The Adamawa Ministry of Mineral Resources has requested approval for an upward review of miniral exploration contract from N255.6 million to N540.6 million due to inflation.
Mr Haruna Ibrahim, Commissioner for Mineral Resources, said this during a ministerial briefing in Yola on Wednesday.
He said the contract has been awarded to Energy and Mineral Resources (EMR) Ltd in 2021, to conduct feasibility study on five selected mineral deposits including lithium, copper, lead/zinc, barite and gold, with the Exploration Licenses (EL) sites of Adamawa Mining Co. Ltd.
According to him, the initial contract has a completion period of 25 weeks at the cost of N255.6 million, adding that the project reached 40.75 per cent completion stage.
He said the balance of N153.3 million representing 60 per cent of the contract sum, had been released to the Adamawa Mining Company in December, 2023, to facilitate completion of the exercise.
“Nevertheless, due to current inflationary trends in the country the contractor requested for a variation on the project.
“However, the Adamawa Mining Co. Ltd after careful analysis opted to go for variation as executing all the scope of the project will be of advantage to government to avoid fresh contract.
“Accordingly, the variation order was carried by the Adamawa Mining Company, and the Adamawa Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) after which a Certificate of No Objection was issued.
“If the State Executive Council approve the variation memo, and subsequent approval and the release of the variation amount before the 1st quarter of 2025, will enable the firm to complete the exploration exercise, to produce the Final Report of the Bankable Feasibility Study,” he said (NAN).
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