Finally, Nigeria launches home-made barite, to stop importation 2022
Story from Abah ADAH
Nigeria has recorded another major breakthrough in its economic diversification campaign with an official launch of Nigeria-made barite on Thursday in Port-Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
Barite is a key industrial mineral whose overwhelming majority is used by the Petroleum Industry as a weighting material in the formulation of drilling mud.
READ ALSO: Nigerian-made barite to save country US$300m annually – Minister
Nigeria as an oil-producing country is depending on the importation of the mineral, due to complaints of poor quality and inability to add value to the local barite, to the tune of US$300 million annually, despite confirmation that barite is present in commercial quantities across the country.
Delivering his keynote address on the occasion of the launch, Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Architect Olamilekan Adegbite said the roadmap launched for the sector in 2016 triggered the process that is climaxing in the success stories of the sector at the moment.
“Indeed the launch of the roadmap was a game-changer to the mining sector. As a result, we secured better funding from the government through improved budgetary allocation and intervention funds from the Natural Resources Development Fund (NRDF).
“So we facilitated the development of an Industrial Minerals Roadmap to optimise Nigeria’s industrial minerals to meet standards of manufacturing, industrial, and construction industries so as to reduce import dependency,” he explained.
According to the Minister, “a major component of the initiative is the promotion of local content in the production, quality assurance, and sale of barite.”
He affirmed that the 50 locally produced bags of barite to be used in launching Nigeria-made barite meet the American Petroleum Institute (API) standard which is the global benchmark accepted by the Petroleum industry.
He highlighted the benefits of the initiative to include: accelerating the development of the sector along the barite value chain; increased revenue to the government; job and wealth creation; foreign exchange conservation among others.
This is as the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipreye Silva, who performed the official launch of the barite hinted that importation of the mineral into the country will be banned in 2022.
Represented by the Executive Secretary (ES) of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Simbi Wabote, the Minister encouraged prospective investors to explore and utilise the opportunity provided by the development.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefele, represented by a director, Anthony Ifechukwu, who, in his goodwill message pledged to support the ministry, said the bank is ready to support anything that could bring turn around to the solid minerals sector.
“This means that the era of using our hard-earned dollars on importation of barite is almost over,” he said.
On his part, the Executive Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, represented by his deputy, Ipalibo Banigo, said he felicitated with the Minister and the Minister of State for the feat achieved, thanking them for choosing the state for the launch.
Presenting the overview, the director-general (DG), Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA), Engr Abdulrazak Garba, said with this development Nigeria stands to gain more in future as there are prospects of more barite beneath the country’s land space than the estimated 22 million tonnes because the barite mineralisation being worked on now is only within the depth of 30 meters, even amidst signs that are deposits beyond that deep down.
According to him, after a careful assessment, 12 processing companies have been engaged to add value to Nigerian barite locally.
He explained that Rivers State was chosen as the venue for the launch because it is where the mineral is most used for oil exploration.
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