TheCable

The federal government has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Geo-scan GmbH, a German firm, to boost solid mineral exploration and deposits.

Dele Alake, minister of solid minerals, spoke on Monday after the (FEC) meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu at the presidential villa in Abuja.

According to Alake, the German firm has the latest technologies and is a proprietary technology for exploration.

“I’m happy to announce that the ministry of solid minerals broke a landmark record of signing an MOU with one of the top-notch geo-scientific technology companies in the world, which is Geo-scan GmbH, a German company,” the minister said.

“The company was also in the delegation of the German Chancellor yesterday and the MOU was signed yesterday through the SMDF which is the solid minerals development fund.

“And now the significance of this epochal event is that this company has the latest top-of-the-line technologies,  is a proprietary technology for exploration.”

Alake said when compared to existing worldwide techniques, the Geo-scan technology is not only more cost-effective but also locates mineral reserves three times faster.

“It means that you can see deep down up to 10,000 meters for the mineral deposits that are available,” he said.

“If you are vast in the space of solid minerals, you know that it’s exploration, exploitation, and extraction and the processes, you would know that exploration is an expensive business. Even the gathering of geo data is very very expensive.

“This particular technology, which is top notch like I said, is 80% cheaper than current processes in the world, is three times faster to locate deposits down on your ground, and so with our mineral deposits, that we conservatively estimated at $700 billion under the ground.

“And scrambling to exploit judiciously, we constitute about 0.02% of the global mining budget. And with this $700 billion estimation of our solid minerals deposit, we still have over 90% of the entire landscape of Nigeria unexplored.”

The minister further said the agreement with the German firm is not only expected to drive solid mineral exploration and exploitation but also contribute substantially to Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP).

The agreement follows Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor’s visit to Nigeria.

During the visit,  Scholz said a major aspect of cooperation between Germany and Nigeria is economic development.

He also said Germany will enter into future partnerships with Nigeria in minerals and hydrocarbons.