MINERAL RESOURCES

Mineral and natural resources which occurs in the earth’s crust. They are grouped into three part which are:

• Mineral fuel: such as petroleum, coal and natural gas
• Ferrous and non – ferrous metals which include iron, copper, tin, lead etc.
• Other industrial metals such as gold, mercury, silver, diamond etc.

MINERAL FUEL

1. PETROLEUM: Petroleum or crude oil is the greatest income yielding mineral in Nigeria. Petroleum and natural gas was first discovered in Nigeria. Petroleum and natural gas was first discovered in Nigeria as far as 1956 by some companies like shell and mobile exploration Nigeria incorporated the first large deposits of Nigerian.

Petroleum and natural gas were discovered at olobrii in Rivers state where petroleum is found include Rivers, Ondo, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Imo, Cross Rivers states. These states are called Niger Delta.

Natural gas is found along side petroleum and it is used primarily for power and energy generation and for domestic and industrial uses.

Petrol from petroleum is used as fuel for vehicles while natural gas is for cooking.

1. COAL: Coal is a hard mineral substance that supplies heat from which coal gas is made. Coal is formed out of decomposed plants matter. Coal is mined at ildi near Enugu, Kabba in Kogi state. It is used to generate power in industries. Coal was first consumed locally by the Nigeria railway corporation.
2. FERROUS AND NON – FERROUS METALS: These include iron, copper, tin, lead, zinc and limestone.

Iron: Iron as found in Lokaja and Enugu. Iron is very important is Nigeria because it serves the iron and steel industries. Iron are used for the production of iron rods, cutlasses, axes and different sizes of rods for construction of houses and bridges. The major iron and special industries in Nigeria are located at Abeokuta, in Kogi state and Alaga in Delta state.

Limestone: it is an all ealine  substance used in the production of cement. It is found near Nkalagu Okpella, Calabar, Abeokuta – Ewekoro, Sagamu and some part of Sokoto. Cement is very useful in building and construction.

Tin Ore: it is as mained in Jos – Plateau state where it is found as a heavy black lump. A sample of tin was first discovered in 1902.

Tin is used for making metal container. It can also be used for production of alloys, mixing it with such other metals like lead, copper etc.

Zinc: It is a blush hard metal extracted from the ore zinc is found around Abakaliki in Ebonyi state, USA and Austrailla. Zinc is of economic importance because of it is used for rooting and also for making alloys.

ENERGY RESOURCES

Energy resources are used to provide power such as hydro – electric power, coal power, oil power etc.

1. Hydro – electric – Electricity generated from water is called hydro – electricity. Most hydro-electric power. Stations are built where a large river running along a valley can be blocked by a dam. The water is allowed to pass through the dam at very high speed. The force that is produced is chorelled into turbines which are powered to generate electricity. The electricity is carried out by the help of transformers and used as source of energy. There are many dams where hydro-electric power is generated e.g. Kanji Dam in Nigeria on River Niger. Volta dam on the River Volta in Ghana.

See also

SECTORS OF THE NIGERIAN ECONOMY

NATIONAL ECONOMY

SELF – ESTEEM

POPULATION CENSUS

CONFLICTS