European commission earmarks €10m for mineral resource assessment training
European Commission has set aside a budget of about 10 million euro’s for mineral resource assessment training for a duration of 3 years for Africa countries.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the PANAfGeo training on mineral resource assessment programme, the Project Manager for Africa, Riitta Teerilahti said that at the first phase of the training, the trainees would be trained on geoscientific mapping, mineral resources assessment, artisanal and small-scale mining, environmental managementof mines, Geohazards, Geoheritage, Geoinformation management, communication and promotion skills.
She noted that 1,200 trainees from 54 countries will be part of the first phase training.
Declaring the training session open, Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, Hon. Abubakar Bwari acknowledged that one of the biggest problems African nations face in trying to develop their mining sector is the dearth of high quality geoscience data and absence of enough first rate mining engineers.
He identified the lack of capacity and inadequate management skills in the mining sector on a continental level as the factor that has deprived the continent from benefiting fully from its ernoumous mineral resource endowment.
Bwari noted that Nigeria was currently faced with severe shortage of personnel as most of the best trained staff in the ministry and agemcies were leaving the sector at thesame time due to retirement hence there is now a gap in the area of trained and experienced workers that can revamp the sector.
On his part, President of the organisation of African Geological surveys (OAGS), Alex Ndubuisi said that a number of engineers were being trained to solve the issues of mining in Africa.