Forestalling the Continued Depletion of Nigeria’s Mineral Resources through Proper Conservation

Abstract

Nigeria has witnessed an increase in mining of mineral resources in the last sixty years or so. Through critical review of related works the paper has discovered the reasons for the alarming increase in mining these non- renewable natural resources. It has been stressed in the paper that though, extracting the mineral stimulates growth and development in different spheres through foreign exchange earnings, transportation network, development of cities, improving people’s standard of living, provision of social amenities, education of the people and boosting the nation’s social, economic and political ego among comity of nations, the activity is gradually leading to their depletion which could affect the incoming generations negatively. Hence the position of this paper is that there is urgent need for proper conservation of these non- renewable resources in order to cater for the present and incoming generations. The paper concluded by suggesting as solutions: the reuse and recycling of metals, reducing unnecessary waste of these non- renewable resources, replacement of mineral raw materials with cheaper substitutes, manufacturing durable products to last longer, protection of existing mineral deposits, search for new deposit and adopting the economic and comprehensive methods of mining as it is being practiced in some developed countries of the world.