*plans Solid Minerals Corporation, Mine Police
By Chesa Chesa
With eyes set on making Nigeria’s solid minerals contribute up to 50% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, has issued illegal miners across the country a 30-day ultimatum to either quit or formalise their operations through registered cooperatives or face the full wrath of the law.
He also plans to establish a Nigerian Solid Minerals Corporation as well as a security surveillance task force that comprises the police and other relevant agencies to detect illegal mining sites and apprehend defaulters.
Unfolding his seven-point transformation agenda for the mining sector during a world press conference in Abuja on Sunday, Alake “I am giving illegal miners in this country just 30 days grace to join cooperatives or find another vocation.
“Also, the proposed task force will be domiciled in the Ministry and will comprise operatives of all the relevant security agencies.
“On the expiration of the period, the full weight of the law will fall on anyone seen on a mining site without a determinable status. This message will be interpreted into Nigerian languages and broadcast on the radio to ensure no one is ignorant of this directive.
“From October, a rejuvenated security regime will become active in the solid minerals sector. This will include the Mine Police, sourced from the Nigeria Police and specially trained to detect illegal mining and apprehend offenders.
“The new Mines Surveillance Security Task Force will coordinate the Mines Police and proactively address high-risk incidences of breach of Mining Laws. The Federal and State governments will also be encouraged to allocate the prosecution of cases against illegal miners to competent courts.”
The Minister lamented that the current 2% contribution to the GDP from solid minerals was abysmal, and wondered: How did a country with industrial, energy, metallic, construction, and precious minerals, including gold, manganese, bitumen, lithium, iron ore, lead, zinc, limestone, uranium, columbite, barite, kaolin, gemstones, coal, topaz, copper in massive proportions fail to use these resources to liberate the citizens?
“At the last count, our estimated reserves include Gold (1 million ounces); Limestone (568 metric tonnes), Lead/Zinc, (Baryte (15 million metric tonnes), Bitumen (N1.1 billion barrels), Iron Ore (3 billion Metric Tonnes) and Coal, (N396 million).
“How did a sector with over 2 million operators, including over 633 small-scale companies and 251 500 registered miners, struggle to give the economy capital and human development?”
To find the answers, he highlighted his Transformation Agenda to include: Nigerian Solid Minerals Corporation; Joint Ventures with Mining Multinationals; Big Data on specific seven priority minerals and their deposits; 30-day grace for illegal miners to join artisanal cooperatives; Mines Surveillance Task Force and Mine Police; and Six Mineral Processing Centres to focus on value-added products.
Alake explained that the agenda was derived from informed conclusions that inefficient geo-data, weak implementation and enforcement, poor environmental, safety, and health policies, fragility and conflict, unregulated artisanal mining, low technical capacity, lack of access to financing, weak inter-governmental and inter-agency co-ordination and weak federal/state relations over mining land are the severe barriers to the development of the mining sector.
He declared that the most urgent, immediate, and critical precondition for the real take-off of the sector is the gathering of precise geological data.
He further explained that “the Solid Minerals Corporation will provide robust support for Nigerian businessmen seeking funding abroad and help to authenticate their investment proposals to speed up the commitment of their partners to invest.
“Domestically, the Solid Minerals Corporation will engage the Nigerian financial system, which has demonstrated palpable reluctance to support mineral prospecting and mining because of the long-term gestation of value generation by developing a Fund to facilitate investments in mining at interest rates that will be mutually agreed.”
