small (50-100 t U) vein-type deposits associated to granites at Gumchi, Gubrunde and Mika are
mentioned [7].

Potential for new discoveries

The geological environments in Nigeria that are considered favourable for the occurrence of uranium
mineralization may be summarized as follows:

(a) The Sokoto and Chad Basins, together with the Niger and Benue Troughs, cover some
275 000 km² and contain arenaceous sediments of Cretaceous and younger ages that are being
evaluated for sandstone and related deposit types;
(b) Over 300 000 km² of Precambrian terrain occurs within Nigeria and is being investigated for
vein, pegmatite and related deposits;
(c) The phosphate bearing sediments of the Cretaceous and Tertiary in both the north-west and
southern Nigeria are being investigated for their uranium potential [39.3]. Two phosphate
deposits, Sokoto and Ogun, have uranium content of 65 and 23 ppm respectively [39.7].

References
[1] CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY, The World Factbook: Nigeria, Washington, DC (2008),
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
[2] SCHLÜTER, T., Geological Atlas of Africa, 2nd edn, Springer, Berlin and Heidelberg (2008) 196–201.
[3] JOINT STEERING GROUP ON URANIUM RESOURCES, World Uranium: Geology and Resource Potential,
Miller Freeman Publications, Inc., San Francisco (1980) 524 pp.
[4] OECD NUCLEAR ENERGY AGENCY, INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, Uranium
Resources, Production and Demand, OECD, Paris (1979).
[5] ALLAFRICA, Nigeria: Uranium Found in 6 States (2005), http://allafrica.com/stories/200510180231.html
[6] INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, Speculative Resources of Uranium, A Review of IUREP
Estimates 1982–83, IAEA, Vienna (1983).
[7] OBAJE, S.O., OJUTALAYO, A., OGEDENGBE, O., OKOSUN, E.A., Nigeria’s Phosphate and Uranium Mineral
Occurrences: Implication for Mineral Investment. Journal of Environment and Earth Science, Vol. 4, N° 1 (2014).
Updated from INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, World Uranium Geology, Exploration, Resources and Production, IAEA, Vienna (2020) by M. Fairclough (December 2020)