-Proven Reserve Stands At 639 Million Metric Tonnes
By ABUBAKAR YUNUSA ,KOGI
The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Arc. Olamilekan Adegbite, has said the ongoing energy crisis in Europe occasioned by the Russian-Ukraine War has increased foreign interests in Nigeria’s coal.
He revealed this while delivering a lecture titled, ‘ The Mining Sector’ Pivotal Role in the Diversification of the Nigerian Economy’ during the 2022 Annual reunion of the Old Boys Association of Government College Ibadan, at Gbongan ,Osun State.
Arc. Adegbite further disclosed that the Prime Minister of Poland had made an enquiry about the Nigeria’s coal as an alternative energy source for the European country. He stated that he had been invited by some Europeans to speak about the Nigerian coal.
Record shows that Nigeria has an abundance of proven and probable reserves of coal. The proven reserve of coal measures 639 million metric tones while the probable reserve is estimated at about 2.75 billion metric tonnes.
“Our coal is one of the best in the world and easily convertible to energy. In fact when I came into office coal was looked at as been dirty. He said that the energy situation in Europe and coupled with the fact that winter is approaching. He acknowledged the fact that Nigeria’s coal is attracting a lot of attention from major foreign investors.
Speaking on the nation’s abundant bitumen reserves, the minister assured that the country was on track to develop its bitumen resources and by so doing would no longer require importation of bitumen again.
According to him,. local bitumen production would save the country foreign exchange spent on importing the mineral, while generating income for the government and creating thousands of jobs for Nigerians.
The minister disclosed that the country’s bitumen deposit is ranked sixth in the world in terms of reserve , adding that the nation was endowed with a bitumen reserve estimated at 42.74 billion metric tonnes which had remained unexploited for years.
He said that Nigeria by this discovery is prepared to begin the production of bitumen locally,adding that a transaction advisor had been appointed to oversee the process.
The minister said, “To ensure that Nigeria’s bitumen resources are fully harnessed for industrial and infrastructural development, I constituted a nine-member Ministerial Bitumen Development Committee on 31 January 2020. The Committee carried out an inventory of internal existing infrastructure; compiled available geological information; re-established contact with previous interested companies, and developed a framework for transparent allocation of the Bitumen resources”.
The minister also revealed that the enormous and abundant mineral resources spread across every part of the country have the potential to make the nation great, while also uniting its citizens .
“Several administrations had spoken in the past about diversification but had mostly paid lip service to the agenda, but this present administration led by president Muhammadu Buhari has put its money where its mouth is by striving to diversify the economy essentially through two sectors – mining and agriculture.
“This administration was the first to approve extra-budgetary funds for the sector. Indeed Mining has the ability to unite us as a nation as there is no state in Nigeria that does not have a mineral resource,” he said.
