Nigeria’s minister of mines announced on Tuesday that the country is toughening licensing requirements for foreign mining firms to encourage them to increase the processing and refining of metals like lithium and zinc domestically.
Mining companies would be required to present business plans for alleged “value addition” before licenses are given, according to the policy Dele Alake stated at a Nigeria Mining Week event in the nation’s capital, Abuja.
Alake claimed that the relocation is necessary to aid in employment creation. “I am glad to mention that such an initiative is already on stream as some companies have already commenced operations in Nigeria,” he stated.
As an illustration of the kind of investment the government is seeking, the minister cited Ganfeng Lithium Industry Ltd., a Chinese business that is constructing a lithium processing factory in the heart of Nasarawa State.
In order to produce batteries for electric vehicles, the plant will, according to him, process around 18,000 tons of lithium ore per day.
Nigeria’s mining industry, which accounts for less than 1% of the nation’s GDP and has long been underdeveloped, is attempting to attract investment.
The leading oil producer in Africa, which is also rich in gold, limestone, and zinc, aims to expand the role of its mining industry in its efforts to diversify the economy and reduce its dependency on oil.
Alake said that the mining sector has undergone modernization and that the government has invested in data gathering, spending more than 15 billion naira ($19.6 million) over a seven-year period to produce mineral data through the National Integrated Mineral Exploration Project (NIMEP).
“The preliminary reports from this project have unraveled massive discoveries which have literally put Nigeria on the world map of lithium-rich countries,” he stated.
