FG revokes 5,793 mining licenses in six years, operators blame insecurity

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Amarachi Orjiude and Sami Olatunji

Posted on September 30, 2021 Revoked unused permits, operators failed to start mining, ministry official says Miners avoid mining sites because of kidnappers, insurgents Association

The federal government has revoked at least 5,793 inactive mining licenses, a PUNCH investigation found.

Our correspondents learned that the licenses that were revoked included mining, exploration, quarry and small-scale mining titles.

PUNCH reported earlier that the federal government has issued more than 7,000 licenses since the establishment of the Nigerian mining cadastre office.

However, in an attempt to reposition the mining sector as a major source of revenue for the country, the federal government has assembled a list of inactive mining titles for a long and rigorous revocation process.

A high-ranking source at the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development confirmed this to our correspondent.

According to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the revocation of licenses did not have an annual pace because the process was complicated and rigorous.

The source said that since the establishment of the land registry office until February of this year, 5,793 mining licenses had been revoked.

The source said: The revocation does not happen every year because it is a complicated and rigorous process. Based on what we have; 5,793 licenses have been revoked to date.

From the inception of the office until February of this year, that’s the number we have.

The source further claimed that the federal government’s use-or-loss policy was still in effect, adding that beyond not paying for renewal of their licenses, some licensees who did not use their licenses could obtain licenses withdrawn from them.

If they don’t use it, they lose it. When the license is revoked, it means they have lost it. In addition, those who refuse to pay for their licenses will lose it, the source added.

The revocation of inactive licenses is in accordance with the provisions of the laws governing the mining sector.

The director general of the Nigerian Mining Cadastre Office, Mr. Simon Nkom, said in a PUNCH report that the agency had revoked some inactive mining licenses in accordance with its “use or lose” approach.

He had said: Use it or lose it helps eliminate speculators. When we give you the license, you use it or lose it.

It is on this basis that we were able to make the system sufficiently attractive for investors to generate more income.

One of our correspondents also examined certain permit documents signed on the website of the Office du Cadastre Minier.

The documents showed that between November 11, 2015 and June 30, 2021, the number of signed licenses decreased by 5,786.

The number of licenses signed went from 6,650 licenses signed on November 11, 2015 to 1,122 licenses signed on June 30, 2021.

The revocation of inactive mining licenses was a major recommendation in the report of the Ministerial Committee on Maximization of Mineral Resources Revenues.

Led by the Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, Dr Uche Ogah, the committee was established in 2019 to develop strategies to improve revenue generation from mining.

In its report, the committee advised the ministry to order the Bureau du cadastre minier, the agency that oversees mining licenses, to revoke all inactive mining titles.

The committee said revoking the inactive licenses would allow genuine investors with the requisite capacity to acquire mine sites and invest in exploration and mining activities.

Speaking on development, the president of the Nigerian Miners’ Association, Kabiru Mohammed, attributed the preponderance of revoked mining licenses to inactive mining activities at authorized sites, which he said was in violation of the one of the conditions for obtaining a mining license from the government.

He said, however, that the inability of minors to visit or set up structures at authorized sites was not by choice but due to security concerns in the county as well as restrictions brought about by the COVID-pandemic. 19.

Mohammed said: The licenses that have been revoked over the years have severely affected the miners in the country and as an association we are not happy with it because it affects our businesses.

The government has its reasons for revoking these licenses. In most cases, if you receive a license, you are granted certain conditions.

If you do not comply with the regulations binding the issued license, the government certainly has the right to revoke.

However, I want you to understand the challenges of minors in the country. Mining activities in Nigeria have been severely affected by both banditry, insecurity and kidnappings prevalent in the country. The COVID-19 pandemic is also a militant factor.

These have prompted most of our miners to flee mining sites. And the law says that if you are inactive and you do not use the mining permit, you are liable to revocation. That is why the government is revoking some of our licenses.

He added: We call on the government to tamper with justice with leniency, in the sense that it is not as if we do not want to use the mining sites but because of these conditions.

No one can now visit the sites for fear of being kidnapped and even COVID-19 has made it impossible for large numbers of people to congregate in one place.

Asked about the implication of the large number of revocations on the mining sector, Mohammed said the federal government revoked the licenses to serve as a warning to stray miners and could reissue the licenses if activities at the sites begin.

He said: Although the best interests of the miners are of the utmost importance to me, I am not helping them do the wrong thing. Even if these conditions which hinder our activities were absent, some minors would still be inactive and there will always be revocation.

There are influential people who acquire a lot of licenses without revisiting the sites or setting up a structure. This would result in the revocation of these licenses.

So it’s not as if the government intended to bring down the mining sector by revoking permits, but it is a form of sanction, a kind of wake-up call for inactive miners.

However, given the fact that the problem of insecurity and the pandemic is very real, the government should for the moment put the pedal soft on the miners.

The federal government, for its part, has embarked on a number of activities to encourage more investors in the mining sector.

The government had tried to strengthen bilateral ties with countries such as the UK, Korea and Russia to boost Nigeria’s mining sector.

The federal government said as part of the Nigerian mineral exploration project it had invested $ 50 million in certain minerals to create visibility, adding that the data would be released to the market and auctioned off to interested investors.

In addition, with support from the World Bank, the government recently launched an airborne geophysical survey in 19 states.

The essence was to provide more mineral data in Nigeria in order to attract more investors with the collected data.

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