Nigeria is endowed with enormous mineral resources which when properly harnessed can lead to its industrialdevelopment and prospects. It is a known fact that countries abundantly endowed with mineral resources becomegreat industrial nations. 

While on the other hand, the level of greatness of a nation is often areflection of how its resources have been planned, managed and utilized. The occurrence of mineralresources in commercial quantities alone does not however guarantee optimum benefit, factors such as technologicalcapacity, finance and market are also equally important.

Nigeria is blessed with abundant mineral resources and human resources capable of tapping these resources forindustrial growth, however, what is witnessed today is that most of the mineral development, especially theexploitation is done by informal and in most cases illegal miners using very crude techniques with no considerationfor the environment or human health.

One of the minerals that can be found in Nigeria is Lithium ore. Lithium is a soft, silver-white metal that belongs to the alkali metal group of chemical elements. Like all alkali metals, lithium is highly reactive and flammable. 

Because of its high reactivity, lithium never occurs free in nature, and instead, only appears in compounds, usually ionic ones. Lithium occurs in a number of pegmatitic minerals, but is also commonly obtained from brines and clays. 

On a commercial scale, lithium is isolated electrolytic ally from a mixture of lithium chloride and potassium chloride. In Nigeria, minerals containing lithium ore can be found mainly in Northern part of the country and they are used in the production of mobile phone batteries.

There are different types of lithium ore (Lapidolite, Amblygonite etc) and grades (high and low).

In Nigeria, lithium ore occurs in the following states Kaduna, Kogi and Plateau states.

Worldwide reserves of lithium are estimated as thirteen million (13,000,000) tonnes. Using the battery efficiency figure of four hundred (400) grams of lithium per kWh,this gives a total maximum lithium battery capacity of thirty-two billion, five hundred million (32,500,000,000) kWh which, assuming it is used exclusively for car batteries, is enough for approximately one billion four hundred million (1,400,000,000) cars with a twenty-four (24) kWh battery.

Below are the industries where lithium ore is used in large quantity.

Ceramics and glass
Electrical and electronics
Lubricating greases

The return on investment on the export of lithium ore ranges from twenty-five percent (25%) to forty percent (40%).

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