Posts
The Federal Government has sealed a deal with the Republic of Germany to explore and exploit mineral deposits, estimated to generate over $700 billion in earnings to the country.
Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, disclosed this to reporters shortly after the Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu on Monday.
Alake said the Federal Government sealed the deal during the visit of German Chancellor, Otaf Scholz on Sunday, adding that a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed to that effect.
The Minister also disclosed that the Germans are introducing the latest technology in the exploration business, revealing that the equipment has the capacity to detect mineral deposits 10,000 metres below the ground level.
Alake said, “You are aware of the German Chancellor visit to Nigeria, of course he came in to strengthen bilateral relations between our two countries, Nigeria and Germany.
“For quite some time my Ministry has been talking to some highly technical companies in Germany. The visit of the German Chancellor on Sunday underscored the importance of strengthening bilateral relations especially socio economic bilateral relations.
“I’m happy to announce that the Ministry of Solid Minerals broke a landmark record of signing an MOU with one of the top notch geo scientific technology companies in the world, which is Geo-scan GmbH, its a German company and the company was also in the delegation of the German Chancellor, so the MOU was signed through the Solid Minerals Development Fund.
“The significance of this epochal event is that this company has the latest top of the line technologies, its a proprietary technology for exploration. It means that you can see deep down up to 10,000 meters for the mineral deposits that are available. If you are vast in the space of solid minerals, you know that it’s exploration, exploitation and extraction and the processes, you would know that exploration is an expensive business. Even the gathering of geo data is very very expensive”.
He added, “With this $700 billion estimation of our solid minerals deposit, we still have over 90% of the entire landscape of Nigeria unexplored. Because it’s an expensive business that underscores the significance of the landmark that we recorded yesterday with the Geo-Scan GmbH, supported also by the German Chancellor, supported by our President and I’m happy to tell you now, no kobo commitment on the back of Nigeria. The company will come and establish its technology, its plant here and move around the country to enable us to further explore all other mineral deposits that we have.”
No comments