Using Bitumen For Road Projects Will Conserve Foreign Reserves – Minister

The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Arch. Olamilekan Adegbite, has said that exploring the nation’s huge bitumen deposits would go a long way in facilitating ongoing road projects and by implication, safe the country billions of dollars used yearly to import road infrastructure raw materials.

The Minister stated this while inaugurating the 9-man Committee on the development of Bitumen Resources, in his office disclosed that Nigeria has about 42.74 billion metric tonnes of bitumen reserves.

Describing bitumen as an important component mineral resource needed for road construction that is in abundance, which the country can explore and exploit for economic development, he said the deposit stretched across Ogun, Ondo, Delta, Rivers and Bayelsa states “Nigeria has an estimated reserve of about 42.74 billion metric tonnes of bitumen along Ogun, Ondo, Delta, Rivers and Bayelsa states, which remained majorly untapped for years”, he said.

Adegbite listed some of the benefits Nigeria would derive from the exploration of the bitumen deposits in Nigeria as including foreign exchange savings, diversification of the economy, improvement in technological growth, establishment of international contracts vital for international cooperation in the new expanding technology and socio-economic impact on the areas of operation, amongst others.

Membership of the committee, chaired by the Director General, Mining Cadastre Office, Engr. Simon Nkom, was drawn from staff of relevant departments in the ministry and Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).

Responding on behalf of the committee members, Nkom assured the minister that the committee would work assiduously to justify the confidence reposed in them. The Committee has two weeks to submit its reports.