By Palma Ileye
Director General, Nigerian Geological Survey Agency, NGSA, Dr. Abdulrazaq Garba has said that NIMEP’s findings has shown that Gold and Lithium deposits found in Nigeria were of high grade also noting that they were of indeed of exceptional quality.
Garba disclosed this during a presentation at the 8th Nigeria Mining Week held at the International Conference Centre, ICC in Abuja.
He said that the confirmation were findings from the already concluded National Integrated Mineral Exploration Project, NIMEP.
The NGSA boss who is also the President, Geological Society of Nigeria, revealed that because of the interest in lithium, an appropriate model was adopted in demystifying its mineralisation in Nigeria, “and from what you have seen is that, an average is not more than 1.5%, but we have higher than that grade in the country.”
The Director General who was the Coordinator and Overseer of the NIMEP for the Ministry said it had been confirmed even by the pronouncement of some of the companies that beneath the surface, the country has have high-grade lithium occurrences in Nasarawa and also in Kwara, where were some of the companies are working.
He noted that problem was the inability yet to determine the size of lithium mineralisation in the country adding that, “If we are able to determine the size, that is the volume, of lithium oxides in the different locations that we have it, Nigerian mineralisation can project into those of world class, but as it is now Nigeria mineralisation is just a conceptual model, we don’t have information about the size.”
In the area of gold, the nation’s number one Geologist said results from one of the gold belt targets identified indicated a gold trend aligned almost Zamfara, Kebbi, and FCT areas N-S and spanning about 7km long and > 500m wide, while drilling in the area showed significant intersections of gold bearing veins with grades averaging 1.6g/1, per ton.
He said that, “Findings already suggested the potentials of having a major gold and Ni-Cr-Co trend that could be attractive to major investors.”
However, the Chairman, Implementation Committee of the National Integrated Mineral Exploration Project, NIMEP, said that for barite mineralisation, contrary to the notion that there was a huge deposit of the mineral, the encumbrance was that the veins were very lean deep down and not big enough to support extensively deep mining projects.
Worthy to note, the NIMEP is part of Federal Government’s diversification effort through the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development to make the solid mineral sector more attractive to investors by providing bankable data and lead the charge towards further exploration and development of the nation’s solid mineral resources.
Dr Garba who believes that the NIMEP was one of the best thing to have happened to the sector said the initiative portends a lot of advantages and has started yielding the desired fruits.
Which according to him, the execution of the project serves as an investment tonic, drawing investors of various kinds in droves into the sector because they now have convincing data, for example, the Segilola Gold Project in Osun State being handled by Segilola Resources Operating Limited, a subsidiary of Thor Exploration Limited.