Own every step
We do not hand a mineral off three times between the pit and the buyer. Holding exploration through export is what lets us stand behind a grade rather than pass on someone else's claim about it.
Who we are
One company across the whole mineral value chain.
Most operators hand a mineral off three or four times between the ground and the buyer. We don't. Ayotaye controls every stage, which is how we hold quality, keep margin in the business, and give partners a single, accountable point of contact.
- 10 +
- Years in operation
- 3
- Offices worldwide
- 23
- Minerals in the export portfolio
- Global
- Worldwide operations
Trading since 2016
Nigeria, Myanmar and the United Kingdom
Gemstones, metals, ores and industrial minerals
Around the world 🌐
How we operate
Five stages, one operator.
Each stage below is run by Ayotaye rather than subcontracted out. That is the whole argument of the business, and it is what a partner is buying into.
- 01
Exploration
Licensed prospecting and geological survey across Nigeria's mineral belts.
Geochemical sampling, trenching and drill programmes run under our own exploration licences. Every target is proven on our own data before a single tonne is moved.
- 02
Extraction
Open-pit and hard-rock mining under strict HSE and community agreements.
Mining plans are built around the deposit, not around the equipment we happen to own. Host-community agreements are signed before mobilisation, never after.
- 03
Processing
Crushing, milling, gravity and density separation to export grade.
In-house plants take run-of-mine material to a saleable concentrate. Holding this stage is what keeps grade consistent and margin inside the business.
- 04
Trading
Off-take structuring, assay certification and price benchmarking.
Independent assay on every consignment, contracts benchmarked to LME, Fastmarkets and London fix, and a single accountable counterparty for the buyer.
- 05
Export
Documentation, logistics and delivery to buyers around the world.
Export permits, certificates of origin, customs clearance and freight handled end to end from Lagos and Onne, on FOB or CIF terms.
What we hold to
Four commitments we are willing to be measured against.
Prove it, then sell it
Nothing leaves a site on an assurance. Independent assay, recorded weights and a documented chain of custody travel with every consignment, whether the buyer asks for them or not.
Beneficiate in Nigeria
Raw ore exported unprocessed leaves most of its value behind. We crush, mill, separate and refine inside the country, which is where the jobs and the margin both sit.
Agreements before mobilisation
Host-community agreements are signed before equipment arrives, not negotiated after a grievance. It is slower at the start and considerably faster over the life of a mine.
Our story
From one licensed site to an export operation.
Ayotaye Minerals began on a single licensed site with a simple observation: Nigeria has never lacked minerals, but it has exported most of them raw, unprocessed and at a fraction of what they were worth once someone else had finished the job.
Rather than compete as another trader buying from artisanal workings, we built downward into the ground and forward into the market at the same time, taking our own exploration licences, putting in our own processing plant, and learning the documentation side of export properly rather than routing it through an agent.
Today that means four active sites across Plateau, Nasarawa, Kogi and Oyo, a book of twenty-three commodities spanning precious metals through industrial minerals, and buyers around the world who deal with one company from enquiry to delivery.
The company is deliberately not the largest operator in the country. It is built to be the one whose grade, paperwork and delivery dates can be relied on.
Responsibility
The licence to operate is earned on the ground.
Mining is only sustainable where the people living beside the pit are better off for it. These are the standards every Ayotaye site is held to.
- Health & safety
- Site inductions, mandatory PPE, scheduled equipment inspection and blood-lead monitoring on every sulphide operation.
- Environment
- Gravity recovery in preference to chemical processing wherever the deposit allows it, water management on every wash plant, and rehabilitation planned into the pit design from the first bench.
- Community
- Local hiring as the default, written land-access and benefit agreements, and a standing point of contact for host communities that does not run through a contractor.
- Compliance
- Licences held in the company's own name, an ISO-aligned assay and documentation framework, and full chain-of-custody records on strategic minerals.
Production
Recoveries from our own plants.
Weighed under camera at the point of recovery, then assayed independently before shipment.
Work with us
Tell us what you need, and who it is for.
Whether you are sourcing a commodity, structuring a joint venture or looking for a role on one of our sites, the enquiry reaches the desk that can answer it.