……this interview, a posthumous Memorial, was first published in October, 2019.
Alhaji Sanusi Jibril, former Head, Mineral Investment and Production, Ministry of Mines and Steel speaks on NIMEP and the Annual Nigeria Mining Week. He identified serious gaps by the government and even the professionals over the issue of adequate geoscience data to attract investment. According to him ‘’even though Nigeria Geological Survey Agency (NGSA) has the basic mapping data, that is not enough to attract investment in the real mining’’. The Rock Post crew sat with him over Lunch.
Q. Please can you give us your view on the Federal Government’s NIMEP laudable project?
R. Talking about NIMEP, one of the serious gaps identified by the government and even the professionals is the issue of adequate geoscience data to attract investment. Even though Nigeria Geological Survey Agency (NGSA) has the basic mapping data, that is not enough to attract investment in the real mining. Yes, it can attract investment in exploration because exploration has a very high risk but if you generate data to a level where the mineral deposit is economically evaluated, that will now attract investment into mining. In essence, you have derisked it.
Most of Nigerian mining companies actually don’t have the capacity to generate those information. When you have a bankable feasibility study, it means it is ready to attract money into it. The government then thinks if that is the case, let it try and develop a project that will take it to a bankable level. The bankable feasibility study will be certified by a competent person, registered, internationally recognized, geo compliant. If we have this, we can now take this study to the international market through conferences and advertisements. At this point, it can then attract investment.
When you derisk it and start having big companies indicating interest, the government can then be said to have served as a catalyst. NIMEP is a laudable project but the only concern I have is that, assuming you have made a discovery of an economically viable project, how does the government benefit? Right now we don’t have investment arm of the government. The NGSA that is driving this project cannot be a shareholder on any project. So how do they benefit after spending so much money to generate this information?
That’s where investment aspect comes in because if you sell the information through competitive bidding, it means you have made some gains. That cannot even be said to be a sustainable gain because it will soon be over. Sustainable gain would have been better if we have an investment institution. That is why we are talking of the defunct Nigerian Mining Corporation (NMC). If the Nigerian Mining Cadastre by law is empowered to concession such kind of project through competitive bidding, it is still better. We can benefit maximally but not by selling it. If we are not benefitting maximally. But if we take, maybe 20 or 30 percent of the share of any international company that has a stake, they will be happy to accept because we have removed about 75 percent risk of failure.
We only fall back on royalty which will not take us anywhere. If you look at the oil industry, it does not rely on royalty. If we had relied on oil royalty, we would have collapsed as a nation. So this joint venture issue must have to be visited. That is the issue I have about NIMEP.
Q. What is your take on the annual Nigeria Mining Week?
R. Fortunately I was part of the people that developed the Nigerian Mining Week. It started with the Miners Association of Nigeria (MAN) doing their own thing as a separate platform. When I was the Head of Mineral Investment and Production, we had a discussion with Price Water Coopers (PWC) and they said they want the ministry to embrace that event.
So the first edition held in Lagos with PWC and the Ministry of Mining, Miners Association of Nigeria (MAN) was just invited and their members. At an event some years back, Spintelligent came and said they are into event organization and that they have been participating in Oil and Gas industry. So they said they want us to endorse them to do the mining aspect. We told them to approach PWC.
So it started with Spintelligent and PWC doing their own thing. When they came the second time, we discovered that there were many conferences almost at the same time. So we consolidated PWC/Spintelligent partnership with that of Miners Association of Nigeria (MAN). So that is how Nigeria Mining Week came about.
The name Nigeria Mining Week was actually coined by the Miners Association of Nigeria (MAN). So the first edition under this new marriage between PWC, Spintelligent, MAN and the Ministry of Mining took place in 2015 at Sheraton hotel Abuja. Even though it has not generated the kind of investment people are thinking, it is because there is not project presentation. That is what NIMEP project is trying to address.
No company will come and make presentation on findings they have made. All the information they give is service; yes we are miners but there is no information that will attract investment. That is the gap. Most companies that have the information, they don’t even need to come there. If you have bankable studies, you don’t need to market it at Nigeria Mining Week because it’s ready for investment.
I think going forward with the mining week, we shouldn’t just concentrate on the big scale miners. The small Nigerian companies should be encouraged to do exploration instead of a small company having 10 titles, unproductive and cannot attract investment, let them concentrate on 2 or 3 so that they can add value to it. Let them start derisking these mineral titles so that they can attract partners.
Not only in Nigeria Mining Week but they can attend West African mining conference. There is one in Ghana, and there is another in Burkina Faso that takes place annually. It gives people insight on what is happening because when you gather and share knowledge, you grow. Every knowledge is important. I think it’s achieving its aim and gradually it will mature to what we are talking about.
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