President Bola Tinubu has charged member countries of the African Minerals Strategy Group to speak with one voice, ensure value addition, and prevent the continent from becoming a mere source of raw materials for the rest of the world.

Tinubu gave the charge while receiving an AMSG delegation at the State House. The group, a forum of African mining and solid minerals ministers chaired by Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development Dele Alake, has the president as its Grand Patron.

“What we should do is avoid bureaucracy and deceit; we must put an end to exploitation. It is our responsibility to collaborate and cooperate to ensure that these metals and minerals bring value to us, bring technology to us,” Tinubu said, urging investment in research, refining and value chains that retain wealth within Africa.

Alake said member countries were implementing the president’s charge on local value addition, with some banning the export of raw minerals. The delegation is in Abuja for the fifth African Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit, themed “One Africa. One Resource Vision.”

Meanwhile, Steron Mining and Company Limited estimated its lithium reserves at 3.3 million metric tons at its Abuja site. Managing Director Abu Omar, who hosted summit participants, said the company adds value by processing ore to raise purity from one to three per cent to about six to seven per cent before export.

Omar said the firm began as a granite quarry before discovering lithium and, more recently, tantalite. Company geologist Bello Damulak said exploration had revealed an estimated 94.8 million metric tons of mineral resources, including 3.3 million tons of lithium and 91.4 million tons of granitic rock.