The Economic Geology Department engages in the assessment, evaluation and characterization of mineral resources of the entire country. It also carries out resource estimation of known mineral occurrences, as well as modelling of ore deposits.

The Department is also responsible for the conduct of Regional Baseline Geochemical Mapping of the country, providing information on prospective areas for mineral exploration and on health hazards traceable to the underlying geology of areas. It provides advice to guide mineral exploration and classification of strategic mineral resources.

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Exploration

In its quest to generate adequate and appropriate mineral data, the Economic Geology Department has been mandated to perform the following functions:
  • Exploration for all mineral resources except hydrocarbon (oil and gas)
  • Evaluation of Mineral resources
  • Mineral Promotion activities
  • Generation of credible data on exportable mineral resources such as gold, silver, lead and zinc, copper and other commodities to attract foreign direct investment to Nigeria.
  • Provision of credible and bankable geosciences information on industrial minerals required by the cement, fertilizer and upstream petroleum industries to promote Nigerian content policy of the Government.
  • Geochemical mapping of the entire landmass of Nigeria.
  • Minerals that are for domestic industry consumption such as Barytes, Gypsum, Kaolin, Limestone and Marcasite
  • Minerals that are for both domestic industry consumption and the export market e.g. Manganese, lead, zinc, copper
  • Minerals that are for promoting export of mineral commodities such as gold, cobalt, silver etc.
  • The department carried out and completed geochemical mapping of 8 cells out of 44 cells covering the entire Nigerian landmass. Some follow up exploration activities have also been carried out to complement geochemical findings in some of the areas mapped

Projects

  • Assessment of Pegmatite resources of the following States:Osun, Zamfara, Niger, Nasarawa and Cross River
  • Exploration for Barytes in the following States: Taraba, Benue, Nasarawa, Cross River, Zamfara, Gombe, Plateau and Adamawa
  • Evaluation of Bentonite resources in the following States: Edo, Abia, Jigawa, Nasarawa/Plateau, Borno and Ogun
  • Exploration for High-grade Kaolin in Imo State
  • Exploration for industrial grade Limestone in Ogun State
  • Exploration for dolomitic Limestone in Ondo State
  • Exploration for Gold in the following States: Oyo, Kwara, Kogi, Niger, Ondo, Kebbi and Cross River
  • Exploration for Marcasite in Imo State.
  • Assessment of Manganese in the following States: Kebbi and Cross River
  • Exploration for Cobalt in the following States: Bauchi / Plateau and Cross River
  • Exploration for Silver in Nasarawa State.
  • Exploration for Nickel in the following States: Osun and Nasarawa
  • Exploration for Copper in Zamfara State
  • Exploration for Lithium minerals in Ekiti State.
  • Evaluation of marble resources of Kwara State

Reports of some of these projects have been compiled and published as mineral commodity dossiers, records and occasional papers of NGSA

Mineral Evaluation

The Nigerian Geological Survey Agency has the technical expertise in Resource evaluation which is undertaken to quantify the grade and tonnage of any discovered mineral occurrence. This is achieved primarily by drilling to sample the prospective horizon, lode or strata where the minerals of interest occur.

The ultimate aim is to generate a density of drilling sufficient to satisfy the economic and statutory standards of an ore resource. Depending on the financial situation and size of the deposit, the level of detail required to generate this resource and stage at which extraction can commence varies.