The Geological Society of Nigeria (GSN) has disclosed plans to convene a stakeholders’ roundtable towards unlocking the $1trn investment potential of the country’s minerals and mines sector.
Co-founder and president of the Society, Mr. Uba Sa’idu Malami told journalists at the weekend in Abuja that GSN’s maiden Mining Roundtable will serve as veritable platform for participants to brainstorm and articulate the necessity of government’s intentional commitment to mineral exploration in the country.
Malami said the July 13, 2023 event at the Transcorp in Abuja will bring together competent persons, both local and international, Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), PwC, Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF) and other institutional stakeholders as key participants to the Roundtable.
According to him, the availability of quality geo data on critical minerals is strategic to attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) needed to unlock the country’s mineral resource and investment potential which the World Bank puts at between $700 billion and $1 trillion.
While saying that government must lead mineral exploration, the GSN chief executive noted that it is ‘pivotal’ to convincing foreign investors of the preparedness of the country to welcome FDI in mining, even as he added that the national governments of Canada, Australia and South Africa and some of their regional public sector authorities are chiefly responsible for mineral exploration in countries reputed to have the most established mining regimes in the world.
Malami, a former chairman of the country’s Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF), stressed the importance of best practices in mineral exploration saying: “Only JORC-compliant exploration methods featuring relevant competent persons must be deployed to generate the geo data reports in order to arm the report with the reliability it needs to serve as currency for attracting FDI towards unlocking the country’s mining resource and investment potential.
Underscoring the crucial importance of de-risking the sector, he called for deeper involvement of the federal government in geo data sourcing, stating that the government must lead the cause of attracting FDI to the sector by championing the quest to provide the needed geosciences data.
While saying that some countries that are willing and ready to partner with Nigeria for the exploration and beneficiation of the critical minerals before it is deployed in the various industrial sectors that they are needed, the GSN president said the Roundtable will discuss how and why the administration of President Bola Tinubu must make the lead in commitment to the exploitation of the country’s mineral reserves.
“The federal government must realize that it has an exclusive role that cannot be played by the government of any other nation,” he said and, therefore, called for unalloyed commitment on the part of the Tinubu administration.
According to Malami, until Nigeria has such an articulate document, it would be very difficult to go into negotiation with any serious investor.
Discussing the role of the GSN Mining Investment Roundtable in advocating for professionalism in mineral exportation in Nigeria, the president hinted that “geology plays a very significant role in mining,” stating that geological exploration is required in mining, a task he said only geologists have been trained to execute.
“So the roundtable that the GSN proposes to host is to focus on the fundamentals – which is the production of the geo data report that is of very high economic value especially as it regards the select minerals, an effort that has already been started by the previous administration through the NIMEP Project, but needs to be boosted through greater commitment on the part of government,” he reiterated.
He said the roundtable would bring together stakeholders that will discuss and bring on board ideas of global best practices that will enable GSN to get the best for our country and for the foreign investors that would come on board.
Countries with developed mining regimes such as Canada, Australia and South Africa are expected at the conference in order to share their experiences, he added.
He further contended that the main hindrance to mining investment in Nigeria is the absence of robust data on the available mineral resources, especially the critical minerals.
The Society acknowledged the effort of the previous administration to address the dearth of geoscience data through the National Integrated Mineral Exploration Project (NIMEP) on some strategic minerals, adding that the Project, which was supervised by the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA) opened the doors for some investors to engage with the Nigerian mining sector.
“Clearly, reliable geoscience data is primarily what a serious investor would be looking out for in engaging with the Nigerian mining industry and the NIMEP Project is a good start, but to be honest, there is need for a more intentional commitment from the government to promoting data sourcing like they do in oil and gas.
“In oil and gas, exploration is given to renowned companies that generate data (in line with oil exploration best practices) which allow for participation of prospective investors in the bidding for the various oil blocks that are up for sale,” he said.
He said in the same vein, there is a need for the government to articulate the exploration imperatives of the mining sector in order to emphasize the critical mineral resources that are of particular interest, stating that the essence is to make investors a lot more comfortable in engaging with the mining sector.
Malami agreed with a World Bank report that the mining sector in Nigeria has investment potential of between $700bn and $1trn and explained that the NIMEP Project (which was successfully supervised by the NGSA) was a tip of an ice berg considering the enormous geological data needed by investors for such critical minerals.
“There is global excitement for lithium, barite, nubium, tin, phosphate, lead, lead-zink, coal, limestone, gold, iron ore and bitumen,” he said, even as he expressed concern that while Nigeria has deposits of these very important globally sought-after minerals, the country has not been able to establish proven reserves of the respective minerals.
While saying that existing as attested to in the Roadmap for Growth and Development of the Nigeria Mining Sector produced by government in 2015, Malami stated that even though browsing data suggests that Nigeria has between $700bn to $1.00trn worth of solid minerals, he expressed concern that there is the challenge of uncertainty about the mineral endowment numbers in that report.
“Only a detailed JORC-compliant mineral exploration can lay to rest the speculation pervading and inhibiting FDI with respect to these minerals,” he said.
Stressing the importance of best practices, he said: “One of the greatest advantages of having proven reserves is that it adds up to Nigeria’s balance sheet as a country,” stating that the NIMEP Project must be highly commended in this regard.
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