The Hon. Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Arc. Olamilekan Adegbite has given the assurance that President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) will be on the ground to personally commission the 1st phase of the steel plant project of the African Natural Resources and Mines Ltd (ANRML), a subsidiary of African Industries, in Tafa, Kagarko LGA of Kaduna State on completion.
The Minister gave the assurance in his keynote address during his working visit to the project site on Monday.
“Hopefully Mr President will be here to do the commissioning of the first phase of the project when the time comes.
“It is part of our mandate to encourage investment in mining and steel development which this group has started on; my visit here today is to encourage this investment and also to urge them to do this as quickly as possible to bring the obvious benefit, first to the community where it belongs.
“While we are there to moderate the expectations of the community, at the same time, we also encourage the investor to carry them along, benefiting in terms of employment, infrastructure including social infrastructure,” he said.
Speaking earlier, the Managing Director, African Industries Group, Alok Gupta stated that the first phase of the plant will be ready for commissioning by December, 2020 and then the company will be mining 5.4 million tonnes of Iron Ore which will be processed into iron and steel billets, thus stopping the importation of such.
He said “We expect to commission the Phase I of the project by end December 2020. We will be mining 5.4 million tonnes of Iron Ore, beneficiate the ore to produce high grade concentrate, make it into pellets and finally into Directly Reduced Iron (DRI). The DRI will be used to make steel billets and will avoid our need to import the same.
“We are also building a 36 MW Power Plant from the waste heat recovered in the process, which will be partly used for captive consumption.”
He said on completion of first phase of project, there will be significant economic and industrial development in the area by means of creation of several allied industries and social infrastructure, while the surplus power generated will further assist in developing other industries and residences and will help in urbanisation of the local area.
Highlighting the benefit of the $600 million investment further, Gupta said it will serve as a catalyst for development of solid minerals sector by attracting other serious investors “following our example in downstream processing”.
He said lasting social and economic benefits await the local community through the development of social infrastructure and job creation, both directly and indirectly.
Pledging the support of the government of Kaduna State for the project, the Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, who was represented by the Chief of Staff, Muhammed Abdullahi, said the state will work hand in hand with the ministry to ensure that the people reap the benefit that is to follow.
“The governor has asked me to assure you of our support to ensure that the people of Kaduna and the government of Nigeria benefit from the project which will provide us with the advantage of job creation, of saving foreign exchange and providing the industrial capabilities that steel holds for our economy,” he said.
The African Industries Group is a diversified Manufacturing Group involved in the manufacturing of various products including Steel.
It started its operations in Nigeria in 1971, employing over 8,000 people in their 18 manufacturing plants, according to the MD, and they are now the largest producer of steel in Nigeria having the lion share of the market with an annual production capacity of 1.2m tonnes of finished Steel Products.
Over the last six years, their subsidiary,
African Natural Resources and Mines Ltd (ANRML) has also recorded breakthroughs in Resource Estimate, feasibility studies from various consultants around the world as well as Environmental and Social Impact Assessment based on both the Nigerian and IFC performance standards.
