Edo State produced a total of 3.7m tonnes of mineral products in 2021, accounting for a considerable bulk of minerals feeding laterite produced in Nigeria in the year under review.
The data is contained in a report titled Mineral Production Statistics (2021) released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
In the report, Ogun State was reported to have produced a total of 32m tonnes of mineral products, the highest in the country; Kogi State, with 18.4m tonnes ranked second, while Cross River State recorded 11.6m tonnes of mineral products.
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According to NBS, the major mineral products from Edo State in 2021 are clay, feldspar, gold, granite aggregate, granite dust, laterite, limestone and sand.
The breakdown of the production data showed that the state produced 214,997 tonnes of clay; 4,000 tonnes of feldspar; 6,300 tonnes of gold; 474,879 tonnes of granite aggregate; 81,654 tonnes of granite dust; 41,284 tonnes of laterite; 2.8m tonnes of limestone and 37,500 tonnes of sand.
The Edo State Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, at a retreat earlier in the year, stressed that the state was going to focus on attracting more investors in the solid minerals sector as it already has a comparative advantage in the sector, with two of the biggest producers of cement, Dangote and BUA, having big factories in the state.
He said that the state was open to having more strategic investors who would exploit the state’s mineral deposit and promote the development of the state’s manufacturing sector.
