Nere Teriba is Building Nigeria’s First Gold Refinery

Nigeria-born Nere Teriba has a vision to transform the entire gold-mining industry by taking the big leap of building the first gold refinery in Nigeria.

In 2019, Nere, who is the Vice Chairman of Kian Smith Trade & Co. Ltd became the first and youngest Nigerian to refine gold locally.

Nere runs a multimillion-dollar minerals commodities and mineral services company, which has grown tremendously over seven years.

Sleeves always up, ready to work, Nere plays in a male-dominated industry, where women most times need to work twice as hard to make desired impact.

In Nere’s words “On one hand, we can say it took a few months, on the other hand, it took seven years before we got the gold refining license”

She prepared a proposal on a gold reserve planning programme for the country when she was invited to join the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (EGRP) focus labs.

Her proposal highlighted the need for a gold policy and a framework for anyone who wants to apply for one.

The proposal included that a Nigerian Gold Council will be established to be in charge of the country’s Gold Policy. “The establishment of the council will drive innovation, stimulate the economy and generate income for the government coffers” the proposal states.

“Nigeria can become a gold economy irrespective of whether it mines gold or not. India, UAE, Singapore, Italy, Switzerland, Turkey and London are renowned world gold markets without the classification of gold mining countries’ She explained

“The issue is not that there is no regulation, it is just that they are not enforced. The thing is, there has been a huge gap, we have abandoned the sector, went for oil and the people took up the vacuum. One of the major reasons why several small-scale miners are not formalized is because of royalty payments, but we have found a way around this. One of the incentives we want to give our suppliers is paying royalties on their behalf” explains Nere, who has well-crafted plans on how to help the government solve some of the major challenges faced in the mining industry, especially as it concerns artisans and small-scale miners.

To Nere, mining is a calling and she would give it all it takes to help Nigeria and by extension, West Africa harness the mining economy.