Nigeria has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with German mining technology company, GEO-SCAN to explore accrued mineral resources across the country.
Dele Alake, the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, disclosed this information during a press briefing on Monday after the Federal Executive Council’s weekly meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
He stated that the MOU was executed under the government’s Solid Mineral Development Plan (SMDF).
He further stated that the MoU aims to promote the development of Nigeria’s solid mineral exploration, effective utilization, and responsible allocation of the generated income into the Nigerian government’s treasury.
Alake also disclosed that Nigeria’s mineral resources are conservatively estimated at $700b underground, constituting about 0.02 per cent of global mining.
- “Currently, those to whom we grant licenses without this added advantage end up discovering additional mineral deposits for us, and at that point, we can consider granting them mining licenses.
- “The Ministry of Solid Minerals broke a landmark record by signing an MOU with one of the top-notch Geo-scientific technology German technology companies in the world, which is Geo-scan GMDH, a German company through the solid Mineral Development Plan, SMDF,” he said.
No cost to the Nigerian Government
His statement emphasized that the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) comes at no cost to the Nigerian government.
Furthermore, it was highlighted that the MOU is fully supported by German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who is currently visiting Nigerian President, Bola Tinubu.
The Minister added that this would eventually provide opportunities for the federal government to quantify the full extent of Nigeria’s solid mineral resources.
- “Considering the current worldwide focus on addressing climate change and transitioning to electric vehicles, batteries, electronic components, and various technological equipment, the demand for these minerals is on the rise.
- “Now, this technology is 80 per cent cheaper than current processes in the world, it is three times faster to locate deposits down on the ground. With our mineral resources that are conservatively estimated at $700b, under the ground, we constitute about 0.02 per cent of the global mining budget,” Alake stated.
More Insights
Speaking on the gain of the company in turn, the Minister further mentioned that the company’s objective is to provide Nigeria with access to its top-notch technology, which, in turn, would have conserved significant resources that would otherwise have been spent on exploration.
He affirmed that Nigeria would in turn issue a mining license to the GEN SCAN mining company.
- “After they discover more mineral resources then we grant them licenses to mine Even if we are going to explore ourselves using their technology without this MOU, we will be paying 80 per cent cheaper than currently pay for exploration,” he added.
It was good information.let looking to all sources that will make export drive well, human resources, transportation and logistics, Government policy. Educates export training since international trade is unlike local market.,also Government should be able to put land transportation, Sea, and Air transportation to be effective in other for export to drivewell.