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Kaduna Govt Moves To Tackle Activities Of Illegal Miners

Kaduna is one of the states in the Northern part of the country that is endowed with solid mineral resources that have great potentials to … Continue reading Kaduna Govt Moves To Tackle Activities Of Illegal Miners


zaria

zariaKaduna is one of the states in the Northern part of the country that is endowed with solid mineral resources that have great potentials to turn its economy for greater performance.

The State is blessed with gold, Marbel, Nerkel, ,Lead & Copper among others.

But these spinners are left to waste away with a small fraction of them being tapped by unskilled miners, thereby posing a great danger to the environment.

The illegal mining site had been a beehive of social and economic activities as over 1, 000 artisanal miners were neck deep in the business.

Without any form of regulation or knowledge of the negative implication of their activities to the environment, the miners operate with crude implements, which include mattocks, diggers, head-pans, mortars, pestles and others, for the exploitation of granites, even at the risk of their lives.

However, the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, is not unmindful of activities of Illegal miners in Kaduna and other parts of the country.

To this end, the Minister in charge of the Ministry, Dr Kayode Fayemi, was in Kaduna where he met with the state officials to discuss ways of formalising the sector, in order to provide jobs for these group of Nigerians who are trying to make out a living for themselves.

Dr Fayemi explained the willingness of ministry to partner with states and the private sector to harness the solid mineral resources across the country.

The minister also listed steps to be taken in order to achieve the objectives, which includes identifying, streamlining and legalising activities of the large numbers of artisan miners.

The Deputy Governor of Kaduna State, Bala Bantex, on behalf of the Governor Nasir El-Rufai, commended the Federal Government’s effort in diversifying the nation’s sources of revenue. He informs the minister of the efforts being made by the state government to harness the full potentials of the solid minerals sector In the state.

Statistics have shown that Nigeria is endowed with more than 33 commercially viable solid minerals which could be exploited as a major revenue earner.

In spite of this, the National Bureau of Statistics insists that the solid minerals sector contributes less than 1 per cent to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as against its erstwhile 10 per cent contribution prior to crude oil exploration.

With the dwindling revenue due to fall in global oil price, the Federal Government wants to get the states involved in the exploration of mineral deposits, within their domains as part of efforts to diversify the economy.