Geophysicists urge Nigerian government to conserve strategic minerals amidst mining expansion

This warning comes as the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, emphasizes strengthening geoscientific data and professional capacity to transform the mining sector. The Nigerian Association of Exploration Geophysicists NAEG argued that while value addition and increased mining are positive, they must be balanced with a policy to protect high-grade and strategic mineral deposits for future generations and Nigeria’s long-term industrial development. The NAEG President, Akin George, highlighted that minerals are finite resources and without a clear conservation strategy, Nigeria risks exhausting important deposits and potentially importing them at high prices in the future.

He called for detailed exploration to determine the size and quality of deposits and specifically advocated for the conservation of selected high-grade lithium, chromite, uranium, platinum, and bauxite deposits. The Minister, represented by Hadiza Godi, a Director at the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency, stated that geophysics is a critical tool for discovering Nigeria’s underground wealth and supporting sustainable national development, and that the government is expanding geological mapping and airborne geophysical surveys to improve knowledge of mineral endowments, including critical transition minerals like lith