Alake Hails $1b Iron Ore To Steel Project

Minister of Solid Minerals and Development Minister, Dr. Oladele Alake has described the $1 billion new iron ore to steel project planned for Kogi State as breakthrough for the Federal Government’s campaign to make local value addition the model of development in the solid minerals sector.

This is contained in a statement signed by the Minister’s Special Adviser, Kehinde Bamigbetan, in Abuja.

It says, Dr. Alake stated this while addressing the promoters, Chart and Capstone Integrated Limited of Nigeria and Sinomach-He of China-on the sidelines of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu visit to China.

The statement pledges the cooperation of the Federal Government with the promoters to ensure the delivery of the project as fast as possible.

It explains that the Federal Government has reversed the pit to port policy under which mining companies exported raw minerals to extraction with local value addition which is the best guarantee of jobs for the youths, skills transfer and better balance of trade between the country and her trading partners.

According to the statement, to promote local value addition, the Minister announced that applicants for licences to mine must disclose plans for processing the raw minerals as part of the conditions for approval.

“The trade balance between Nigeria and China is over one billion dollars in favour of China because the minerals imported from Nigeria are essentially in raw forms” he stresses.

“Once Nigeria starts to export finished or semi-finished value-added mineral products to China and other trading partners, our balance of trade will be more favourable, and our foreign exchange earnings will improve”.

“With aggressive local value addition and the revenue from it, the prospects of reducing our debt burden in the nearest future is possible,” he adds.

According to the statement, while presenting a Memorandum of Understanding signed by both companies to the Minister, the Chief Executive Officer of Chart and Capstone Integrated Limited, Chief Abel Edijala commended the Minister for putting in place efficient licence application process that works without red tapes and corruption.

“We applied for an exploration licence for our iron ore mining project at the Mining Cadastral Office, and we did not need to see anybody before our application was approved within a reasonable period. This shows that the system you have put in place is fair and works for all. I must commend you for this” Edijala states.

According to the statement, Edijala explains that the model is that the iron ore site will feed the steel manufacturing plant and grow to service the needs of the Nigerian economy for industrialisation stating that the project will require tax waivers for the importation of equipment and tax holidays during the take-off period to cope with the flunctuations in the macro-economic system and meet targets.

Also, Vice Manager, Sinomach-He, Hou Encai while explaining its readiness to start the project, stresses that the company engages in mining, iron making, steel rolling, steel making, the construction, and also handles 80 per cent of the steel needs of the Chinese economy.

“In mining, we have the technology on how to excavate the ores from the earth. We can evaluate the iron ore potential of any site and tell you what the feasibility of mineral extraction is on a site. Secondly, we have the equipment needed, including excavators and drilling machines for mining iron ore” Encai emphasizes.

The statement emphasizes that according to the MOU, Sinomach-He shall be the master contractor and deploy its expertise in the engineering, procurement, installation, commissioning, and training of the project.

According to the statement, Nigeria’s Consul-General to China, Ambassador Gbadebo Afolabi who confirmed the integrity of Sinomach-He adds that a team from the embassy had conducted due diligence on the company and found it suitable for the transaction.

PR/Georgina Humphrey