Chinese Firms Invest $300M in Lithium Processing in Nigeria
In April 2024, Chinese firm Avatar New Energy Materials launched its USD 100 million #lithium processing plant in Nasarawa State in Nigeria. Then, in May 2024, Canmax Technologies – which controls one-third of global battery materials production – announced another #FDI to the tun of USD 200 million into another lithium factory in Nasarawa.
In line with its policy to promote Local Value Addition (#LVA), the Nigerian government banned the export of raw lithium ore. Thus, in 2022, Nigeria rejected a project from Tesla for mining lithium ore and exporting the raw mineral without any local value-add.
“I do not see why these panels and batteries cannot be produced here. The labour is cheaper. Our youths are vibrant and skilled.”
Nigerian President Ahmed Tinubu
In April 2023, the Nigerian Cabinet approved the amended the Minerals and Mining Bill 2023 and the new bill which was sent to the National Assembly for debate. In addition, the sector also stands guided by the National Minerals and Metals Policy.
Over roughly the same period, the Nigerian government implemented and deployed the Electronic Mining Cadastre System (eMCS) which allows for online and efficient management of mining rights.
In addition, Nigeria set up the Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF) to stimulate private sector investment into mining. Recently, the SMDF and Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) partnered together to combine their expertise and resources to support mining projects with necessary guidance and finance.
To get the ball rolling, SMDF and AFC jointly commissioned a study to evaluate the feasibility of midstream processing plants in Nigeria for lithium, nickel and other #CriticalMinerals.
In the 1960s and 1970x, the solid mineral mining sector contributed 4-5% of the GDP. After crude oil was discovered, the contribution of solid mineral dropped to a mere 0.2% in 2022.
Therefore, as part of its diversification strategy, Nigeria aims to boost the solid mineral mining sector contribution to the economy to 3% by 2025.