Luka Binniyat
29 July 2008
The Minister of Solid Minerals, Alh. Ishola Sharafa, has inaugurated a seven-man committee that will ensure that smooth sales of three bitumen blocks with a proven reserve of one billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe), 21 billion boe and 43 billion boe
Bitumen was discovered in Nigeria nearly a 100 years ago straddling Edo to Lagos states but has never been harnessed.
Sharafa also inaugurated a committee of experts and stakeholders in Mining, to look into a new draft Mining Regulation. The last mining regulation was made in 1943, and updated in 1958.
Inaugurating the Committee on Bitumen Blocks Bidding, Sharafa said that the last auction of two bitumen blocks by the Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE) in 2006, has been "freed" from the preferred bidders by the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) after they failed to pay the balance of 90% of their offers.
The Minister said that an additional block has been added to the two, explaining that the Mining and Mineral Act of 2008 empowers the Ministry to put some strategic minerals on public bidding.
Chief Sharafa lamented that though bitumen was discovered long before oil in Nigeria, successive governments have been unable to tap the resource, but observed that all the necessary legal framework for investors to come in have been put in place.
The Committee which is headed by Dr. Siyan Malomo, the Director General of Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA), and Mr. Segun Aileru as Secrtary, is mandated to: "coordinate the process for the sale of bitumen blocks in line with the provisions of the Mineral and Mining Act of 2007 including advertisement for expression of interest".
"To develop a marking scheme for the assessment of expression of interest and mark the document submitted", among others.
The Minister said that the 3 bitumen blocks will be auction by December this year.
In the same vein , the Minister inaugurated the Committee on Mining Regulation, and charged the committee to thoroughly scrutinise the draft Mining Regulation made the Ministry and make its inputs and recommendations.
The Committee has among others, Professor John Ade Ajayi, of the Federal University of Technology, Akure; Dr. Olajide Ojo and Engr. Sheik Goni, a first class Mining Engineer from Imperial College London, who is now the Director General of the Mining Cadastre Office (MCO), Abuja.
According to him, the idea of having a Mining Cadastre system in place before the existence of a Regulation is like putting the cart before the horse.
"With a Mining Regulation in place", he said, "all serous mining firms can now come into the country and look for investment opportunities, because the rules of the game is clear and supported by the 2008 Mining Policy and the 2007 Mining Act", he said.
Sharafa said that the draft Mining Regulation was done by Management of the Ministry, some who are of the best products of mining related disciplines in the world.
"When we took the 153-page document to the World Bank to make its observation", he said, "they only commented on two pages and they were not serous issues that we cannot accommodate.", he said.
He said that after the Mining Regulations would have been sent to the Federal Ministry of Justice for gazetting, Nigerian would boost of one of the best Mining Cadastre system in the world.
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