Newly appointed Director General of the National Steel Raw Materials Exploration Agency, NSRMEA, Engr. Umar Albarka, in this interview with Francis Kadiri, unfolds his strategies, aimed at boosting the revenue profile of the agency. Excerpts:
How would you improve on the performance of your agency?
One of the key tasks I have set out to achieve for Nigeria is to reposition the agency. This, we will achieve, professionalising the services of the agency in order to make our professional judgments accurate and incontestable. Our professional activities, which include exploration, characterisation, testing and analysis of solid minerals, must be carried out in line with global best practices. By professionalising and standardising our services, we will confidently internationalise our reach and be able to earn global recognition for the Nigerian mining sector and the country as a whole.
This means we must improve the professional capacity of staff, as part of strategies to reposition the agency. Our staff must be abreast of innovation in the industry and must be able to favourably compete with their counterparts anywhere in the world. So government is equipping them with all they need to work in line with best practices.
Does your agency have sufficient equipment to effectively deliver exploration and analytical services to clients?
Yes, we have quite a number of such instances. Fortunately, the Federal Government has been very supportive of the agency in terms of budgetary provision for the acquisition of new equipment. I, therefore, commend this administration for its commitment to the development of the sector by significantly increasing the budgetary allocation to the agency. The funds have made it possible for the agency to expand its exploration activities. Very importantly, increase in budgetary allocation has also made it possible for the agency to acquire new equipment, which includes two exploration drilling rigs acquired in 2017/2018.
As we speak, NSRMEA has four efficient drilling rigs. In addition, we have a state-of-the-art minerals testing laboratory even though we are planning to acquire more laboratory equipment. We also have scanner electro-microscope/EDS which can give us morphology of various minerals and also analyse their elemental components.
We also have other machines which are currently inoperative even though we are working to revive them and ensure that they complement the services of the other equipment we are already using.
Apart from ensuring that our geophysical equipment are in best shape, we will also ensure that staff who operate the equipment are well trained, so that the equipment will be operated appropriately and we can get optimum value from them. A point of note is that equipment must be correctly operated in order to get efficient results.
So in order to get optimum value from operations, we must be JORC compliant, meaning that we must meet the standards of the JORC Code. The JORC Code provides minimum standards for public reporting, to ensure that investors and their advisers have all the information they would reasonably require for forming a reliable opinion on exploration results and estimates being reported.
One of my main targets here is to reposition the laboratory, because the mineral testing laboratory is a fundamental part of our operations. We must be able to analyse minerals and determine their component. As an agency charged with the mandate of sourcing for steel’s raw materials, we must be able to explore for iron ore deposits, and then we must be able to reliably determine the quality of the deposit.
How much revenue did the NSRMEA generate in 2017 and 2018?
NSRMEA is an exploration agency, not a producing company. The purpose of exploration is to generate reliable data for prospective investors who need the information for investment decision. However, the consultancy services we render and the capital services executed, enable us to generate some revenue. Our Internally Generated Revenue in 2018 was about N43 million.
The Federal Government is keen in making the sector revenue-driven. How will NSRMEA make significant contributions to justify the aspiration?
Several private sector companies which obtained exploration licences from the Mining Cadastre Offices lack the capacity to embark on exploration activities. No company can develop a mine without exploration, because there is the need to establish the characteristics of the deposits in order to enable the company plan the mine, and know the type of processing plants to put in place. It is important to note that various mineral commodities require respective mineral processing plants.
The Federal Government started the Integrated Mineral Exploration projects, a very good step in the right direction. The project will help to develop mineral resource information in all the identified mineral commodities that government is currently working on.
What about the mineral resources?
The mineral resource areas which are delineated will be granted to investors. If projects are already in progress in some of the areas, the data to be generated from the areas will be of significant interest to foreign investors who will readily collaborate with the investors who are already mining the minerals resource areas. There is assurance that some equity will accrue to government as a way of recouping the investment it made by embarking on mineral exploration that led to information about the minerals. This being the case, mineral commodities will surely be produced and there will be value addition along the solid minerals value chain.
What this means is that there will be increase in the capacity of industries which use the minerals as raw materials. The country will also earn increased foreign exchange from export of mineral commodities, which will boost of the Naira.
Apart from these, there will be increase in job creation because the more the sector expands and engages in production activities, the more people it will need. There would also be inter-sector linkages. For example, kaolin is a versatile mineral and if you produce kaolin, you are creating a link to industries that make use of kaolin, such as pharmaceutical industry and the paint-making industry, among others. The inter-sector linkage does not stop here; it extends to the housing industry where paint is nearly inevitable in the beautification of houses. The linkage extends to several other sectors where paint is used.
By using kaolin in paper production, an inter-sector linkage will be established between the mining industry and the educational industry. Kaolin is also used in production of detergent which is used in various households and across the sectors. So you can imagine what Nigeria stands to gain from the various inter-sector linkages that will be established from mining and processing of several minerals.
Kindly discuss the challenges of the agency and how you hope to overcome them?
If the government continues to fund the agency, we will be able to accomplish set goals. If you have all the professional expertise and have no funds, you may not achieve set goals, but if you have enough funds to pursue set goals, you will be able to do much.
Funding is key. Activities must be funded. I am sure that government will sustain its commitment to the sector and we will continue to accomplish set
goals.
