The global energy transition is accelerating demand for critical minerals. These resources underpin clean energy technologies and modern industrial systems, including electric vehicles, battery storage, smartphones, computers, and power infrastructure. As a result, critical minerals have become central to economic competitiveness, energy security, and geopolitical strategy.
Nigeria possesses significant deposits of critical minerals, including lithium, tantalum, tin, zinc, lead, barite, and rare earth elements. However, after years of policy reforms and growing private-sector participation, current discussions around Nigeria’s mining sector have become disproportionately focused on lithium.
Lithium is undeniably important. Often referred to as “white gold,” it is a key component of battery technologies and plays a vital role in the global energy transition. Yet an overwhelming focus on lithium risks overshadowing other strategic minerals in which Nigeria already holds established positions in global supply chains.
The data underscore this point. In 2023, Nigeria produced approximately 930 tonnes of lithium, accounting for about 3 percent of Africa’s production. By 2025, output had risen to an estimated 1,000 tonnes. In contrast, Nigeria supplied approximately 19 percent of global tantalum production in the same period. Production of rare earth minerals also increased significantly, from 30 tonnes in 2020 to approximately 4,000 tonnes by 2024. Similar growth trends have been recorded for tin, lead, zinc, niobium, zircon, feldspar, and fluorspar.
The current emphasis on lithium reflects a broader challenge in Nigeria’s approach to natural resource development. Historically, the discovery and commercialisation of crude oil shifted attention away from other productive sectors, particularly agriculture and mining. Today, the rush toward lithium risks repeating a similar pattern by concentrating policy attention and investment on a single commodity at the expense of a diversified minerals strategy.
The lithium boom has also exposed weaknesses in Nigeria’s mineral governance framework, particularly in data collection and reporting. Significant discrepancies exist between production and export figures reported by domestic institutions and international databases. Comparisons between the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) Solid Minerals Audit Reports and datasets from the United Nations Comtrade Database, the World Mining Data (WMD), and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reveal substantial inconsistencies.
These data gaps undermine investor confidence, distort policy planning, and hinder effective sector management.