THE
Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake, weekend, hailed the $1
billion (N1.6 trillion) new iron ore to steel project planned for Kogi State as
a breakthrough for the Federal Government’s value addition policy.
According
to a statement signed by the Special Assistant to the Minister of Solid
Minerals Development, Segun Tomori, addressing the promoters- Chart and
Capstone Integrated Limited of Nigeria and Sinomach-He of China-on the sidelines
of the visit of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to China in Beijing recently, Alake
pledged the cooperation of the Federal Government with the promoters to ensure
the delivery of the project as fast as possible.
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He said
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.
He noted
that, to promote local value addition, he has 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.
“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 said.
Presenting
the Memorandum of Understanding signed by both companies to the Minister, Chief
Executive Officer of Chart and Capstone Integrated Limited, Chief Abel Edijala
commended the Honourable Minister for putting in place an 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 said.
He
explained 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.
Edijala
further stated that the project will require tax waivers for the importation of
equipment and tax holidays during the take-off period to cope with the fluctuations
in the macro-economic system and meet targets.
Explaining
Sinomach-He’s readiness to start the project, its vice manager, Hou Encai said
the state-owned company was established in 1958 to meet the needs of the
Chinese economy and has over 15,000 staff including 2000 engineers on its
payroll.
Encai
said the company engages in mining, iron making, steel rolling, steel making,
the construction of infrastructures, and 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. For
transportation of iron ore from site to the factory, my group produces the
trucks”, he said.