ALAKE HAILS $1 BILLION IRON ORE TO STEEL PROJECT -VALUE ADDITION BREAKTHROUGH 10-09-24
The federal government has hailed the N1.6Trillion new iron ore to steel project planned for Kogi State as part of its campaign to make local value addition the model of development in the solid minerals sector.
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, the minister of Solid Minerals Development Dr. Dele Alake pledged the cooperation of Government with the promoters to ensure the delivery of the project as fast as possible.
In a statement by the Special Adviser to the Minister Mr Kehinde Bamigbetan ,the Federal Government had reversed the pit to port policy where mining companies exported raw minerals, to extraction with local value addition as part of move to create jobs for the youths, skills transfer and a better trade coordination between the country and her trading partners.
The statement says that in order to promote local value addition, the Minister had 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 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 said.
He explained that in the model , the iron ore site will feed the steel manufacturing plant to service the needs of Nigerian and the 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 flunctuations in the macro-economic system and meet targets.
The vice manager, Sinomach-He’s Hou Encai s expressed their readiness to start the project, itsaid 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.
In the MOU, Sinomach-He shall be the master contractor and deploy its expertise in the engineering, procurement, installation, commissioning, and training of the project.
Earlier, Nigeria’s Consul-General to China, Ambassador Gbadebo Afolabi confirmed the integrity of Sinomach-He disclosing that a team from the embassy had conducted due diligence on the company and found it suitable for the transaction