Venezuelan investors, particularly producers of mining machinery and equipment, have expressed interest in exploiting opportunities in the solid minerals sector.
Venezuelan Deputy Minister of Mining, Alejandro Martinez, revealed this during discussions with a federal government delegation led by the minister of solid minerals development, Dr Dele Alake, on the sidelines of the ongoing Mining Indaba in Cape Town, South Africa.
Martinez sought Alake’s assistance to facilitate collaboration between the two countries by encouraging the investors to visit the country and obtain information to aid investment.
On his part, Alake told his Venezuelan counterpart that Nigeria had rich deposits of critical minerals needed for energy transition and that it was open and ready to collaborate with genuine investors who were ready for value addition.
Alake said: “Now, the world is moving to green energy, and we have a lot of the minerals that the world requires. These include critical minerals like lithium, cobalt, nickel, and rare earth elements the world requires for energy transition.
“I can assure you of Nigeria’s readiness to cooperate with Venezuela in areas of exploitation of our minerals, trade in minerals, and production spanning the entire value chain. Take lithium, for instance; we don’t want our lithium to be extracted and carted away. We want our lithium to be processed and used to produce electric batteries, phone batteries, and solar power batteries to generate local employment that would create a catalyst and multiplier effect for our economy. I assume that is also your objective,” he said.
Special adviser to Alake, Kehinde Bamigbetan, said the minister invited Venezuela to join the Super Region, a new coalition of mining countries from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East formed to ensure trade and collaboration among members.
“It is a platform for countries with similar challenges aspiring to be economically independent, so we are ready and open for business with anyone, any nation, any investor that shows seriousness and a clear pathway for legitimate, sustainable and local value addition plans,” he said.
