By MARTHA AGAS

The Federal Government is partnering with the United Kingdom to establish a joint technical working group for the development of critical mineral deposits in the country.

Dr Dele Alake, Minister of Solid Minerals Development announced the partnership in a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Segun Tomori on Wednesday in Abuja.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the partnership followed a meeting between Alake and the UK Deputy Prime Minister, Oliver Dowden on the sidelines of the Mines and Money conference in London in December 2023.

A delegation of the British High Commission led by Deputy High Commissioner, Johnny Baxter had also paid a visit to the Minister of Solid Minerals Development on Tuesday to fine tune details of the collaboration.

Alake said that the partnership aims to culminate investments in the mining sector value chain.

The minister said that President Bola Tinubu’s administration was determined to improve ease of doing business in the mining sector.

This he said would be done through the establishment of new security architecture for natural resources.

He said that the administration was also establishing an efficient governance structure by creating a Nigerian Mining Corporation led by the private sector.

The minister restated the commitment of the government to sanitise and reposition the mining sector, aimed at boosting its capacity to contribute substantially to the nation’s revenue.

He said the move would reduce the over dependence on the oil sector, and make mining compete favorably with the sector in contributing to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product. (NAN)

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