Description

The mineral spread in Nigeria is significant with evidence of 34 different minerals distributed in Nigeria’s richly endowed geology. Though not all the mineral occurrences will ultimately have enough reserves to be of viable interest to mining companies, the Nigerian government is leaving no stone unturned in its increasingly sustained efforts to delineate and objectively demonstrate the potential and encourage investments in all.

Nigeria has over 5,000,000 MT of Manganese ore deposit in Nigeria. They are known to occur in the following states in Nigeria Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Kaduna, Plateau, Katsina, Kebbi and Nassarawa.

Manganese is a silvery-gray metal resembling iron. It is hard and very brittle, difficult to fuse, but easy to oxidize. Manganese metal and its common ions are paramagnetic. The most important manganese ore is pyrolusite (MnO2). Other economically important manganese ores usually show a close spatial relation to the iron ores.

Demand for manganese is primarily driven by the steel industry which consumes 94% of the Manganese ore produced. Demand for steel is ever increasing due to increased rate of infrastructure growth in developing nations such as China and India.

The manganese market is highly concentrated with limited global suppliers providing a natural pricing floor for manganese. Rising global crude steel production is driving up demand for manganese ore, especially reserves of high grade ore. China’s reported manganese reserves are limited and expected to last for less than 15 years at current production rates.

Demand for imported manganese ore in China has more than doubled in the last decade and now accounts for 62% of ore supplied into China

The market for manganese ore especially the overseas market in China is large, expanding and sustainable because of the numerous uses of tin ore. Buyers usually would like to secure steady source of supply of these products.

An exporter that is able to secure a contract at the right price would have an uphill task meeting the demand of the buyer because the output from the mines in Nigeria is low due to the use of crude implement. You can imagine a situation whereby the daily need of the factory of the buyer is 600/MT and the exporter would struggle to supply 500/MT on a monthly basis.

The return on investment on the export of manganese ore is estimated between 10%- 20%.