BUKURU

town, Plateau state, central Nigeria, located on the Jos Plateau. It lies along a branch railway from Jos town (8 miles north-northeast), and it is a major tin- and columbite-mining centre on one of the highest parts (more than 4,000 feet [1,200 metres]) of the plateau. The Bauchi Light Railway, which was closed in 1957, had been built in 1914 to carry tin from Bukuru to Zaria (120 miles northwest) and connected with the line to Lagos. The present railway branch linking Port Harcourt (370 miles south-southwest) to the Jos and Bukuru mines was completed in 1927. Minerals are now sent to Jos for smelting and then to Port Harcourt for export. Associated with the opencast mine workings are exploitable deposits of kaolin. Birom people, who originally settled the site, work in the mines and live in the town, but the mineral wealth also has attracted many outsiders to Bukuru, including Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, and Europeans. Sorghum, millet, and acha (a grain known as hungry rice) are the chief staple crops in the area, and cash crops (potatoes, yams, corn , and green vegetables) are also cultivated for the urban markets at Bukuru and Jos. The college Plateau State Polytechnic (founded 1978) is in Bukuru. Pop. (latest estimate) 8,450.