Federal Government has identified seven minerals for national development, inister of Mines and Steel Development, Chief Sarafa Isola, said in Abuja yesterday.

He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the minerals were Gold, Lead/Zinc, Barite, Bitumen, Limestone, Coal and Iron Ore. Isola said that Nigeria was well-endowed with myriad of solid minerals, but that government selected only seven to ensure focus and added that blueprints had been developed on the seven areas. He said the need to ensure focus became necessary to increase the contribution of the solid minerals sector to the GDP from 0.5 per cent to somewhere around 7 per cent.

“To regulate the solid minerals sector, you have to grow it, so the leadership of the ministry and the presidency met and decided to concentrate on seven strategic minerals that have the potential to contribute 85 per cent of what the sector was required to contribute to national development,” he said. The minister said that Nigeria had 5.5 billion tonnes of iron ore deposits and 1.386 billion tonnes of coal, for instance. He explained that lack of infrastructure was, however, a hurdle that must be surmounted to ensure effective exploitation of the solid minerals.

“We have infrastructural challenges, so we need to collaborate with the Ministry of Transportation and other sectors to look at the road network, the rail and seaports in particular and also at other routes that can readily take the investor to the mine site and take its products out,” he said. Isola lamented the fact that the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantities shot Nigeria off the solid minerals export map of the world. “Prior to the discovery of oil, solid minerals and agriculture used to be the mainstay of the Nigerian economy.

“Unfortunately, since oil came, we neglected other parts of the economy. “If you look at Madagascar, Congo and Cote d’Ivoire, they are currently regarded as mining countries, unfortunately, Nigeria is not on the mining map of the world in spite of its huge potentials,” he noted. He said, the exploitation of Nigeria’s huge iron ore deposit of some 5.5 billion tonnes would require beneficiation and other infrastructure since products from the mines could only be moved effectively on rail or through the seas.

On coal exploitation, Isola also lamented that whereas South Africa generated 80 per cent of its electricity through coal and China uses it for the same and other purposes, Nigeria was lagging behind in spite of its huge deposit of some 1.386 billion tonnes. He said the challenge of limestone exploitation was not different as infrastructure must be put in place for its effective exploitation.