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| Minister of Solid Minerals, Dr. Kayode Fayemi |
A private mining
syndicate has made a potentially “world class and highly unusual” Nickel
discovery in Nigeria, The Australian (note story behind paywall, subscription access required), an Australian national newspaper is reporting.
PREMIUM
TIMES reports that:
The
private mining syndicate is reportedly headed by Hugh Morgan, a mining industry
veteran.
“The
discovery is unusual because the nickel is found in small balls up to 3mm in
diameter of a high purity in shallow soils in what could be the surface
expression of a much bigger hard-rock nickel field,” the newspaper said.
“The
nickel balls, rumoured to grade better than 90 per cent nickel and thought to
be a world first given their widespread distribution, offer the potential for
early cashflow from a simple and low-cost screening operation to fund a full
assessment of the find that has exploration circles buzzing.”
Details
of the discovery are sketchy, according to the newspaper, but it was rumoured
to be close to Dangoma, a small farming town about 160km northeast of the
Nigerian capital of Abuja.
Checks
by PREMIUM TIMES showed that Dangoma is located in the North-West state of
Kaduna.
When
asked to comment last week, Mr Morgan reportedly said it was for the Nigerian
government to make an announcement.
Kayode
Fayemi, the Minister for Solid Minerals, will be among the speakers at a
three-day Africa Down Under mining conference at Perth’s Pan Pacific Hotel,
Australia, in September.
Mr.
Fayemi is to speak first on Wednesday, September 7, and Mr Morgan will follow
along with consulting geologist Louisa Lawrance. Mr Morgan is listed as
speaking as a director of the private company Comet Minerals.
Olayinka
Oyebode, Mr. Fayemi’s Chief Press Secretary, said he had no details of the
discovery, but confirmed his principal is scheduled to be in Australia next
week.
“I
know there is a mining conference coming up in Australia where the Honourable
Minister is supposed to make a presentation,” Mr. Oyebode told PREMIUM TIMES
via phone on Monday.
“But
I don’t have an advance knowledge of what he’s going to talk about but,
generally speaking, he’s going to market Nigeria.”
Mr.
Oyebode asked this newspaper to give him till Monday evening for Mr. Fayemi’s
reaction on the nickel discovery in Kaduna.
But
an official of the ministry, who asked not to be named because he was not
authorised to speak on the matter, said Mr. Fayemi’s delegation would most
likely sign an exploration deal with the Australian syndicate at the
conference.
Nickel
is primarily sold for first use as refined metal. About 65 percent of it
consumed in the West is used to produce stainless steel.
The
world’s largest producers of Nickel include The Philippines, Indonesia, Russia,
Canada, and Australia, according to the US Geological Survey.
In
August, Mr. Fayemi told Bloomberg that one of the Nigeria government’s
priorities is to meet its annual steel demand of 6.8 metric tons, from a
current output of less than 2.5 metric tons, produced mainly from scrap iron.
“In two to five years, we want to have started production of iron ore, lead, zinc, bitumen, nickel, coal and gold at a serious scale,” Mr. Fayemi had said.
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