The Federal Government said it has produced a litho-structural map of the country in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s diversification agenda
The litho-structural map showed the structural architecture, lineament and basement architecture of the country.
The map is expected to show investors important parameters for interpretation, identification, and mapping of mineral deposits in the country.
Director-General, Nigeria Geological Survey Agency (NGSA) Dr. Abulrazak Garba said before now, investors had always complained that the country’s geological report was too academic.
Garba spoke in Abuja at a workshop by stakeholders to review and analyse the litho-structural map.
He said the mapping defines the characteristics and nature of rock types, their association and formation.
Dr Garba said: ”NGSA in recent times have embarked on so many activities but this time, we are trying to see that we match what we are doing with the diversification agenda of the Federal Government. When I was a director, I was saddled with a lot of challenges in terms of the fact that a lot of investors come into the country, ask for our reports, go through them and the feedback we get is that our reports are too academic.
“For quite some time now, we have had what we call the mineral/geological map of Nigeria but then we have not fully optimise the information of the last airborne survey that we carried out but this time around we brought out the information, used the existing geological map and used it to produce a litho-structural map where you see the structural orientation of Nigeria and geological information, you put them all together. This is the first of its kind.
“The litho-structural map is different from the geological map that the country already has, the geological map is the representation of the different types of rocks that outcrop in the terrestrial area and the types of contacts among them while the Litho-structural map has information about lineament, basement architecture.
“Some minerals follow lineaments and you can’t identify them until you use some sensors and it is through the airborne sensors that we get this. This is the first edition map that brings into focus the structural architecture of the Nigerian basement and basin succession.
“We utilized the National airborne magnetic and radiometric datasets to build and constrain the structural geometry and lithological association leveraging on the previous 1:2m geological map editions.”
Source: Nation
