The federal government is partnering the United Kingdom to establish a joint technical working group to develop critical mineral deposits in the country.

Dele Alake, Minister of Solid Minerals Development, announced the partnership in a statement on Wednesday.

The partnership followed a meeting between Mr Alake and UK Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden on the sidelines of the Mines and Money conference in London in December 2023.

A delegation of the British High Commission led by Deputy High Commissioner Johnny Baxter also paid a visit to Mr Alake on Tuesday to fine-tune the collaboration details.

Mr Alake said the partnership aims to culminate investments in the mining sector value chain.

The minister said President Bola Tinubu’s government was determined to improve the ease of doing mining business.

This, he said, would be done through the establishment of new security architecture for natural resources.

He said the administration was also establishing an efficient governance structure by creating a Nigerian mining corporation led by the private sector.

The minister restated the commitment of the government to sanitise and reposition the mining sector, aimed at boosting its capacity to contribute substantially to the nation’s revenue.

He said the move would reduce the over-dependence on the oil sector and make mining compete favourably with the sector in contributing to Nigeria’s gross domestic product.

(NAN)