Geological Framework	Economic Minerals	Deposit with Estimate
Crystalline Rocks	Iron Deposits	Deposit
Sedimentary Rocks	Manganese & Chromium
Geological Framework English French Hausa Ki-Swahili Fulfulde	Economic Minerals English French Hausa Ki-Swahili Fulfulde	Deposit Of Reserves English French Hausa Ki-Swahili Fulfulde

1.1 Preamble

The history of man's development is intimately linked with searching for and utilizing the mineral resources in his environment. Even the early trades between different tribes of the world were based on minerals such as salt, lead, tin, copper, silver and gold. It is therefore not difficult to establish that minerals constitute the basis of man's industry and development since the historic times.
The prosperity of a nation depends on the level of utilization or development of its mineral endowment.

It is in recognition of this fact that the Voice of Nigeria has packaged a series of presentation on the Economic Minerals of Nigeria. Our intention is to show-case the nation's mineral potentials with a view to sensitizing both foreign investors and Nigerian entrepreneurs, particularly those in Diaspora, to be aware of the available abundant mineral resources and their attendant investment potentials in the country.


1.2 Geological Framework of Nigeria


Because minerals do not occur fortuitously but are rather related in time and space with geological phenomena and processes, we shall feast of all highlight the basic geological framework of the country within which the minerals occur.
Nigeria lies between longitude 2^o40'E and 14^o 40E and latitude 4^o2O'N and 13^o5O'N in the West African sub-region which is part of the African shield, an ancient stable continental crust. It is situated in the tropical climatic region characterized by alternating wet and dry seasons. It covers a land area of 923,768km² which contains diverse rock types that can be divided into two broad groups as follows:

(1) Hard crystalline rocks composed essentially of the Precambrian Basement complex (older than 500 million years), as well as minor Jurassic Younger Granites (about 160 million years), Cretaceous intermediate to basic hypabyssal rocks and Tertiary to Recent volcanics; and

(ii) Sedimentary rocks ranging in age from Lower Cretaccous(about 120 million years to Quatemary(less than 2 million years) and overlying the Basement Complex in the sedimentary basins.
The two groups of rocks underlie the surface area of the country in approximately equal proportions, i.e., the crystalline rocks and the sediments, each covers nearly half of the total area. The implication of this is that Nigeria stands in a good stead to reap whatever the nature's bounties that are borne by the various rock types present in its two main geological terrains.