Profile: Gbite E Adeniji

Mining

Biography: Mining

Gbite E Adeniji heads the natural resources practice at AELEX, a full service commercial law firm with offices in Nigeria and Ghana. Prior to joining AELEX, he was a senior consultant at the World Bank (oil, gas, chemicals and mining department) in Washington, DC.

He received an LLB degree from the University of London in 1985, holds an LLM from Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, DC (2002) and has a certificate in Natural Resources and Environmental Law & Policy from the University of Denver College of Law (2001). He qualified as a barrister and solicitor in 1987.

His practice is focused on commercial and regulatory matters in the energy and natural resources sectors. His clients include developers of exploration and mining projects as well as power, gas pipeline, gas gathering, gas processing and petroleum refining projects. Gbite has advised on the legal and regulatory component of the Nigerian mining "sectoral, environmental and social assessment" project under the auspices of the World Bank and is currently advising a number of local and international clients on transactions in the Nigerian mining sector. He has also assisted the Nigerian government on a variety of notable energy and mineral law and policy matters. This involved the drafting of the Minerals and Mining Act, the National Gas Policy and the proposed Downstream Gas Act. He recently completed the drafting of the proposed Railway Act.

Gbite was a member of the committee established by the Nigerian government for the development of a new legal, regulatory and policy framework for Nigeria's mineral sector. He was appointed by the president of Nigeria as a member of the national stakeholders' working group of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, an initiative established to ensure transparency in the extractive sectors of Nigeria.

He has written and spoken at several conferences on a variety of issues relating to energy and natural resources law and policy.

Professional affiliations include the International Bar Association (subcommittee on mineral law of the section on energy environment resources and infrastructure law), the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, the Nigerian Gas Association and the Nigerian Bar Association.