NOSA EGHAGHA
ABUJA, Nigeria – The Federal Government on Monday sealed a deal with the Republic of Germany to explore and exploit mineral deposits, estimated to generate over $700billion in earnings to the country.
Addressing State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, said the Federal Government ceased the visit of the German Chancellor, Otaf Scholz to Nigeria on Sunday to seal the mining deal, saying a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed to that effect.
The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, also told State House Correspondents at a briefing, that the Germans are introducing the latest technology in the exploration business, revealing that the gadgets has capacity to detect mineral deposits 10,000 metres below the ground level.
Alake said, “You are aware of the German Chancellor visit to Nigeria, of course he came in to strengthen bilateral relations between our two countries, Nigeria and Germany.
“For quite some time my ministry has been talking to some highly technical companies in Germany. The visit of the German Chancellor on Sunday underscored the importance of strengthening bilateral relations especially socio-economic bilateral relations.
“I’m happy to announce that the Ministry of Solid Minerals broke a landmark record of signing an MoU with one of the top notch geo scientific technology companies in the world, which is Geo-scan GmbH, its a German company and the company was also in the delegation of the German Chancellor, so the MoU was signed through the solid minerals development fund.
“The significance of this epochal event is that this company has the latest top of the line technologies, its a proprietary technology for exploration. It means that you can see deep down up to 10,000 meters for the mineral deposits that are available. If you are vast in the space of solid minerals, you know that it’s exploration, exploitation and extraction and the processes, you would know that exploration is an expensive business. Even the gathering of geo data is very very expensive.”
Alake also took his time to explain that the technology, which is top notch like I said, is 80% cheaper than current processes in the world.
He noted that its three times faster to locate deposits down the ground, and so with our own mineral deposits, that we conservatively estimated at about $700 billion under the ground and scrambling to exploit judiciously, we constitute about 0.02% of the global mining budget.
“With this $700 billion estimation of our solid minerals deposit, we still have over 90% of the entire landscape of Nigeria unexplored. Because it’s an expensive business that underscores the significance of the landmark that we recorded yesterday with the Geo-Scan GmbH, supported also by the German Chancellor, supported by our President and I’m happy to tell you now, no kobo commitment on the back of Nigeria. The company will come and establish its technology, its plant here and move around the country to enable us to further explore all other mineral deposits that we have.
“At the end of the day, we cannot begin to put a figure on the amount of resources solid mineral resources that we have in Nigeria. Lithium for instance. Like I said, critical minerals, which are called critical metals in international minerals and natural space, they are in abundance in Nigeria. Right now the global trend is the clamour for climate change. Green transition to green energy, clean energy.
“This critical resource that we have in terms of solid minerals are also very significant in the production and manufacturing of electric vehicles, batteries, electronic components, all kinds of top notch technological equipment in today’s world, and we have these things.
“The MOU that was signed with Geo-Scan GmbH is to advance the course of our solid mineral exploration, exploitation and judicious expenditure of the accruing revenue to the purse of the federal government.
“This will significantly move us forward in achieving the renewable agenda of making solid minerals to become the next petroleum of Nigeria and contributing most significantly to the gross domestic product,” Alake said glowingly.
