By Yemi Olakitan
Nigeria is rich in solid minerals but has failed woefully in times past to tap into this to create wealth for it’s people. While the nation’s resource stands untapped or exploited by illegal miners, many of it’s people live in abject poverty.
It is as a result of this, that the Minister of Solid Minerals, Oladele Alake outlined the sector’s policy priorities during a press conference on the plans of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Administration recently, and declared the ministry is determined to have a solid mineral corporation which like NNPC, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation will govern all the business activities for the sector. In other words, the corporation will do to solid minerals,what NNPC does for crude oil in Nigeria.
The minister of solid minerals, Oladele Alake also published a detailed policy directive that covers everything from ending illegal mining to formalising the industry.
This action steps will take a nation with abundant industrial, energy, metallic, building, and precious minerals—such as copper, gold, manganese, bitumen, lead, zinc, iron ore, limestone, uranium, columbite, barite, and gemstones—ftom penury into prosperity.
Gold (1 million ounces), Limestone (568 metric tonnes), Lead/Zinc, Baryte (15 million metric tonnes), Bitumen (1.1 billion barrels), Iron Ore (3 billion metric tonnes), and Coal (N396 million) are among Nigeria’s estimated reserves at the most recent count.
Reports also revealed that Nigeria has more than 2 million participants—including over 633 small businesses and 251 500 registered miners who—struggle to provide the economy with resources and promote human development?
According to the minister, the major obstacles to the sector’s development include ineffective geodata, lax implementation and enforcement, poor environmental, safety, and health policies, fragility and conflict, unregulated artisanal mining, low technical capacity, a lack of access to financing, lax inter-governmental and inter-agency coordination, and lax federal/state relations over mining land.
Alake said, Nigeria’s industry for solid minerals has suffered from an excessive reliance on crude oil.
The minister stated that his mandate is to enhance the formulation and regulation governing prospecting, quarrying, and mining; enhance data collection; monitor and organise the sale and consumption of minerals more effectively; and increase the amount of money that can be earned by the federal government from the granting of permits, licences, leases, and the collection of rents, fees, and royalties.
The sector is being repositioned in terms of the human and capital variables that can fuel its transformation as a result of the paradigm shift in the strategy. This makes it possible for capital to be created through investment activity that is supported by accurate geoscientific data that is transparent and available.
Alake is establishing a business entity that competes in this industry as part of his aim to elevate solid minerals to the prestige enjoyed by oil.
The Nigerian Solid Minerals Corporation will therefore be established by the Ministry. This corporate entity will have subsidiaries operating in the seven priority sectors—gold, coal, limestone, bitumen, lead, iron ore, and baryte—that demand rapid attention and intervention. The National Iron-Ore Company and ongoing programmes like the Bitumen Concessioning Programme would be evaluated to fit into the new structure, according to the minister.
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To take advantage of the country’s alluring investment-friendly policy and attract significant foreign direct investment for the mining industry, the new business will seek out and negotiate partnership investment agreements with significant multinational corporations globally. It is anticipated that the national corporation’s status as a guarantee and defender of partnership agreements will reassure partners of our seriousness and loyalty.
It will assist Nigerian companies looking for capital abroad and aid in authenticating their investment proposals to hasten the partners’ commitment to invest.
The Ministry will be able to concentrate more on its primary regulatory and promotional mandates of sanitising the sector and creating concepts, procedures, and institutions that assist the ease of doing business in the industry thanks to the Corporation’s entry into the mining business.
Alake pointed out that although significant resources have been used to obtain information on the distribution or incidence of minerals across the nation, this is woefully inadequate to guide investment choices.
“An investor isn’t merely concerned with where a specific mineral is found. Before determining the price and profitability, they want to know the depth and area of the quantity. Our current data’s imprecision has made investment difficult.” He said..
He said that in order to overcome this obstacle, the Ministry of Solid Minerals will shortly submit a detailed investigation of a few deposits of the seven priority minerals – gold, coal, limestone, iron ore, bitumen, baryte, and lead/zinc – to the Federal Executive Council. Subsequent investigations conducted as part of the National Integrated Mineral Exploration Project, or NIMEP, will include additional minerals.
“We will plan country trips, exhibits, conferences, marketing campaigns, and presentations to inform key players in the international sector that Nigeria is the upcoming lucrative location for investment.”
The minister also plans to evaluate the proposed Nigerian Mining Act in order to encourage foreign direct investment in the mining sector by implementing global best practises.
The ministry is looking at the findings of the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative on the Solid Minerals Sector in order to determine how to secure local content in the developing industry and ensure a fair deal for Nigerians.
Along with securing investments, it would combat unlawful mining. As the ministry plans to support their human capacity development through training in modern mining methods or technical competencies in information communications technology, mechanical and electrical repairs of mineral exploration machinery, business methods, and bookkeeping, many farmers and traders who engage in mining activities as a second occupation in areas where deposits are found would need to formalise their trade.
Additionally, the approach resulted in institutional formalisation as a result of the Ministry’s creation of numerous markets. The International Gemstone Market, located in Ibadan, Oyo State, the Kaolin Processing Centre, located in Alkaleri, Bauchi State, the Lead/Zinc Processing Centre, located in Ubulu, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, the Baryte Processing Centre, located in Ogoja, and the Gold Souk, located in Kumbosto, Kano State are some of these markets.
He has this caution for those who declined to support the government’s efforts to formalise the sector. “Let me declare once more that the Ministry is allowing such individuals 30 days of grace to join a miners’ cooperative or find another line of work. Anyone found on a mining site without a certain status will be subject to the full force of the law once the time limit has passed. To ensure that everyone is aware of this instruction, this message would be translated into Nigerian languages and blasted on the radio, the official stated.
A new security strategy calls for the Nigeria Police to provide the mining industry with its own police, trained specifically to identify and apprehend individuals engaged in unlawful mining. The newly formed Mines Surveillance Security Task Force will work with the Mines Police to coordinate responses to high-risk instances of mining law violations.
Additionally, the Federal and State governments will be urged to designate competent courts to handle the prosecution of instances involving illegal miners.
The way in which mining licence holders handle community relations is a frequent cause of conflict and insecurity. The Mining Act elaborates on the necessity to involve communities whose up to now tranquil and orderly environment may be disturbed by investors poised to activate a mining licence, even while it recognises that minerals below the ground are the sole property of the Federal Government.
