Nigerian Government
To Unveil New Solid Minerals Policy
The
Nigerian President,
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua will next week unveil a national policy on
mineral resources that would pay special attention to the
development of seven of them available in the country.
Tagged, "National
Minerals and Metals Policy," the document was presented to
the joint committees of the National Assembly on Solid Minerals
by the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Sharafadeen
Ishola,on Wednesday,
He said
the new policy would facilitate the diversification of the
economy by checking the nation's dependence on oil resources.
The
identified mineral resources in the new policy, according to
Ishola, are: coal; bitumen; iron ore; limestone; barite; gold
and lead/zinc.
The
minister said the country had deposits of 1.386 billion tonnes
of coal reserves, which could generate 1000 megawatts of
electricity for the next 70 years.
As for
Bitumen, the minister said the country had reserves of between
27 billion barrels and five billion tonnes of iron ore, which is
considered the largest of such deposits on the West African
coast.
NP/MICHAEL
