Bring on the Ring

This is the girl, though she doesn’t know it’s coming.

First step, collect the stones. Shame only that the one place for gems in Nigeria is in the heart of the Danger Zone, according to the FCO.

The man who says he will not marry a woman with other admirers will not marry a woman

—Nigerian Proverb

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Farmhouse/Gem dealer haven in Jos

brief glimpse from da Gem House views of the mines and surrounding fields. oh yea, we’re getting close!!

Nija is an amazingly beautiful and fertile land, innit!?

That’s how they do it… digging for metals (not quite same but the principle’s the same).

and more women working the hard soil

while the men just stand around ;)

Mines in Nija have a bunch of problems… Lead is just one of them; another is that there are no commercial ones, limiting export, efficiency and scale; another is that the informal miners don’t fill in the holes, so the valuable land around Jos is lost to agriculture.

According to Mr. Gem Dealer, its all the government’s fault: They kicked out skilled international firms willing to invest during the indigenization decrees. Now land owners rent out the right to dig a hole for comparatively huge sums to small time informal miners that have a hard time paying back despite the hard manual daily labour.

Nija is rich in more than just oil. Let’s make something of it.