Description

The mining industry is easily recognized as one of the most valuable sectors of an industrialized economy because of its linkage to other sectors of development and its enormous capacity to support and simulate growth in virtually all sectors of the economy.

As Nigeria strives to achieve vision 20:2020 which is to be amongst the top 20 economies by the year 2020, it is important that government pay attention to the development of the various minerals deposits in the country because of the nations comparatively advantage over its neighbors in this area.

In fact , it can be said that the more a nations mining industry grows , the more they prosper economically and examples can be seen across the world from Canada to Australia, India ,they all have a vibrant mining industry.

One of the minerals that can be found in the country is zinc ore. It is estimated that the nations has over 10,000,000 tons of zinc ore deposit and to take advantage of this resources, interested investors can mine/source, mill, package and export the commodity.

Zinc (Zn) is sought as calamine (calamine lotion) also known among mineralogists as hemimorphite: Zn4 (OH)2Si2O7.H2O. The most common occurrence is as sulphide: sphalerite (ZnS) and carborate-smithsonite (ZnCO3). There are at least 52 other zinc bearing minerals.

The major uses of zinc are anti – corrosion coating on steel {Galvanizing}, precision components {die casting}, construction materials, brass production, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. The prospect of global economy is promising, so the automotive industry which is closely related to the Zinc market, is witnessing growth thereby creating more demands for the product.

This report seeks to examine the financial viability or otherwise of mining zinc ore in Nigeria.