Ilorin — Kwara States can boast of two million tonnes of limestone apart from estimated 12m tonnes deposit yet to be tapped.

This is contained in a statistics published by the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, along with other resources found across the states of the federation, released recently.

The publication estimates that 1.2m tonnes of limestone is said to be found in Isale-Osin, 4.0 million tonnes in Osi Ekiti local government and 7.0 million tonnes in Oreke in Ifelodun Local Government Area while 2 million tonnes of limestones deposit has already been proven to be in reserves in Elebu town.

However, the report stated that Kogi, a sister state to Kwara, has the largest deposit of limestone reserves, with 165 million tonnes in Jakura and 133 million tonnes in Obajana where the largest cement factory in West Africa is presently located.

Also in the publication, gem stones primarily used for jewelries and said to be smuggled out of Kwara state and some other states like Gombe, Kaduna, etc by illegal miners for pecuniary gains.

Meanwhile, the Ministry has constituted a National Committee on state Mineral Resources and Environmental Compliance (MIREMCO), which has a former Military Governor of the state, Group Captain Salaudeen Adebola Latinwo, as member representing the state.

Other members of the committee representing other states are AVM Ishaya Shekari, (rtd), Kaduna; Brig General Adewale (rtd), representing Oyo; Dr. Onaolapo Soleye, representing Ogun; Professor Babatunde Fafunwa representing Lagos state; Alhaji Sheu Malami representing Sokoto, Engineer Bunu Sheriff Musa representing Yobe e.t.c.