Gold miner gives Osun communities 10 cassava and palm oil processing plants
- Thor Explorations, through its Nigerian arm Segilola Resources, has handed 10 processing plants to three Osun communities.
- Beneficiaries in Imogbara, Odo-Ijesha and Iperindo pay half the equipment cost, with the rest on hire purchase.
- The company says the machines will cut manual labour and help local processors earn more.
A gold mining company has given 10 cassava and oil palm processing plants to three communities in Osun State, in a move meant to help local farmers and food processors work faster and earn more.
Thor Explorations Limited made the donation through its Nigerian subsidiary, Segilola Resources Operating Limited (SROL), which runs the Segilola Gold Mine. The plants went to Imogbara, Odo-Ijesha and Iperindo.
Six of the plants are for oil palm and four are for cassava. Iperindo got two oil palm plants and two cassava plants. Imogbara and Odo-Ijesha each received two oil palm plants and one cassava plant.
What the machines can do
Each oil palm plant comes with a vertical palm fruit debuncher and a diesel-powered automatic presser. The debuncher can handle between 800 and 1,000 kilogrammes of palm fruit an hour, taking much of the back-breaking work out of separating fruit from the bunch.
Each cassava plant has a grater, a manual presser fitted with a 32-tonne jack, and a fryer for making garri. The grater can process up to 500 kilogrammes of cassava an hour, while the presser squeezes out excess water before the next stage.
According to the company, the project is aimed at processors who still depend on labour-intensive methods. Those methods, it said, limit how much they can produce, slow them down and cut into their earnings.
The company said the equipment should reduce strenuous work, make processing more consistent and let beneficiaries handle larger volumes of produce.
How the payment works
Beneficiaries do not get the machines free. The arrangement combines a 50 per cent equipment subsidy with a hire purchase agreement, so each person pays part of the cost and spreads the rest over time.
The company said this makes the equipment more affordable while encouraging ownership, accountability and long-term maintenance.
In a statement on Wednesday, the firm said agriculture is an important source of livelihood in its host communities. It said better equipment would help local processors build stronger businesses and take a fuller part in agricultural value chains.
The company expects the project to stir activity in transportation, trading and distribution, and to open more market opportunities as product quality improves.
The plants fall under SROL's wider community investment programme, which also covers women's enterprise, education and livelihood restoration.
For ordinary residents, the payoff will depend on whether the machines are kept running and whether the hire purchase terms stay within reach of small processors.
