The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Mining sector

  • FG to understudy Australian mining sector, says Fayemi

    FG to understudy Australian mining sector, says Fayemi

    The federal government has almost concluded plans to understudy the Australian mining sector in order to improve on the country’s solid mineral sector.

    The government will also be learning how the Australian government has been able to achieve synergy between communities, states and the government in resolving the recurrent conflicts between communities and miners and settling the royalties due to states.

    Minister of Solid Minerals, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, said that the country needs to learn how Australia has been able to drive its country’s mining sector, which the present administration wants to improve the nation’s economy.

    Speaking in Abuja during a courtesy call by the Australian Ambassador to Nigeria, Jonathan Richardson, the minister said that the increasing interest of the government is geared towards understanding the Australian mining sector.

    He added, “We need to learn how you have been able to particularly drive the Australian mining industry. The president is really very focused in this sector; not that we have choices anyway with the prices for petrol dollar dwindling, so we have to look at alternatives for raising revenue for the country and clearly for the president, agriculture and solid minerals appears to be the most realistic or fastest way to begin to raise additional revenue for the economy.

    “The increasing interest of our government has made me get in touch and connect with what you are doing in your mining sector. Everything I have heard in the last 10 days of being in this position points in the direction of Australia. Everybody is saying it to me factually, technically, commercially, I keep hearing, you get Australia, you fix the mining sector.

    “Another area that we really can learn from Australia is you are a federal entity like us, we do have significant tension between what the constitution says about mineral resources belonging exclusively to the federal authority and the management of land belonging to the state government, so we need to find a sharing formula mechanism, what royalties comes to those who own the land, the community, state government and then the federal in other to achieve synergy and corporation because increasingly, I am hearing stories of those trying to explore minerals from local communities and facing a number of challenges there. We will be interested to know what Australia has done about it.”

  • ‘Mining sector needs N100b intervention fund’ 

    ‘Mining sector needs N100b intervention fund’ 

    President, Miners Association of Nigeria, Alhaji Sani Shehu at the weekend said Nigeria needs N100 billion intervention fund to immediately start exploitation  of mineral resources to rescue the economy from the adverse impacts of  dwindling oil prices.

    The fund, according to him, could be spread within a period of two years for the provision of infrastructure in mine sites  to ameliorate the challenges of transportation in the sector.

    Shehu explained that the miners are in dire need of means transporting their minerals from site to the industrial areas for processing.

    Speaking with our Abuja correspondent on telephone, he said: “For instance, we can send a proposal for N100billion. And that money cannot be given at once, may be for two years. That money can be set aside for the minerals sector. “First of all, the infrastructural challenges can be addressed.

    “The mining site should have a dedicated railway line. Most of the industrial minerals are basically in the north, and the industries that need these minerals are concentrated in the south. And moving these minerals from the mines to the industry is a serious challenge.

    “The money can also be used to complete the generation of geological information data that government started over the years.”

    The miners boss said it would be a walk over for the local miners to produce the required coal for the generation of 1,000megawatts (Mw) targeted by the Federal Government if the government tackled the transportation challenge.

    Shehu said miners can meet the target if the infrastructure is available. He said: “One major challenge of coal-to-power is the transportation of coal from the mines to the power plants. There is supposed to be a railway line to link the two. If that is available, we have more than enough coal to produce the coal that Nigeria needs for power generation.”

    He said he was part of the presidential retreat on solid minerals where he presented a proposal  to President  Goodluck Jonathan to encourage  the production  of industrial  minerals so that the country could use it as  raw materials in order to discourage their importation.

    He lamented that there are industrial minerals scattered all over the country lamenting that “we are importing minerals like gypsum, barite and coal.”

    The Presidency, according to him, admitted that his proposal was in line with its import substitution initiative, which also identified funding and machinery as major challenges in the sector.

    On why Nigeria still import barite and coal, he said there is politics in the whole issue because the importers that own barite mines overseas would naturally prefer importing from their countries under the pretext that Nigeria’s is of poor quality.

    He called on the government to lift the waiver that allows importation of barite into Nigeria, especially now that it needs to boost the economy.

    Shehu said: “The truth is this: There is a politics in barite importation. Our barites are okay but those that process barite and supply to  end users have their barite mines overseas . So they would rather prefer importing from their mines to buying from Nigeria.”