The Paramount Chief of Tatale traditional area in the Tatale/Sanguli district of the Northern Region, Obor Gariba Yankosong (II) has appealed to government to tend the Sheini iron ore to a mining firm that will extract iron ore in commercial quantities.
According to the chief, awarding the site to a mining firm will create jobs for the people in his jurisdiction. The Tatale chief made the appeal when the Northern Regional Minister Alhaji Mohammed-Muniru Limuna led water resources, works and housing minister, Alhaji Collins Dauda to pay a courtesy call on him at his palace in Tatale.
They were in the district to commission smallholder water system in the district. Naa Obor Gariba said once government has not given the site to a mining firm, there is the need for government to award it now.
Sheini Iron Ore was discovered in the 1960s by Soviet Geologists whose subsequent drilling test revealed commercial quantity of the mineral. The test also indicated traces of other minerals such as prosperous, potassium, Diamond and bauxite.
The recent geological tests carried out by various mining companies have shown that Sheini ironstone reacts extremely well to a magnetizing reduction roast process, which reduces iron in the form of hematite (Fe2O3), to magnetite (Fe3O4), and ultimately to metallic iron (Fe°).
The ore, according to the tests, performs well in bench-scale tests, reducing directly to metallic iron in one step. Sheini ironstone has head grade of about 47 per cent iron. Cardero Ghana limited and Emmalands Resources have been prospecting for iron ore in the area since it was discovered.
It is against this backdrop that the chief wants an accredited company to mine the place for the benefit of the people and the country as a whole. Secretary to the chief of Tatale, Sagbe Samuel told Zaa News that the people don’t know what was happing at the site and the earlier government to contract the better.’’Now that government is saying it has not awarded it on contract; we are happy’’ Sagbe Samuel added.
But government says it will not give it out to any mining company without consulting the chiefs and people in the area.
Alhaji Collins Dauda, the water resource, works and housing minister and a former minister of lands and natural resources explained that, under the normal procedures in awarding contracts in mining, government is mandate to hold a public hearing from the people to solicit their views.
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