The Federal Government has announced the commencement of operations at a high-purity gold refining plant in Lagos, with three additional gold refineries at various stages of development nationwide and a $600m lithium processing plant in Nasarawa State ready for commissioning. The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, disclosed this on Tuesday during a meeting with Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources, Ibrahim Al-Khorayef, ahead of the Future Minerals Forum in Riyadh, describing the projects as outcomes of Nigeria’s value-addition policy in the mining sector.
According to Alake, the initiatives underscore the government’s resolve to end the export of raw minerals in favour of in-country processing, noting that “Nigeria’s value-addition policy is already yielding tangible results, with a gold refining plant of very high purity now operational in Lagos.” He added that Nigeria was keen to deepen collaboration with Saudi Arabia in areas such as capacity building, technology transfer and exploration, while Al-Khorayef reaffirmed Saudi Arabia’s commitment to developing a practical and actionable agreement on solid minerals cooperation.