•As SMDF facilitates 1.5mmetric tonnes per-annum aluminium refinery project

By Gabriel Ewepu

THE Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake, yesterday, assured that the launch of the Early-Stage Mineral Exploration and Research Grant Endowment, EMERGE, programme is a game-changer for the nation’s solid minerals sector.

Speaking at the launch of EMERGE in Abuja he said the programme was well crafted and strategically positioned to drive geological exploration, support critical minerals development, and fund research including value addition to solid minerals from Nigeria.

Meanwhile, Alake explained that EMERGE will focus on three key areas including mineral exploration, critical minerals development, and research and development, adding that the initiative is designed to generate dependable geological data and to ensure Nigeria becomes a major beneficiary of global energy transition.

He disclosed that the Solid Minerals Development Fund, SMDF, has already facilitated a 1.5 million metric tonnes-per-annum aluminium refinery project including other major investments in the solid minerals sector.

He stated: “It is a great child of the Solid Minerals Development Fund, SMDF, and why this matters, it matters because it works through three different streams. There is the first, which is the exploration stream. This exploration asset, which is the very first one, that’s why it’s called the legacy. Now that forms exploration.

“The critical minerals stream is the second that is in the middle that forms the basis for the minerals that the global energy transition demands, and the processing technologies that let us refine them right here in Nigeria.

“And the third is the research and development stream, which forms the geoscience and mineral processing research that underpins all of this.”