Award Season Reflects SROL’s Deepening Commitment to Responsible Mining in Nigeria

Ijeoma Ohiaeri

As 2025 draws to a close, Segilola Resources Operating Limited (SROL) finds itself in an unexpected yet meaningful position: being recognized across multiple platforms for its approach to mining. These honours – which span human resources excellence, community impact, engineering advancement and labour practices – represent a validation of a fundamental belief that has guided SROL’s operations from the onset: mining must create value that extends far beyond just the extracted minerals.

Each award tells a specific story about what responsible mining can achieve when operators commit to transparency, community partnership and sustainable development from day one.

The diversity of SROL’s recent accolades reveals something significant about the company’s operational philosophy. When a mining company receives the Award of Excellence for Upholding the Principle of Decent Work from the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment – reportedly the first of its kind in Osun State – alongside the HR OSCAR Award for HR Best Practices in the Mining Industry by the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM), it signals a comprehensive approach to people management that is rare in the sector.

These honours, complemented by the Community Development Champion of the Year award by CSR Reporters at their Social Impact and Sustainability Awards (SISA) and the Distinguished Corporate Award from the Nigerian Society of Engineers (Ilesa branch), paint a picture of an organization working systematically across every dimension of responsible operations.

What makes this recognition season particularly meaningful is not the volume of awards, but what they collectively represent: acknowledgement from labour authorities, professional bodies, civil society and engineering institutions that a different model of mining is possible.

The honours bestowed upon SROL throughout 2025 reflect measurable commitments that have translated into tangible community impact. When over 200 women receive intensive business and digital skills training, when more than 3,000 people access quality healthcare through annual comprehensive medical outreach, when youth innovators receive over N1.6 million to develop solutions addressing illegal mining – these initiatives demonstrate that community development is not peripheral to SROL’s operations but central to them.

The weight of its first mover advantage and position in Nigeria’s mining industry is not lost on SROL, the company carries a unique responsibility. The standards it sets – in labour practices, community engagement, environmental stewardship and transparency – will serve as a benchmark influencing other players entering the mining industry. This recognition season suggests that those standards are resonating. Recognition is validating, but it is not the destination. For SROL, these awards mark milestones in a longer journey toward building an enduring mining legacy that genuinely uplifts host communities and sets new benchmarks for responsible resource extraction in Nigeria.

The mining sector’s transformation from pure extraction to sustainable development requires operators who understand that value creation must be inclusive, that communities must have tangible benefits from mining company operations, and that environmental responsibility and economic progress are not competing priorities but complementary imperatives.

SROL’s recognition across such diverse areas – from labour practices to community development, from HR excellence to engineering contribution – suggests the company is operationalising this integrated approach. The real test, however, lies not in awards received but in lasting impact created: empowered host communities, strengthened local economies, preserved environments and a mining sector that serves as a model.

As Africa’s resource-rich nations navigate the complex challenge of leveraging natural wealth for broad-based development, examples of responsible mining become increasingly critical. SROL’s award season offers evidence that when mining operations commit to transparency, partnership and long-term community prosperity, recognition follows naturally – not as the goal, but as the byproduct of doing the work that truly matters.

The honours bestowed upon SROL throughout 2025 are not endpoints. They are markers along a continuing journey toward proving that mining can be a genuine force for sustainable development, inclusive growth and shared prosperity. That journey, far more than any award, will define the company’s ultimate legacy.

.Ijeoma Ohiaeri is the Head Corporate Affairs, Segilola Resources Operating Limited