The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, said the establishment of lithium processing and gold refining plants across Nigeria is positioning the country as Africa’s leading minerals hub.
Segun Tomori, the special assistant on media to the minister, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday.
Mr Tomori said the minister made this known at a meeting with the Saudi Arabian Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources, Ibrahim Al-Khorayef, ahead of the Future Minerals Forum (FMF) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
According to the statement, Mr Alake said Nigeria’s value-addition policy is already yielding tangible results, with a gold refining plant of very high purity now operational in Lagos, three additional gold refineries at various stages of development, and a $600 million lithium processing plant in Nasarawa State ready for commissioning.
He commended Saudi Arabia for its pivotal role in expanding opportunities for collaboration among governments across Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe through the Future Minerals Forum.
He noted that Nigeria is eager to deepen its partnership with the Kingdom by leveraging on areas of comparative advantage in solid minerals development.
“There are areas of comparative advantage where Saudi Arabia excels and others where Nigeria has strengths. We are keen on structuring agreements that will enable us to engage meaningfully and constructively. Priority areas include capacity building, training of mining professionals, technology transfer, and particularly exploration, where Saudi Arabia has demonstrated some expertise,” Mr Alake stated.
He further noted that Nigeria’s vast landmass is endowed with abundant critical minerals and rare earth elements required by the global economy, underscoring the importance of leveraging the FMF platform to fine-tune actionable partnerships based on fairness, equity and mutual benefit.
Mr Alake revealed that a joint working group comprising the Nigerian delegation and the Saudi Chamber of Commerce has been active over the past year, adding that its report is ready and will be presented before the close of the current forum.
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In his remarks, Mr Al-Khorayef reaffirmed Nigeria’s status as a longstanding ally of Saudi Arabia and agreed on the need for a practical and actionable agreement on solid minerals development.
He proposed that the working group develop a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) based on previous engagements for possible signing on the sidelines of the conference.
He urged Nigeria to leverage the FMF platform to showcase investment opportunities in its mining sector to Saudi investors, while encouraging African countries to adopt advanced technologies in mining development, noting that Nigeria could benefit from Saudi Arabia’s progress in this area.
