#Nigeria, Plateau State - September 3rd 2024
The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority has announced a $800mn investment and lending package in the mining industry of Plateau State to drive diversification of the Nigerian economy away from reliance on hydrocarbons.
Plateau State, located on the mineral-rich Jos Plateau, is a practical cornucopia of raw resources. Many minerals are found in the rich granites of the area; columbite ( an ore of niobium), wolframite (tungsten), cassiterite (tin), bauxite (aluminium), bismuth, iron, lead-zinc ores, tantalite (tantalum) and Uranium. All are present in varying degrees. The plateau's resources are rich, but as yet hardly exploited.
Nigeria’s mineral reserves are rich, but the country suffers from a strong case of ‘Dutch Disease’, over-reliance on the oil industry has drawn attention away from exploiting other resources, which remain unexploited and largely unexplored. If Nigeria can ever hope to become independent of the international oil market it must diversify, first into a wider range of commodities.
##Mining Industry in Nigeria
There is one word that best describes the mining sector in Nigeria; Artisanal.
>Typical Mining Equipment in Nigeria, here pictured are Tin Miners in Jos State
Equipment is primitive, manual labour is king and there is not a good national understanding of where exploitable resources are located. 'Proven Reserves' of minerals are hard to estimate, and investment into exploration and exploitation has not been forthcoming except in short bursts, a symptom of Nigeria's Dutch Disease. However, the following key figures can be ascertained:
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Annual Tin Production - 2’500 Tonnes. With proven economical reserves of 50’000 tonnes at least.
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Annual Aluminium Production - 120’000 tonnes. Until 1999 The ALSCON smelter with a capacity of 90’000 tonnes was fed with domestic bauxite. After it shutdown in 1999 and again in 2013 these local mines closed. After reopening bauxite from Cameroon fed the plant. The plant was agreed to reopen in 2019, again with bauxite from abroad. Domestic reserves are unknown, probably less than Ghana’s 550MT+, but at least in the range of 100 million tonnes, if not more.
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Annual Steel Production - 2’000’000 millio
