Prince Jidayi Ijudigal is the Managing Director of Hasetins Commodities Limited, a major mining firm currently operating various sites in Nasarawa State and exploring critical rare-earth metals. In an interview with select journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, he spoke about the company’s investment strides and how many rural lives are being significantly impacted. NewsQuest was there and brings the excerpts;
Q: What is your company all about?
We are a mining company. We run the whole chain from exploration, mining processing all the way to off-take. That is typically our model and we have acquired, and over the last 10 to 15 years, we have been checking various locations in Nigeria and have explored a lot, millions of dollars in exploration. We have also acquired a lot of mining sites all through this time. We have, over the years, built capacity for processing from rare earth to critical metals and other kinds of commodities as well. Building this capacity, we have realized that the world is going in a certain direction, so we decided to focus on certain metals that are critical to today’s technological applications.
Q: What motivated your company to set up a processing plant in Nasarawa State?
First of all, for logistics. It is a lot easier to have an operational hub in central Nigeria. You can get feedstock from various parts of the country. Another thing is access to the airport because, we are at the moment exploring some platinum-grade locations at the moment as well. For platinum-grade metals, you need the airport to airlift them. Abuja airport seems to be quite convenient and logistically, if you are in central Nigeria, it is easier for you to have access to whatever infrastructure to bring these things and other sorts of things that you actually need to get going fast enough for these commodities.
Q: You made mention of exploring very rare earth minerals that are critical in producing some modern equipment, weaponry, and all sorts of industries. What are the types of minerals are found in this area where you set up your processing plant?
Our processing plant is set up in an area where it makes it a lot easier for us logistically, to actually get our oars. Then, it actually helps us to have other kinds of activities as well. However, our mining sites are not necessarily where the processing center is. We holding in from various locations, literally, that is where our mining sites are. What motivates us to put it at Central Nigeria? That’s what your question is, right?
Q: I mean, the types of minerals that you process?
Oh, yes, okay, I see. So, rare earth metals have various components inside them. They have got various types of elements inside them. Some of the rare metals that we focus on at the moment that we’re beneficiating is something called neodymium and praseodymium. It’s some of the critical metals that you know is used in a lot of technological applications. For example, your electric cars. Neodymium and praseodymium literally, are very critical metals that are used for electric cars, the Tesla cars, your other cars. It is used to create magnets that is used in some of those cars. So, that is part of the motivation. We were moving a lot away from fossil fuels at the moment. We need certain kinds of metals that would power the green economy and green energy. So, that is part of the reason we are focusing on getting certain kinds of rare earth into the market.
Q: You also made mention of military equipment?
Yes, that I cannot discuss further, but rare earth metals are used for defense systems as well, and we are standing at the forefront of supplying some of those minerals, literally, that can help in enhancing defense in very friendly countries.
Q: Can you talk about your market?
Our markets are in friendly countries at the moment, literally. Both in the West, all the way to the East. For example, a country like Japan, is a country that is quite friendly country and they are. They have really, really, really, gotten a lot of technological advancements. So we are looking at certain markets for off take from friendly countries.
Q: How does this benefit Nigeria specifically?
We own various mines at the moment. First of all, it is FDI – foreign direct investment. We have a lot of equipment and technologies that is actually brought into Nigeria, and we are training certain individuals, literally, our workers and other contractors, on how to utilize certain kinds of equipment. However, that is not where we stop. We also provide trainings to people in the communities. But, the most critical aspect of this is that, in our mines, where we have our concessions, we don’t just take our equipment and start mining 100% literally. We create a section for the community where we give them equipment. We give them safety gears, give them trainings and others, and we train them on how to do their mining themselves.
We set up an area called an SSC satellite separation center in that community, where they come in at the end of the day and they supply feedstock to the SSC, the solar separation center, where we separate the dirt and every other thing. And then, we pay them after we weigh and see the quality and the quantity of what they have produced. So, you will see that the local man in the village is making a significant amount, literally, almost Nigeria’s minimum wage in less than two days of work.
That has actually contributed and has helped us, given us very, very, very good relationships with these communities. And that is our model. So, it means, once we take this and take it to our regional separation plants, and then we take it to our main plants, we beneficiate it all the way, process, and export it. We get foreign currency that we still come back and pay the people all the way to the village. So, it helps the people in the communities. It helps the villagers get foreign dollars, literally. And after that, there is a ripple effect. There is a butterfly effect. Then others, basically from guys selling food and fuel and every other thing in the community – they are all making money. That is how it helps Nigeria. We are replicating this in various locations. In fact, we have applied for more licenses at the moment in various other locations, and once those are granted, basically, we are able to proceed with the same model in some of those locations too.
Q: Niger State is one of the states in Nigeria facing security challenges, and there are fears that in those areas where mining is taking place, security is not always how it should be. Have you taken any measures to ensure the security of your staff, your factory, and whatever you have there?
Security is very critical aspect of mining anywhere in the world. In our case, our module literally helps us curb security challenges. Because, when most of these villagers are working, in fact, some of those people that are in certain kinds of gangs or bandits or any kind of organization or whatever it is, it’s very risky thing for them as well. So, when they see a very good way of making money, they usually abandon those things and then come and start working. However, we scrutinize them for their district heads. And then what we have noticed over the years is that once the community, I mean, once the community or individuals, people from the community are making money, they start setting up systems and structures that safeguard those areas aside from the security forces that we get from the Nigerian government as well. Because we have applied to get security forces from the Nigerian government. And the Nigerian government, usually, when they see that you are doing really good business and something that is beneficial, they would approve it.
We deploy security forces to some of those locations that we see have certain issues. However, in most cases, we usually choose areas that have not a lot of security challenges, literally. And the government of Nasarawa State has really put in a lot of efforts in curbing security challenges. We have seen that over the last couple of years, and I think he is still putting a lot more effort. So we have decided that, since he is doing that, we will support that by making sure that some of these communities have jobs and people have got work, so that, people don’t get tempted to start getting into certain kinds of activities that will cause issues for us.
Q: How does your model consider our environmental hazards that comes with mining activities?
Oh, that is a very critical aspect for us. We spend a lot, a lot, a lot in curbing environmental what you call it, chemicals, from leaking into the environment. In fact, I think I am going to organize a particular time so that you can come and see one of our locations and see how we curb it. So, in an area where artisanal miners are mining, we create something called a sedimentation pit that will barricade, and we make sure water doesn’t leak out from that location, literally. All the activities they are doing, comes into that sedimentation pit in the waste. Same thing with us, and we have collaborated with certain companies around the world that make filtration systems for water. Every single metal that we have analyzed coming in from those veins. Once we get to the sedimentation pit, we pump them in to certain machines that will filter every single metal from that before we inject it into the rivers again.
However, in most cases, we recycle that water and use it over and over and over again. But the excess that gets into the river sometimes, is even cleaner than how it got in to our facilities, basically. Because, we have really advanced so, we don’t want a situation whereby, certain chemicals leach into the water, and then, we have issues, all the way down streams sometime later on. So, we have spent a lot that is actually a very, very critical aspect that we focus on a lot. I do not compromise on whatsoever it is. Same thing with people that are working. Sometimes, when you have a lot of artisanal in the miners, they will want to take off their gloves, or whatever it is. We actually make it a very, very important aspect of our operations. We have people that are managing that. If you take off your clothes, or you do anything that compromises us or how we stand, we are ejecting you from that location immediately until you are ready to come to actually agree to work with the terms and conditions that we put in those locations. That is how we operate to actually curb environmental challenges.
Q: How do you intend to position Nigeria as a global player, especially with the high demand in rare metals?
Fantastic. So what we are doing is that we are investing a lot more in exploration activities. For example, we have just acquired two long range drones. Those drones are not the traditional drones. They actually go for a lot longer hours than conventional drones. We have hired scientists from various parts of the world that are modifying equipment, exploration equipment that we are manning on those drones – artificial intelligence to actually find new areas for us. That would position Nigeria on the global stage for this, because we have identified more and more locations, and we will still identify other locations. The more areas we find, the more we can invest, and the more feedstock we can actually get to feed into our plants, and the more output Nigeria can actually give to the world. That is what we are doing, and that is what we are still doing to this day.
Q: How many direct and indirect jobs do you think this Uke plant alone can generate for Nigeria?
We just gave a rough number. The real numbers are actually in the 10s of 1000s in the next few months. Because, in a typical artisanal mining site, you have between 500 to 2000 people. Once you have multiple locations, you have buying centers, you actually get a lot people into 10s of 1000s initially, and as we actually expand our operation. What we have noticed is that once people see that these guys in this community are making money, they migrate into those communities and then come in and settle there so they can have jobs. For us, we have the capacity for uptake. What we do is that the more feedstock up we get, the better it is for us. Aside from our equipment, the more artisans are able to work and actually give us more ores, the more we are able to have additional capacity and additional feedstock.
But, we call that supplementary feedstock because, you cannot truly bank on production from artisanal when it comes to having guaranteed output, basically, because they are too small. You can’t really predict how many people can be in a certain place at what time or what day. Some people might want to go to the farms and everything. So we just have that as additional, supplementary feedstock. Our major output, we put it as what we produce with our machines, and we can have a vague estimate of what a certain number of people can produce that we can actually bank on as additional feedstock, but we take everything from them.
Q: Is your company the first rare metals mining company in Nigeria?
I wouldn’t know that for sure. Maybe, there are others that are doing that. We don’t know, but I can tell you this, we have invested a lot in that. It’s over 10s of millions of dollars.
Q: Do you know if it is the largest so far?
Well, I don’t know. I can’t say for sure, because I don’t know. I don’t have the data. But I will tell you this. We have spent, on equipment alone, we have spent a lot of cash to just get even when it comes to analytical equipment. We have invested so much on the state of the art analytical equipment. We actually get the best of the best in the world, and we get calibrated to certain kinds of standards in the world, like SGS standards. We use that as one of our measures, basically, when we are calibrating our instruments.
Q: Can you speak about your company’s $400 million investment and the government’s buy-in?
The Nigeria government is supporting us when it comes to policies, security and other things. Most of the finance, in fact, all of it, is actually something that we have either brought in internally from the company, or we have gotten HNIs. HNIs are high net worth individuals. Some are my friends, and some are people that we have known. They are the ones that actually came and we syndicated the finance because, nobody wants to give us $400 million that as a bulk. So, we broke it and brought in certain HNIs to come and syndicate to give us what we need for the plant. And we have Non- Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) with some of these individuals, in fact, all of them. We can’t reveal their names. However, it’s very simple. We have bought equipment, and you can always trace back from how we got equipment and who has paid for what kind of equipment. That is the model we have actually chosen. And because of that, we have seen that if the government wants to know, it’s very simple to trace who and who has actually given us investments. But they are usually Western Europeans, some Americans, one person from Asia. And that is what we have. One person from Asia is non-Chinese. So, that is all I can say, because of NDAs.
