Nigeria gets fire assay laboratory

Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, has said that the establishment of the Fire Assay laboratory in Nigeria will drive the mining sector.

Adegbite, in a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Media, Ayodeji Adeyemi, after the commissioning of the laboratory and Earthquake Monitoring Centre in Kaduna State, yesterday, described the projects as crucial to making the country a major mining destination.

“The Fire Assay laboratory is the first of its type in Nigeria and is considered the most reliable means for accurately determining the content of gold, silver, and platinum-group metals in ores or concentrates. We now have the analytical facilities that can support the mining ecosystem in the country and this is bound to attract more foreign interest to the sector”.

According to Adegbite, the laboratory will save the country millions of dollars spent outside the country to conduct such analysis on metal ores.