$700bn Nigeria-US mining deal may put resource extraction above community rights- HOMEF

An environmental advocacy group, the Health of Mother Earth Foundation, HOMEF, has warned that the $700 billion Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, entered into by Nigeria and the United States, reportedly to boost American investment in the country’s mining sector, may eventually place resource extraction above the rights and welfare of Nigerian communities.

The group warned that the extraction of critical minerals, particularly lithium, could be environmentally destructive, cause irreversible depletion and contamination of local water tables, poison agricultural land, and disrupt agrarian livelihoods.

HOMEF, in a statement signed by its Executive Director, Dr Nnimmo Bassey, noted that this economic model in all forms and appearances replicates the Niger Delta’s devastating history.

He said, “This trajectory leaves host communities to bear the long-term toxic liabilities of extraction without equitable benefit. There is a structural risk that the rush to satisfy foreign capital will incentivise the government to fast-track mineral title approvals by circumventing robust Social and Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) and compromising the integrity of Community Development Agreements (CDAs) mandated under Section 116 of 2027. Such shortcuts would fundamentally undermine the legal and social protections designed to safeguard affected populations

“We must not reproduce that environmental genocide by replacing oil with minerals while sacrificing lives, lands, and ecosystems. This agreement, while cloaked in the language of economic growth, threatens to entrench the same pattern of extractivism that has devastated the Niger Delta for decades.

“We have seen how international mining interests operate when oversight is weak, and profit is the sole motivation. Without stringent safeguards, this MoU risks turning our mineral wealth into a resource curse, leaving behind degraded landscapes and impoverished communities rather than sustainable development.”

Bassey, citing the recent tragic deaths of 37 young miners in Niger State custody, noted it was an indictment of Nigeria’s punitive, extractive economy, that criminalises vulnerable citizens.

“We are deeply concerned that the rush to feed global demand for critical minerals will be prioritised over the livelihoods, health, and sovereignty of Nigerian communities. Strategic vigilance is required to ensure that our minerals serve our own development needs first, and that the rights of local people are protected against land dispossession and pollution.

“HOMEF therefore call on the Federal Government to provide the public and civil society with the full details of the MoU, moving beyond high-level announcements to clarify the specific environmental, labour, and fiscal obligations involved and to remember that Nigeria’s long-term prosperity lies in the preservation of its ecosystems and the empowerment of its people, not in becoming a primary resource repository for foreign industrial powers.”