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BUA Group Eyes ‘Lithium’ Mining, A Vital Component For Making Batteries Of Electric Vehicles
BUA Group eyes ‘Lithium’ mining, a vital component for making Electric Vehicle (EV), laptop and phone batteries.
It says that several states in Nigeria are sitting on abandoned lithium deposits, which can be converted into material gains.
Demand for lithium is expected to continue to grow, with EV and battery storage tech already accounting for 30% of total current demand.
BUA Group, a Nigerian conglomerate active in cement production, sugar refining and real estate, is eyeing the mining of lithium, a highly valuable commodity used for making rechargeable batteries of laptops, cell phones and Electric Vehicles (EV).
The Group Executive Director of BUA Group, Kabiru Rabiu, made this known in Abuja on Thursday May 12, 2022, on the sidelines of the African Finance Corporation (AFC) Live Infrastructure Solutions Summit.
The BUA boss noted that several states in Nigeria are sitting on abandoned lithium deposits, which can be converted into material gains.
He said :
“We also want to go massively into mining. We acquired a company called PW Nigeria. PW Nigeria is a civil and mining company in which we are the majority owner and it does most of our mining. We will use that capacity to look at lithium. Lithium is something that is in huge demand because of electrical vehicle (EV) batteries.
“Some states in Nigeria are sitting on insanely abandoned deposits of lithium. We also plan to go into tin mining as well, in addition to phosphate. Nigeria’s fertiliser consumption is under 20 kilogramme per hectares, compared to China and India.”
Demand for lithium is expected to continue to grow, with electric vehicles and battery storage technologies already accounting for 30% of total current demand, according to the International Energy Agency.
Lithium, a light metal, is generally found either in underground deposits of clay, in mineral ore or underground pockets of water.
