Nigeria will open two main lithium processing vegetation this yr, the nation’s mining minister introduced on Sunday. This marks a shift from promoting uncooked minerals to different international locations towards processing them at residence to create extra worth.
Chinese language buyers have principally funded the services, which might assist remodel Nigeria’s huge mineral wealth into jobs, expertise, and manufacturing progress throughout the nation. Mining Minister Dele Alake stated a $600 million lithium processing plant close to the Kaduna-Niger border is deliberate to open this quarter, whereas a $200 million lithium refinery on the outskirts of Abuja is sort of completed.
The federal government expects two further processing vegetation in Nasarawa state, which borders the capital Abuja, earlier than the third quarter of 2025, the minister stated.
“We at the moment are targeted on turning our mineral wealth into home financial worth – jobs, expertise, and manufacturing,” Alake stated.
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Based on separate bulletins by governors of the states the place the vegetation will function, Chinese language corporations, together with Jiuling Lithium Mining Firm and Canmax Applied sciences, have supplied over 80% of the funding for the 4 services. Native investor Three Crown Mines owns the remaining stakes.
Nigeria’s push for home processing follows a 2022 research by Nigeria’s Geological Survey Company, which found important deposits of high-grade lithium throughout half a dozen Nigerian states, attracting appreciable worldwide curiosity.
These developments are a part of Nigeria’s broader reforms to its underdeveloped mining sector, which presently contributes lower than 1% to the nation’s gross home product. Different reforms undertaken embrace proscribing the export of unprocessed minerals, making artisanal mining operations extra official (which account for a lot of the present extraction), and establishing a state mining agency the place buyers can come clean with a 75% stake.
