By Moses Patience Chat
The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Arc. Olamilekan Adegbite, has expressed confidence that the commissioning of the N1 billion Barite Processing Plant in Ugaga Community of Yala Local Government Area in Cross River State is a game changer for the solid minerals and oil sectors in Nigeria.
Barite is a mineral resource that is used as a weighting material in drilling muds used in oil and gas drilling, primarily to prevent the explosive release of gas and oil during drilling operations. Nigeria spends over $300 million on the importation of processed barite for the oil industry.
Adegbite explained that the barite processing plant was one of the cluster projects that the Ministry embarked upon as supported by President Muhammadu Buhari to diversify the economy.
According to him, the choice of Ugaga as a location for the barite processing plant was because it has rich deposits of barite among the South South States and its closeness to Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where processed barite is in high demand for use in oil exploration. This development is in line with the local content and value addition policy in Nigeria.
In the words of the minister, “the South South geopolitical zone is known to host rich deposits of barite. With the location of the barite processing plant in Ugaga, artisanal and small-scale barite miners within the zone can easily have access to the plant for their barite processing before further transportation and sales.
“The informal trading of unprocessed barite leads to revenue and job losses. It is, therefore, in a bid to develop the downstream sector of the mining industry to improve product pricing, create jobs, improve revenue generation and attract foreign markets to Nigeria that the barite processing plant was established.”
He also noted that the barite processing plant is designed with facilities to test, certify, document, and effect necessary payments for royalties and processing fees required to support local exploitation of oil.