Economic advantage necessitated siting of barite cluster plant in Ugaga – Minister

Story from Abah ADAH, Abuja

Nigeria’s Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Arc. Olamilekan Adegbite, has stated that the establishment of Barite processing plant in Ugaga, Yala local government area of Cross-River State was necessitated by the abundance of the mineral in the area and the need to reduce the burden of logistics involved in its processing.

According to a statement from the ministry’s Media and Public Relation’s Department, Adegbite made this known recently in Ugaga while inspecting the ongoing work at the Barite Cluster Processing Plant, in the company of the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Dr Oluwatoyin Akinlade, and the Director, Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM), Mr Patrick Ojeka among others.

The plant is located in Ugaga to facilitate the operationalisation of a barite processing cluster for zone.

The Minister said, “The barite processing plant is sited in Ugaga because of abundance of Barite in this location and the need to reduce logistics for the processing, as localisation of industries at the sources of raw materials minimises logistics overload.”

He said when completed, Barite would be processed in Ugaga and shipped to Port Harcourt selling point where buyers and exporters could buy them, adding that the plant would be run by resourceful non-government experts on behalf of the federal government.

Affirming that the plant would also provide services to barite miners, Adegbite said, “Miners of barite can bring it here to sell to processors or mill their Barite to America Petroleum Institute (API) standard at reasonable cost.”

The Minister who re-iterated the importance of establishing the mining clusters in the six geopolitical zones of the Nigerian Federation said it would boost the productivity of artisanal and small scale miners, generate wealth, create employment opportunities for Nigerians, and increase the sector’s contribution to the nation’s GDP.

The clusters, according to the him,are the federal government intervention projects to cushion the adverse effects of Covid-19 and jumpstart the economy.

Earlier in her remarks, the Permanent Secretary, Dr Akinlade called on Barite miners to take full advantage of the opportunities provided by this huge investment, to enhance and improve productivity of Barite in the country. This, according to her, would save Nigeria foreign exchange currently being spent on Barite importation.

At about this time last year, the Ben Ayade-led government in Cross-Rivers State donated 5 hectares of land to the federal government for the establishment of Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM) processing cluster in the state for the South-South zone.

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