Oscarline Onwuemenyi

Many stakeholders in the nation’s mining and minerals sector have expressed concern that Nigeria has not been able to take advantage of its vast mineral resources, showing a clear unpreparedness to stake its claim in the rush by international investors for the natural wealth of countries, especially as witnessed in neigbouring African countries.

Like Nigeria, neigbouring countries in West Africa including Ghana, Sierra Leone, Mali, Guinea and Liberia, have a rich history of mining which has endured for several years.

However, unlike Nigeria, most of these countries did not discover crude oil in commercial quantities early, a fact that has been blamed for the downward slide of mining and minerals exploration in Nigeria.

In fact, many experts believe that with the discovery of petroleum began the decline in other productive aspects of the economy including mining and agriculture.

To this extent, the country is seen to have relegated the mining and minerals sector in pursuit of petro-dollars, and as a result lost its competitive edge in the sector.

Thus, while Ghana prospered from its exploration of gold and Sierra Leone got relatively wealthy from mining diamond, the same cannot be said about Nigeria in these sectors.

This phenomenon, therefore, greatly impeded the country’s potential in mining while leaving it bereft of investors who deem the country unserious about developing its solid minerals sector.

Even as Nigeria quickly lost the exploration dollars to its smaller neigbours – some of them with even far less mineral resources compared to Nigeria – it, over the years, also lost its competitive advantage in metals development to more serious economies.

According to the Managing Director of Fugro Geophysical Services Ltd, a leading service provider for the collection and interpretation of data relating to mining and minerals research, Dr. Godwin Ofune, the once dominance Nigeria enjoyed prior to the discovery of oil “faded away because the people in authority did not consider the potential in the mining industry to bring about development and economic empowerment.

The leaders then were all of a sudden enamoured by the idea of cheap and easy money coming from the exploration of crude, and abandoned the solid minerals sector.”

Ofune believes, however, that Nigeria still possesses immense capacity to reclaim its pole position in mining and therefore attract billions of dollars worth of exploration investments that have been going to neigbouring countries as well as South Africa and Angola.

He stressed that for the nation to develop its economy, it must look inwards to identify areas where it has comparative advantage over other nations and efforts should be geared towards the development of the identified areas.

“Because the competition for exploration dollars is tight, Nigeria must focus only on metals or resources where it has the greatest comparative advantage and it must leverage on its huge database and other major improvements in the sector to translate potentials into viable investments,” he added.

Apart from hydro-carbon (crude oil) deposit which the country has in abundance, it also has comparative advantage in the solid minerals sector owing to the large deposit of minerals in different parts of the country.

Geological surveys and studies have determined that Nigeria is endowed with over 45 mineral types, of which a good number are found in commercial quantities in about 500 locations spread across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

If properly harnessed over time, the minerals and metals sectors of the economy can contribute a minimum of 20 per cent to the nation’s GDP, as against the current situation of less than one per cent.

Besides, the country is said to have potentials for over 42 billion tons of bitumen and gold in various locations in the south western part of the country, while there are huge proven reserves of rock salt in Plateau, Enugu and Imo states.

Other solid minerals with substantial commercial reserves in the country include iron-ore, tantalite, kaolin, feldspar, barites, copper, tourmaline, glass-sand, marble, lignite, dolomite, coal, salt, bauxite, phosphate, sand tar, zinc, lead, gypsum, uranium, tin, manganese, and graphite.

Apart from these minerals, Nigeria is also blessed with different types of gemstones. Gemstone mining has boomed for several years in various parts of Plateau, Bauchi and Kaduna states.

Some of these gemstones include sapphire, ruby, aquamarine, emerald, turquoise, topaz, tourmaline, garnet, amethyst, zircon and fluorspar, which are among the best in the world.

The visit by the past Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke in April last year to Hollywood, California to exhibit these gemstones was meant to draw the world’s attention to the richness of the country in such precious stones.

However, in spite of the enormous resources that abound in the country in solid minerals, it is alarming that the sector has contributed less than three percent to the national GDP.

This fact is blamed on the crass underdevelopment of the solid minerals industry, which has resulted in the country often importing some of the things it could easily produce, from steel to salt.

So, why is the nation not taking advantage of its vast natural resources to grow its economy and advance the livelihood of millions of its citizenry?

According to the current Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr. Musa Mohammed Sada, a lot of the blame for the nation’s inability to take advantage of the opportunities within the sector rested on the unavailability of sturdy laws and regulations to guide operations in the sector as well as the poor information bank about the sector to prospective investors.