County cricket’s 50-over competition, the Metro Bank Cup, got underway this week, boosted by the fact players surplus to requirements at any stage of the Hundred will be free to represent their counties.

It also features high-quality overseas players in the shape of India Test batters Cheteshwar Pujara and Prithvi Shaw (Sussex and Northants respectively), South Africa’s Simon Harmer at Essex and Shan Masood of Pakistan and Yorkshire.

Despite being branded a development tournament by the ECB when the Hundred launched in 2021, it has maintained healthy crowds as counties take the opportunity to use out-grounds, attracting a wider audience in the process.

There is a developmental nature to it, of course, given the 100 best English-qualified white-ball cricketers have a 100-ball focus this month, and that allows young cricketers to make their marks, as Joey Evison did with the bat for champions Kent and John Turner did with the ball for Hampshire last season.

It is unlikely that performances will impact England’s World Cup selection, but a strong Metro Bank Cup season would surely influence longer-term thinking. Indeed, Durham’s Ollie Robinson served notice of an ability to score big runs at a rapid rate for Kent in 2022 and could now be rewarded with a place on the white-ball tour of West Indies.

The two group winners progress directly into the semi-finals on August 29, while the second and third-placed teams play off in two ‘quarter-finals’ for the right to face them. The final is at Trent Bridge on September 16.

Here is how the 18 first-class counties are shaping up:

GROUP A

Essex

Captain: Tom Westley

Overseas players: Simon Harmer (SA), Beau Webster (Aus)

2022: Sixth in Group B

Multi-format star Harmer misses the first few matches, having been given recuperation time ahead of a Championship title push, and Alastair Cook sits it out. The giant Webster adds all-round skills to a young squad.

Hampshire

Captain: Nick Gubbins

Overseas players: None

2022: Semi-finals

Only Surrey have lost more players to the Hundred than Hampshire’s 10 and their overseas pair, Kyle Abbott and Mohammad Abbas, are Championship specialists — but they still opened up with a win over Middlesex.

Kent

Captain: Joe Denly

Overseas players: James Bazley (Aus)

2022: Winners

Hundreds from Evison and Ben Compton helped the holders begin the new campaign in style, recovering from four wickets down early to edge out Yorkshire. Queenslander Bazley bowls seam and hits long.

Lancashire

Captain: Keaton Jennings

Overseas player: Dane Vilas (SA) 2022: Runners-up

A club promoting its youth still has ambitions of repeating last year’s charge to the final given the quality of emerging players George Bell, Tom Aspinwall and Jack Morley and the experienced backbone of the batting.

Leicestershire

Captain: Lewis Hill

Overseas players: Peter Handscomb (Aus), Wiaan Mulder (SA)

2022: Quarter-finals

Seldom in recent years have Leicestershire entered a competition with genuine belief that they could win it, but with two excellent overseas players and only Rehan Ahmed and Callum Parkinson absent, there is reason for such confidence.

Middlesex

Captain: Mark Stoneman

Overseas players: Pieter Malan (SA)

2022: Fourth in Group A

Financial restrictions limit Middlesex’s overseas acquisitions but they retain the majority of their Championship squad for this competition and have high hopes for Joe Cracknell and Blake Cullen.

Nottinghamshire

Captain: Haseeb Hameed

Overseas players: Dane Paterson (SA)

2022: Quarter-finals

Expect Nottinghamshire’s attempts to improve on last eason’s play-off elimination to be based on the triple spin threat of Calvin Harrison, Liam Patterson-White and Matthew Montgomery, and a bevy of all-rounders including former Yorkshire player Tom Loten and Lyndon James.

Surrey

Captain: Rory Burns

Overseas players: None

2022: Seventh in Group A

Despite losing a dozen cricketers, Surrey still include recent England batters Burns, Dom Sibley and Ben Foakes, while Conor McKerr, Daniel Moriarty and Amar Virdi boast plenty of top-level wickets.

Yorkshire

Captain: Shan Masood

Overseas player: Shan Masood (Pak)

2022: Fifth in Group B

Matthew Revis marked the start of Yorkshire’s campaign with a hat-trick against Kent. He and George Hill have the chance to progress their careers by dominating these contests.

GROUP B

Derbyshire

Captain: Brooke Guest

Overseas Players: Haider Ali (Pak), Suranga Lakmal (SL)

2022: Seventh in Group B

The retention of Ali and signing of David Lloyd from Glamorgan gives ballast to the batting and they should be contenders despite losing their first match.

Durham

Captain: Alex Lees

Overseas players: David Bedingham (SA), Migael Pretorius (SA)

2022: Ninth in Group A

Promotion in four-day cricket remains the priority and an inexperienced unit was well beaten by Worcestershire this week — despite Liam Trevaskis’s hat-trick — extending last year’s theme.

Glamorgan

Captain: Kiran Carlson

Overseas player: Colin Ingram (SA)

2022: Fourth in Group B

David Harrison, the coach who led the Welsh club to glory in this competition two years ago, takes the reins again from Mark Alleyne. Expect another strong showing, after narrowly missing out on third spot last August.

Gloucestershire

Captain: Graeme van Buuren

Overseas players: Zafar Gohar (Pak), Harry Tector (Ire)

2022: Fifth in Group A

A maiden List A ton for Ollie Price (below) versus Derbyshire contributed to a perfect start on Tuesday, but the fact Gloucestershire signed Hector for just one match highlights the extent of their injury crisis.

Northamptonshire

Captain: Lewis McManus

Overseas players: Sam Whiteman (Aus), Prithvi Shaw (Ind)

2022: eighth in Group B

With just David Willey and Saif Zaib missing, there has been little disruption at Wantage Road, and with Shaw intent on putting a dismal IPL season behind him, expect improvement on 2022.

Somerset

Captain: Sean Dickson

Overseas players: Curtis Campher (Ire)

2022: Eighth in Group A

The signing of Campher is shrewd and these 50-over affairs give James Rew a chance to show he has extra gears not yet evident in his first-class batting, as Somerset seek a white-ball double under new captain Dickson.

Sussex

Captain: Cheteshwar Pujara

Overseas players: Cheteshwar Pujara (Ind)

2022: Semi-finals

Pujara, second top scorer in last year’s competition with 624 runs, also led the side brilliantly, and with minimal changes in personnel 12 months on, they look a good bet to be pushing for a trip to Trent Bridge again.

Warwickshire

Captain: Will Rhodes

Overseas players: None

2022: Sixth in Group A

Jake Lintott, a Hundred winner in 2021, and Ed Barnard provide some experience, but the fact the Bears added a trio of rookie players to their squad on the eve of the competition highlights their approach to it.

Worcestershire

Captain: Jake Libby

Overseas player: Azhar Ali (Pak)

2022: Ninth in Group B

Rob Jones joins on loan from Lancashire ahead of a permanent 2024 switch, bolstering a side who should be tussling for top spot rather than the wooden spoon this time around. Watch out for Kashif Ali’s explosive batting.

Segun Lawson was born and raised in Nigeria, sent to boarding school in the UK and graduated in geology at Imperial College London. Along the way, he found himself wondering why there were no large-scale mining projects in Nigeria.

The country was once the world’s leading tin producer, boasting several London-listed gold companies too. But that was before the Second World War and in recent decades metals mining has dwindled to virtually nothing as oil and gas became the dominant local industries.

With his geological background, reinforced by a stint in the City and a masters in business administration, Lawson became convinced that mining in Nigeria was an opportunity not to be missed.

He spent some time investigating potential ideas, ended up with a project in Senegal close to several big gold-producing mines and, in 2011, came across a Canadian entrepreneur with a Toronto-listed shell firm.

Lawson acquired the firm and, at the age of 32, became chief executive of Thor Explorations, a business with a Senegalese mine site and not much else.

Thor has come a long way since then. Today, it is listed in London, with a highly profitable gold mine in Nigeria and several more exciting projects in the pipeline. The share price is 17.5p and should rise as the company expands and production increases.

Early years were tough. In 2014, Lawson almost gave up entirely after financial markets closed their doors to junior mining firms and Thor’s Senegalese site was forced into hibernation.

It was then that he discovered Segilola, an early stage gold mine just 75 miles from the Nigerian capital, Lagos.

Results from Segilola were promising. There was plenty of gold on site and it was high-grade too. But a legal wrangle had erupted between previous owners, and sale negotiations were protracted. When Lawson finally acquired the scheme in 2016, he assumed Thor’s fortunes were about to change, swiftly moving from an exploration firm to a commercial enterprise.

He reckoned without the Nigeria factor. Investors fretted about bribery, corruption, security and political interference.

Segilola was also the first commercial mine project in the country for decades and no one wanted to take the plunge and support it. Lawson persevered, however, and ultimately succeeded, backed initially by family and friends, then African financiers and a Hong Kong-based mine specialist, and finally some big UK investors.

Construction started in early 2020, Thor was listed on the London Stock Exchange’s junior AIM market in June 2021 and gold production began just a few weeks later.

Last year, the group delivered 98,000 ounces of gold, sales totalled $165 million (£130 million) and net profit exceeded $25 million.

The first few months of 2023 were tricky, as Thor encountered an area of large boulders and lower-grade ore. But the second half of the year is likely to be much smoother, annual production should hit 95,000 ounces and turnover of more than $176 million is expected, with robust profits alongside.

Production should ramp up next year, with brokers predicting a near 20 per cent increase in turnover to $210 million. Costs are likely to come down in 2024 too so profit is expected to rise materially.

At the same time, Lawson is working hard to expand the Segilola mine and explore neighbouring areas, where early signs suggest more gold can be unearthed.

The group recently acquired a large lithium site in south-west Nigeria too, well connected to Lagos. Small-scale miners have been operating in the area for years, but Lawson intends to develop a substantial, high-grade commercial mine, taking advantage of persistent demand for the metal, which is a crucial component of rechargeable batteries.

Now that Thor is profitable, the business is making progress with its Senegalese mine too, a site that could produce more than 100,000 ounces of gold a year over time.

Lawson last month spent about £1 million of his own money acquiring 6.6 million shares in Thor, taking his holding to 4.45 per cent of the company.

His family own another 15 per cent, a sure sign of confidence in Thor’s future. Their combined holding also inclines Lawson to think carefully about dividends, so payouts should be on the cards as soon as practicable.

Thor takes its wider responsibilities seriously too, minimising harmful emissions and bolstering local employment, from school leavers turned laboratory assistants to female lorry drivers, whose safety record far outweighs that of their male counterparts.

Midas verdict: Nigeria fills many investors with doubt, but Lawson has developed a safe and profitable gold mine just hours from Lagos, staffed by locals and backed by government. Prospects are bright, as Thor works on its main gold mine and expands into new areas. And at a time of economic uncertainty and sticky inflation, gold prices, currently more than $1,900 an ounce, should remain firm. At 17.5p, Thor is a find for the adventurous investor.

Traded on: AIM Ticker: THX Contact: thorexpl.com or 001 778 658 6391