The United States and Nigeria are in talks over a mining partnership that could reshape how the country's vast mineral resources are developed and who gets to benefit from them.
Nigeria sits on significant deposits of lithium, gold, coal, and other critical minerals, resources that have long attracted outside interest but rarely delivered lasting gains for local communities or the national economy.
The deal, still taking shape, reflects a broader American push to secure supply chains for minerals considered essential to electric vehicles, batteries, and clean energy technology. Nigeria, for its part, is looking to attract investment that goes beyond extraction and actually builds local refining and processing capacity.
What remains to be seen is whether this agreement will be structured differently from the partnerships that came before it, and whether Nigerian communities living near those mineral-rich lands will have a real seat at the table this time.
Originally published by AllAfrica.