Nigeria is naturally endowed with over 9,000 natural resources that are yet to be tapped by the manufacturing sector as raw materials for finished products;  and with thirty four (34) mineral resources  such as gold, coal, tantalite, gems, sulphur that are widely distributed across the country. The country has over 500 known mineral deposit sites of over 34 different minerals across the 36 states and federal capital. The federal government has identified nine to concentrate in and promote. These include Iron ore, Coal, Tin Ore, Bitumen, Gold, Columbite-Tantalite, Lead/zinc, Wolframite and industrial minerals. Currently the country is the 6 th largest producer of tin. There are nearly 3.00 billion tones of indicated reserves in 17 identified coalfields and over 600 million tones of proven reserves. Coal is found in Enugu and Kogi States. Over 7.5 million tones of barite have been identified in Taraba and Bauchi States with over 700 million tones in other states. Zinc/lead estimate is put at over 10 million tones spread across eight states of the federation.