Nigeria’s Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, has said that the country invested $50m in the exploration of gold, lithium, copper, cobalt, oxide and other minerals.
Speaking at the international mining conference of investors in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the minister said Nigeria has the mineral future for electric cars and phones.
His Special Adviser on Media, Mr Ayodeji Adeyemi, noted this in a statement issued in Abuja on Friday.
Urging the major investors to take position in the Nigerian mining sector, the minister added that Nigeria is one of the investor-friendly countries in the world.
Adegbite said that some of the major mining companies had begun to express interest in the Nigerian mining sector.
He also disclosed that the country intends to auction rights to mine some strategic minerals later this year.
“We have strengthened governance and transparency in the sector and provided assurance to investors through the upgrade, automation and decentralisation of the Mining Cadastre Office. We are improving the connectivity between investors and the public with important geological information through the establishment of Nigeria Geo-Data Centre at the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency,” Adegbite said.
The minister also noted that the country had learnt its lessons from over 50 years of resource extraction.
“The Federal Government has invested $50 million to explore gold, lithium and several other metals. As we deepen our efforts to revitalise the mining sector, we are doing so with lessons learnt from a half-century of resource extraction.
“We recognise, for instance, that it is not enough to seek investments merely for the sake of exploitation and extraction. Rather than writing this new chapter of economic growth, our aim is to develop local industries, generate employment and focus on resource beneficiating to create wealth along the mineral value chain.”
To date, according to him, the country has discovered over 44 minerals in commercial quantities across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
