By Favour Nnabugwu

In line with the federal government economic transformation programme through promotion of maximum utilisation of abundant mineral resources in the country, mining operators under the aegis of Progressive Miners Empowerment Association has said that the mining sector would require capital injection of  N200 billion to tap the potentials in the sector.

National President of the association, Mr. Sunday Ekozin disclosed this in Abuja stating that the mining industry needs nothing less than N200 billion to explore the country’s mineral resources and take the nation mining to where it ought to be.

It is against this backdrop that the association has put together a maiden National Mining Forum that would create the required awareness and sentise the Nigerian populace and relevant authorities on the potentials that abound in the mining sector.

Though, mining he explained, has a long gestation period and is capital intensive the returns are enormous.

Regrettably, Ekozin said mining in Nigeria has been relegated to the background since in the 1970s but asserted that mining operators have a clear understanding of what the country stand to gain from it.

The mining in Nigeria accounts for only 0.3 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP due to the influence of oil resources while the domestic mining industry is underdeveloped and as a result, the country imports minerals that it could ordinarily produce locally.

But globally, the mining industry has been a close rival to the oil industry, though the nation earns a paltry $89 million from it per annum.