A comprehensive data on the pattern and quantity of lithium would be made to any business partner interested in establishing lithium companies in Nigeria.
The minister of solid mineral development, Dr Dele Alake, made this disclosure in Doha, Qatar on Saturday at a meeting with Qatari businessmen on the sidelines of the visit of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the Arab country.
He was responding to enquires on the quality of lithium in Nigeria by a Qatari business mogul, Sheikh Shahid Jawad, at the meeting.
Alake said mineral exploration initiated by the federal government has identified locations where lithium occurs in commercial quanties and in high grades.
He recalled at the meeting that during a recent visit to Australia, he was presented with samples of rock composites from Nigeria with high grade lithium content confirmed by laboratory analysis, saying it showed that the quality of lithium in the country has been recognised by the global mining sector.
While encouraging Qatari businessmen to visit Nigeria and witness the immense opportunities in mining, Alake said the government has put in place investor- friendly policies to facilitate business.
On her part, the executive secretary of Solid Minerals Development Fund, Mrs Fatimah Shinkafi, urged investors to explore opportunities in mining infrastructures.
Citing the example of Vale, a mining company in Brazil that invested in trains to ease the transportation of minerals from the Mines to the processing towns, Shinkafi said while the government would continue to provide transportation facilities to the mines, mining companies that recognise the significance of transportation to their future cost control would invest wisely by supplementing government’s efforts.
While giving the minister the update of its activities in the mining sector, the vice- chairman of Qatar- Nigerian Chamber of Business, Muhammed Santuraki, said the chamber was formed in 2017 to build business relations between both countries.
Recalling a recent visit to a gold mine in Nasarawa state, Santuraki observed the existence of good roads for the haulage of minerals to the ports.
Other businessmen at the top-level meeting weŕe Sheikh El Jouneid and Aminu Dahiru representing their various companies.