South African Mineral Resources Minister, Mosebenzi Zwaneand his Nigerian counterpart, Kayode Fayemi, on Tuesday endorsed a two-year action plan for the implementation of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on cooperation in the fields of geology, mining and mineral processing.
Both ministers agreed for the plan to be implemented from January 2017, which would focus on areas such as advancing geoscientific knowledge generation, contribution to energysecurity, contribution to agriculture and food security, the regulatory framework, mineral processing and value addition, as well as institutional capacity.
This follows a commitment made by the ministers during the state visit to Nigeria earlier this year, where Presidents Jacob Zuma and Muhammad Buhari prioritised agriculture, energy and mining for the economic development of the two countries. The ministers agreed to implement the MoU, which had been signed in 2013, but had not been ratified until then.
“With the implementation of this action plan, we will be able to better advance and ensure benefit to both countries from the development of our respective mining value chains, in line with our respective national priority programmes, which include diversification of the economy, job creation, energysecurity and industrialisation,” said Zwane.
The (MoU) outlined up to ten areas of cooperation which include geology, regulatory framework and licensing, mineral processing, metallurgy, artisanal and small-scale mining, investment promotion, and capacity building.
The ministers also agreed to jointly host a mining investment promotion conference in Nigeria during the second half of 2017.
Source: <Mining Weekly>
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