In Nigeria, the Cross River State Government has discovered new solid mineral deposits across the three Senatorial Districts of the state. These deposits, if properly utilized would greatly transform the economy of the state and reduce its reliance on federal allocations, according to the state’s Commissioner for Solid Minerals, George Oben’Etchi.

According to him, the discovery comes after a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the state government with Shanxi Province of China, to carry out a geological mapping of the state.

Some of the minerals discovered in commercial quantity were Uranium, iron ore, manganese, tourmaline, barites, marbles, Galina, coal, kaolin, sulphite, rutile and new limestone deposits.

“We have about 33 solid minerals without having the idea of their value. Going from the nooks and crannies of the state, we discovered that we have a huge deposit of magnetic Iron Ore. The one we have in Mfamosing is different from the one we discovered in Boki and Ikom and that is what the steel company needs. In Yala Local Government Area in Okpoma, we have about 60million metric tonnes of salt. The government will create an enabling environment to ensure that everything we need is acquired even as we will always go through those processes to enable us mine these resources and for investors, we want to assure that bureaucracy will be put in check and we will target all that will make us move forward,” Oben’Etchi said.

In his remark, a mining engineer and interpreter for the Chinese team, Zhao Zhiwei, noted that the discoveries are still subject to laboratory analysis.

“Although we await the result from the laboratory, but as I can see, these mineral resources are very good and are of premium quality. Our governor in Shanxi Province and Directors will be happy to see this,’’ he added.

Anita Fatunji