The Presidential inauguration of the lithium processing plant in Nasarawa State with a daily processing capacity of 6,000 metric tonnes and an annual capacity of three million metric tonnes comes with more than 1,000 direct jobs and over 2,000 indirect jobs.
The plant, which has since commenced operation and owned by Diamond New Energy Company Ltd., is located in Endo Community in Nasarawa Local Government Area of the state.
Persecondnews reports that the vision of Gov. Abdullahi Sule for positioning the state as a model for sustainable extractive industry development through policies that had attracted investors brought Vice-President Kashim Shettima, who represented President Bola Tinubu to the state on Thursday for the inauguration.
Tinubu celebrated the vision, describing solid minerals as the enduring backbone of every economy, noting that no technology could thrive without them.
He said that the Federal Government had accorded the sector high priority because of its strategic importance to Nigeria’s industrialisation and economic diversification agenda.
The president, however, stressed that natural resource endowment alone could not guarantee national prosperity.
“Natural resources may be a blessing, but only vision can turn them into wealth. Only institutions can protect that wealth. Only industry can multiply it, and only people can give it meaning,” he said.
Tinubu said while Nigeria is endowed with abundant deposits of lithium, gold, tin, iron ore, bitumen, coal and rare earth elements, meaningful development would only come through local processing and value addition.
He said: “But pride does not build factories. Statistics do not create jobs, and mineral maps do not transform the lives of young Nigerians.
“What changes a nation is a deliberate movement from extraction to processing, from potential to production, from raw materials to value-added goods, and from isolated investments to integrated industrial ecosystems.
“That is why this occasion matters. The commissioning of Diamond New Energy projects here in Nasarawa State represents confidence in Nigeria, in Nasarawa State and in the reforms introduced by this administration.”
Tinubu described lithium as one of the defining minerals driving the global energy transition through battery technology, electric mobility and renewable energy storage.
According to him, the new processing plant represents more than an industrial facility, as it translates government policies into employment opportunities, increased production and economic growth.
“A factory is never just a building; it is where policy becomes employment, where investment becomes production and where hope begins to acquire structure,” he said.
Gov. Sule expressed gratitude to the stakeholders and the company for their investment, highlighting the collaborative effort that made the facility a reality.
He encouraged further investment in Nasarawa, pointing to the state’s welcoming business climate and its rich deposits of minerals like lithium, gold, copper, and iron ore.
Echoing this optimism, the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, noted that the plant’s launch validates the Federal Government’s recent mining sector reforms.
He reaffirmed the administration’s pledge to halt raw mineral exports, emphasizing a shift toward local processing to stimulate job creation, attract investment, and build local expertise.
“Local value addition became a pillar of our policies in the Ministry of Solid Minerals, and I am pleased that operators in the sector have embraced and implemented it, just as Diamond New Energy Company has done.
“Today, other African countries are adopting similar policies by restricting the export of raw minerals and encouraging domestic processing,” he said.
Alake expressed the hope that Nigeria would, in the future, manufacture lithium batteries, electric vehicles, mobile phones, solar panels and other products that rely on lithium as a key component.
Earlier, Mr Yu Chongqiang, Chairman of Diamond New Energy Company Ltd., said the company’s vision was to position Nigeria as a global leader in responsible mineral development, value addition and industrial innovation.
He said the company had invested significantly in advanced processing technology, infrastructure, workforce development, environmental sustainability and partnerships with government and host communities.
The completion of the company’s processing facilities in Ogun State and the continued expansion of its flagship lithium processing plant in Nasarawa mark important milestones in achieving that vision, he said.