The Federal Government has announced the commencement of operations at a high-purity gold refining plant in Lagos, alongside plans for three additional gold refineries at various stages of development nationwide and a $600 million lithium processing plant in Nasarawa State set for commissioning. The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, disclosed this on Tuesday, describing the projects as concrete outcomes of the government’s value-addition policy aimed at repositioning Nigeria as Africa’s leading minerals hub and a strategic global partner in critical minerals for the green energy transition.
Alake made the remarks during a meeting with Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources, Ibrahim Al-Khorayef, held ahead of the Future Minerals Forum in Riyadh. According to a statement by the minister’s Special Assistant on Media, Segun Tomori, the talks focused on strengthening bilateral cooperation in solid minerals development, with emphasis on capacity building, training, technology transfer and exploration, as Nigeria seeks to move away from exporting raw minerals toward in-country processing and beneficiation.