…As Nigeria records over $2bn inflow to lithium, others
By Gabriel Ewepu
THE Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, yesterday, wooed investors in London, United Kingdom, UK, with a $50 million lithium processing plant along with seamless transfer of profits and duty waiver on imported mining machinery, and other incentives.
According to a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the Minister, Kehinde Bamigbetan, Alake made the offer at the Resourcing Tomorrow Annual Exhibition and Conference held in London.
The Minister who led Nigerian delegates to the event unveiled the package in his address to participants announcing to global mining companies the country was ready for investment.
Alake, informed participants at the opening ceremony about the country’s investment breakthroughs in processing minerals, citing over $2 billion inflow to lithium and rare earth ores projects in the last two years.
The foreign direct investments, he argued, were the outcomes of the policy on value addition being driven by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration to stop pit to port export and stimulate local beneficiation.
He said: “Since last year, companies such as Canmax Technologies, Jiuling Lithium, Avatar New Energy Nigeria Limited, and Asba group have collectively invested over 1.3 billion US dollars in lithium processing projects across Nigeria.
“These are not speculative ventures; they are bricks, mortar, and machinery. And just outside Abuja, the federal capital of Nigeria, construction is underway for a 50-million-dollar lithium processing plant, the first in a network of industrial clusters that will extend through Nasarawa, Kogi, Kwara, and Ebonyi states.
“On November 19, this year, Nigeria broke new grounds in the processing of rare earths ores with the groundbreaking of the $400 million rare earth plant of the Hasetins group.
Meanwhile, A lake said the administration established the Mining Marshals to enforce the mining law and protect miners and is strengthening this security architecture with satellite technology that will track mining operations nationwide.
The Minister also presented the Nigeria Solid Minerals Company as the government’s partner of choice for joint venture business that leverages on mineral assets inherited from the Nigerian Mining Corporation to meet partners’ demands.
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