Tolerate Illegal Mining, Lose License, Minister of Solid Minerals Warns
The Federal Government of Nigeria through the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development has vowed to revoke the titles of owners of licensed land explored by illegal miners.
Lately, some ugly incidents of collapsed mines were reported particularly in Niger State, latest in an area covered by Exploration Licence 43113 belonging to Jurassic Mines Limited in Adunu Village, Paikoro Local Government Area, Niger State.
To this effect, the minister Mr. Dele Alake has threaten to revoke all licenses that allow illegal miners to operate on their fields.
He explained that an exploration licence is given to an applicant to confirm if the site is suitable for the proposed mineral exploration. It does not authorise the applicant to engage in mining, he said.
Reviewing the role of the Ministry in response to the recurring mines collapse, Alake noted that the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development received reports of the accident at about 4.45 pm on Thursday which indicated that three people had died when a tunnel collapsed on them while mining gold in the site.
He said further inquiry revealed that the miners were mining illegally adding that efforts were still going on to rescue the miners trapped in the Shiroro mine, lamenting that they had not received any assistance from multinational rescue firms.