The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, has charged the authorities of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, to leverage its mineral and intellectual resources to develop a world-class centre of mining excellence.

Mr Alake made the call while addressing a high-powered delegation of the university’s Governing Council, led by Prof. Ralph Akinfeleye at the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja.

This is according to a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Lara-Owoeye-Wise, on Sunday in Abuja.

The minister said the centre should bridge academic knowledge with exploration, extraction and processing, while strengthening the university’s role in the mining value chain.

“The gap between intellectualism and application must be closed. Universities should not only generate knowledge, they should translate that knowledge into solutions, enterprises and economic value for society,” he said.

He said the commercial value of the minerals available to the institution was sufficient to reduce the share of government subvention in its total budgetary allocation.

He urged the university to explore private-sector partnerships to unlock the commercial potential of its mineral assets, noting that its technical expertise was a significant advantage in attracting investors.

“You have the resource endowment underground and you have the intellectual capacity. You can bring in investors through a joint venture and they can provide the capital and machinery,” he said.

The minister also said that the Federal Government had restructured the development of Nigeria’s bitumen resources by opening designated bitumen blocks to competitive bidding by qualified investors.

According to him, ownership of land does not automatically confer ownership of the mineral resources beneath it.

“Ownership of mineral resources is vested in the Federal Government under the Constitution and relevant mining laws. The university owns the land, but where there are mineral resources, their exploration and exploitation must still be undertaken in accordance with the law.

“We must find a win-win situation that protects legitimate interests while upholding the Federal Government’s regulatory responsibility,” he said.

Mr Alake commended OAU for its longstanding contribution to the training of geologists and other professionals in Nigeria’s mining industry, urging the institution to deepen its role in mineral exploration, research, innovation and commercialisation.

He reaffirmed the ministry’s commitment to a transparent, predictable and investment-friendly regulatory environment that promotes responsible mining, value addition and sustainable economic benefits for Nigerians.

(NAN)