Nigeria’s Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Kayode Fayemi, is leading delegation to the Africa Down Under (ADU) Conference, holding in Perth, Australia, between September 6th to 8th, 2017, with a strategic view on signalling the mining sector to the international community.
According to a statement by the Ministry in Abuja Monday, Nigeria’s participation at this year’s conference is expected to serve the following strategic objectives: “Signal to the international mining community, the country’s economic policy priorities which focus on the diversification of Nigeria’s revenue base by repositioning the mining sector for greater productivity.
It noted that as a conference that attracts significant interest from organisations prospecting for business opportunities in the mining sector in Africa, “the Nigerian delegation includes critical stakeholders, notably officials of some state governments in charge of minerals and mining, financial experts, investors and operators”.
According to the statement, “The Minister will also deliver a paper ‘Mining for Shared Prosperity: Why Nigeria, Why Now’ on the opening day of the conference which is renowned as one of the leading fora for facilitating discussions on how to grow investments and participation in the African mining space.
“Nigeria was a major focus at the conference last year following the discovery, by an Australian firm, of a huge deposit of Nickel in Kaduna State. The minister is expected to provide an update on the mineral among other issues, during the conference.”
BusinessAGENDA recalled that a private mining syndicate headed by Hugh Morgan, an Australian businessman and former CEO of Western Mining Corporation in August 2016 discovered a potentially “world class and highly unusual” Nickel in the country.
The discovery is said to be unusual because the nickel is found in small balls up to 3mm in diameter of a high purity in shallow soils in what could be the surface expression of a much bigger hard-rock nickel field.
The Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, Hon Abubakar Bawa Bwari has said the discovered nickel deposits run into over 1 million tonnes and can cough $400 billion for the country.
The mineral discovery came when over the global price of oil collapsed and the country entered into its official recession in about 25 years.
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