Overview
Tin, worked from cassiterite ore, is the resource most closely associated with the Jos Plateau. Smelted locally long before colonial rule, it became the centre of an industrial mining field in the early twentieth century that drew workers from across northern Nigeria and reshaped the landscape and society of Plateau State.
Where it's found
History of exploitation
Plateau communities smelted tin and traded it well before European arrival. Industrial prospecting began around the turn of the twentieth century, and organised mining expanded rapidly during the early decades of colonial rule, supported by the railway line built up to the plateau. Large numbers of migrant labourers were recruited to the field. Output declined in the later twentieth century, and much of what continues today is small-scale and artisanal.
Economic role
Tin was one of northern Nigeria's main mineral exports for much of the colonial period, and the industry built Jos as a city, with its railway, water works and settled migrant population. It no longer occupies that position, and no current output figures are given here.
Environmental and social impact
A century of alluvial mining left thousands of abandoned pits and mine ponds across the plateau, some of which have caused drownings, loss of farmland, erosion and standing water associated with disease. Artisanal digging continues on old workings, with recorded risks to those involved; this page describes its existence and effects rather than its methods. Reclamation of derelict land has been attempted in places and remains incomplete.
Connected history and people
The tin field is inseparable from the labour history of colonial rule on the plateau, when recruitment for the mines moved thousands of workers into Berom territory and created the mixed urban population that Jos still has.