Lack of geophysical survey equipment stifling mining industry, says Ajoku
The Managing Director, Double Dee Industrial Services, a mining company, Mrs Anobo Ann Ajoku, has identified lack of requisite equipment as one of the major drawbacks to the growth of the mining sector. She believes that the Federal Government’s intervention through the provision of necessary equipment for lease to miners at subsidised rates will accelerate the sector’s growth beyond expectation, writes Olamilekan FAWAZ.
Lack of geophysical survey equipment is frustrating effective mining activities and the quest to drive the industry to growth, the Managing Director, Double Dee Industrial Services, a mining company, Mrs Anobo Ann Ajoku, has said.
Ajoku, who spoke to The Nation on telephone, lamented lack of necessary equipment and obsolescence of existing geophysical surveys as some of them were carried out by the colonial masters.
She argued the government will only be paying lip service to development of the mining sector, adding that even with the various interventions by the government to develop the mining business, without the necessary equipment, the sector will not attain the expected growth. According to her, if the government can provide the necessary equipment for leasing at subsidised rates, it will quicken the growth of the sector.
For miners to be able to get the proper materials out from the ground whether gold, barite or any extractive mineral, there should be proper geophysical survey which is still lacking in Nigeria, she said. Ajoku noted that the geophysical surveys presumed to be already in place were not actually what is needed most but what obtains when one goes to the subsurface.
The impact of mining goes beyond mineral extraction and processing. Mining is interrelated to many other industries and sectors in the economy including transportation, construction, equipment manufacturing, environmental management, geological services, education and research, among others.
As part of its benefits, mining supplies raw materials needed for construction of roads and hospitals or manufacturing of products, such as automobiles; employment creation; source of income; and foreign exchange for the country. Mined substances are used to build houses and make computers and satellites.
Mining of minerals in Nigeria accounts for only 0.3 per cent of its gross domestic products (GDP) due to the influence of its huge petroleum resources. The domestic mining industry is underdeveloped, leading to Nigeria having to import minerals that it could produce domestically such as salt and iron ore.
Ajoku said the government apart from making sure the environment is conducive for miners to operate and the communities don’t give miners unnecessary hassle in terms of security, it should urgently step into the area of building modern geophysical survey equipment and making it accessible to mining sites. She added that such step would go a long way to help drive the sector to its expected growth.
Ajoku who is a geologist by profession, explained that geophysical survey equipment is needed to sense the depth of what is in the ground and that proper geophysical survey could as well tell the grade of what is expected. “You need a proper geophysical survey to know what you have in the ground and the extent to which it goes,” she stated.
Ajoku, a specialist in Barites production, is also in the business of sales of gravel/powder grinding machines, Ore beneficiation equipment, lease of mining equipment, gemstones of all types and mining consultancy. She is also a member of Miners Association of Nigeria (MAN). She noted that Nigeria is one of the African countries that could boast of vast deposits of barite. According to her, Cross River State has the highest quality and quantity of barite in the country. Other states include Benue and Plateau.
She said vast majority of the barite that was mined was used by the petroleum industry as a weighting material in the formulation of drilling mud. According to her, barite increases the hydrostatic pressure of the drilling mud allowing it to compensate for high-pressure zones experienced during drilling.
It is also important in the manufacture of paper and rubber. Barite, she added, is also used in radiology for x-rays of the digestive system. When crushed, it is added to mud to form barium mud, which is poured into oil wells during drilling.
“Before I went into mining business, I went to the mining cadastral in Cross River site, I got the list where to get different grades, but I was misled by that because I later discovered that what they had were what those colonial masters surveyed at that time. That’s what most of them still have in their archives and they tell you they have this or that grade but by the time you go there to do your survey you find out it’s a different thing all together.” So, most of the time we do the little we can and get to work, she stated.
She noted there were some countries that had barite in very large quantities and very high grade and their government had already done a lot of work and assisted in the area of geophysical survey thereby reducing the costs for miners.
“Mining is highly capital intensive. It’s not anything an individual can just get in and get all right easily, it takes a lot of money.
“There are international companies that are doing it very well, whatever they tell you is underground that’s the correct thing but it’s expensive. Some of the time we have had interactions with the government, we emphasised the challenges miners face and advised the government to get domiciled geophysical survey equipment in Nigeria, maybe partner with some of the international companies. They come here and run it like three to four years and probably hand over to Nigeria,” she said.
But the government has to fund that and be at the forefront because what we have now is not the real thing. The companies here are not doing it well, she added, but advised operators in the industry to go into partnerships so as to be able to offset some of the financial challenges in the sector.
