Mines and Steel Development Minister Mohammed Sada says the quality of Maiganga coal deposit in Akko Local Government Area of Gombe State is good for power generation
Sada told newsmen on Friday that “the quality has been already proven to be good enough for power generation. ’’
He explained that the exploration work at the mine was to ascertain the quantity of the deposit to enable government design a power generating plant that would last for the period of the deposit.
“Definitely, the Maiganga coal deposit is one of the targets for power generation and is currently one of the locations that further exploration work is being done to confirm the quantity and the quality of coal.
“So we are now trying to establish the quantity, so that we know the size of the power plant and for what period of time we can aggregate it to last.
“At the same time, we will continue further exploration in other locations so that we will be able to supplement and have the plant last much longer than even the initial deposit that we found out.”
He said government had already started the studies of various coal deposits in the country and that by the end of the year, it would start designing the plants based on the conclusions gathered from the studies.
Sada further said that plant was not difficult to build, but that the most important thing to do was the verification of the quantity of the resources.
According to him, the explosives laws were being reviewed to be in tandem with the present realities.
On complaints of neglect by host communities, he said that the respective state governments should establish committees that would serve as a bridge between the miners, government as regulators and the communities to address such issues.
He said it was mandatory for a community development agreement to be signed before any mining projects would be undertaken. (NAN)
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