Nationwide survey to map Somaliland natural resources

[Siciid1986]

Hargeisa (SM) – Somaliland’s Minister of Energy Hussein Abdi Duale has on Wednesday returned home after a three week working visit in China and United Arab Emirates. Minister Duale speaking to the media during a press conference in the VIP lounge of Egal international airport

 

has said that he signed an agreement with Chinese firm in order to construct a power factory which will produce electricity through locally produced coal.

 

“The purpose of our recent trip to China came about when we (Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources) got an invitation from the GUANGZHOU DONGSONG ENERGY CO LTD which recently signed a contractual agreement with Somaliland government to conduct a nationwide Comprehensive survey to map the mineral potential and to develop the country’s energy sector.

 

“We started our working tour in Guangzhou province where the energy company operations are mainly based, there we got firsthand familiarization of the company’s massive operations, afterwards we then proceeded to Yunnan Province where major mining activities take place and finally we had the opportunity to fly to Beijing the capital of the people’s republic of china where we had a series of meeting with top management of the Chinese energy firm”, he stated.

 

Hon Hussein Abdi Dualeh went on to say, “Our Chinese partners assured us of their commitment to begin the compressive survey of minerals in the country which will be conducted by Chinese owned satellites also known as remote sensing which will be used to map the various types of minerals present and their geographical location in the country this will be the first phase and will be followed by deploying engineers and geologist on the ground to conduct geological assessment of the presence of minerals in the ground. The Chinese energy company will then partner with two firms of Chinese origins one which known as the China Remote Sensing.

 

“During our numerous meeting with the management of Chinese energy firm, we reaffirmed the need to develop our coal industry by the extracting ,production of coal Somaliland, our government and the Chinese firm will enter agreement for the construction of a power factory which will produce electricity through locally produced coal”, he said.

 

The Minister of Energy added , “When the satellites and geological survey are completed ,then only then shall we be in a position to determine the mineral types that exist and the quantities which will hence be of important significance in the signing of future agreements and contracts between our government and would be interested groups the mining sector.

 

The energy company they even went to the extent of promising to establish a Chinese language website which will be used for exposing what Somaliland as a country has to offers to the Chinese people and to the world in particular and the opening an office in the industrial city of Guangzhou soon aimed at promoting our shared interests and which will also be a commercial office which will in the future issue visas and most importantly to enhance diplomatic relations between the government of Somaliland and the Chinese government”, Hon. Dualeh said.