SOLID MINERALS – EBONYI STATE OF NIGERIA HISTORY OF SOLID MINERALS
When the Earth came into being, the place presently defined as Ebonyi State was there with super veritable arable agricultural land rated alone marginal with over twenty seven solid/semi solid minerals resources embedded in the earth for the survival and success of mainland graciously located there on as the history of creation entreated.so they came to be.
Chronicle:
With the Amalgamation of Nigeria in 1914 by hero Lugad came Ogoja province, later Abakaliki province which presently is called Ebonyi state still these natural endowments recommend awaiting the time as Ecclesiastes of the bible postulated.
When in 1920, two men Gunning and leach were sent to Abakaliki as Joshua and caleb of the bible they saw the presence of rich natural land, land scape and visualized the various solid and semi solid resources.
Then the British government assigned their technocrats to conduct survey which led to the speculation of mineral resource including the present Twenty five solid mineral resources.
Prominent among the mineral resources are the granite, the salt, limestone and currently, lead and zinc. The discovery led to the establishment of Nkalagu cement industry and later calabar cement Factor.
POLITICAL ECONOMY EBONYI STATE CREATION
On October 1st 1996 General Abacha of blessed memory created Ebonyi state by Military fiat and crowned it with the acronym, THE SALT OF THE NATION” so it came to be since Ebonyi state has abundance of mineral Resources.
From 1996 up to 2015, solid minerals affair resided with the state ministry of commerce and industry as a department and later got a general manager designated to open the record for solid mineral resources. This development ended up as mention and no action.
Meanwhile the era of gunning and leach had established the curiosity for the exploitation of some of the solid mineral resources by british companies after the manual surrey activities as recorded by the Nigerian archives. the present royal salt enclave of lead and zinc mining was the first escapade the solid mineral activities.
Then came 2015, when the present administration led by apostle of construction and development, and a renewed engineer, Engr. Dr. David Nweze Umani, FNSE, FNATE, The Solid Mineral Resources Development received a boost in the state programme of action. This led to the establishment of a full Ministry of Solid Mineral Development Communities with a full ministerial responsibility under a commissioner who established three departments for the operations of the Ministry. These include Mineral Development,Administration/supplies; and account finance department.
Present dispensation:
Yet determined to attend the vision and mission of seeing Ebonyi state - the salt of the nation – fully ahead of others in egalitarian struggles, the workaholic Governor, the master of infrastructural development and icon of industrial astute political administrator and experienced public officer to captain the ship of solid minerals development communities.
With this present administration, the entire profile of the ministry, had organizational structure and the entire drive of the establishment took a for attaining an enviable level almost in a hurry Hence the following steps.
Vision: developing Ebonyi state; improving the internally generated revenue (IGR) and providing conducive environment for industrialization of the state in tandem with the leadership of the state Governor, Engr. David Nweze Umahi FNSE, FNATE .
Mission: To develop modem technology involving small, medium and large mining activities in safe , host communities, technocrats; all levels of Government, with Ebonyi state as the pilot of the development plane in synergy with the avowed determination of the state chief executive to leave Ebonyi state much higher and better than he met her.