Efforts by the Federal Government to diversify Nigeria’s economy has received a major boost with the discovery of coal deposit in commercial quantity in Sokoto State.
This discovery will boost Sokoto’s share of solid minerals awaiting exploration by the authorities.
Others earlier discovered in the state include phosphate for making fertilizer, gold, limestone, gypsum, iron ore, copper, Columbite, tantalite, zinc and kaolin, among others.
Speaking during a capacity building workshop on Special Purpose Vehicles for beneficial participation of state governments in mining, jointly organised by the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development and the Sokoto Ministry of Solid Minerals and Natural Resources Development, Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal said that the state government had already engaged a Chinese company to carry out research on the available mineral resources, determine their locations and their commercial viability.
Tambuwal said that the company had presented the first phase of its findings and identified 20 varieties of solid minerals.
On coal, the governor said that the Cement Company of Northern Nigeria, otherwise known as Sokoto Cement and owned by the BUA Group, had started using the substance as a source of energy in running its plant.
“BUA will use coal sourced from Sokoto to fuel the 40MW power plant being constructed at the factory. The new cement plant can use both coal and LPFO (Low Pour Fuel Oil), and will source its power needs from the power plant, with the excess generated power moved to the national grid,” BUA Founder, Abdussamad Rabiu, told reporters during a recent tour of the factory.
He added that BUA’s $300 million investment in the new cement plant was the single largest private sector-led investment in Nigeria’s North West and had the capacity of producing 1.5million metric tonnes of cement per annum.
