Nigeria sitting on $750bn worth of solid minerals — Alake

The Minister of Solids Minerals Development, Dele Alake has stated that a preliminary report by a German firm, GeoScan, indicated that Nigeria is sitting on several minerals worth $750bn.

Speaking during a Summit organised by the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) and Bruit Costaud yesterday in Nigeria, Alake said the mining sector has the potential to contribute a large part of the nation’s goal to achieve a trillion-dollar economy as pushed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Alake said the president is pushing several reforms to rejuvenate the sector to avoid Nigeria being a mining pit for solid minerals.

He said the availability of data is important to attract investors that will establish plants in Nigeria to process the minerals and create a multiplier effect on job creation and growth in the economy.

“We are working with the World Bank, Excalibur and GeoScan, a German company, to get the necessary data on the sector. That is why the federal government signed a memorandum of understanding with Geoscan and they did a preliminary survey of our minerals on the output and potential. They gave us a figure of $750bn worth of minerals embedded under the ground of Nigeria.”

Speaking earlier, the governor of Nasarawa State, Abullali Sule said investment in solid minerals is the way to go.

He said lithium is the new gold and Nigeria has abundant of it, adding that the biggest lithium processing factory will soon be commissioned processing 4,000 metric tons a day and transporting over a million tons of lithium a year.

 The Director General of NIPSS, Ayo Omotaya, said the summit was organised to chart a way forward for the mining sector.