FG: We revoked 3,400 mining licences in one year

The federal government has revoked over 3,400 mining title issued to potential miners in one year.

Director-General of the Nigerian Mining Cadastre Office in the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, Engr. Obadiah Simon, made the statement in Calabar at the sensitisation workshop for stakeholders in South-South on the adoption of the electronic mining Cadastre System.

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“We have revoked 3,400 mining licenses. We have the principle of ‘get a licence and use it’. If you do not use it you risk it being revoked. The affected miners did not comply with the provisions of the Act, which are clearly spelt out for all to see. 

“There is a security of tenure for the license. We don’t just wake up to revoke them. The law specified that we give a 30 days notice through a registered letter and also gazette it. We ensure that we exhaust all procedures leading to the revocation of licences so that title holders do not blame us and we pass through all the procedures before we wield the big stick.”

Simon said they do not want title holders to hold the country to ransom.

“You can’t get a licence and keep it in the house forever. You must meet up with your obligations,” he said.

The DG also disclosed that the mining sector has abundant wealth for the country, maintaining that revenue from the sector over the years has been very astronomical.

“The sector boosts national incomes. It attracts lots of investments. There is no local government area in Nigeria that does not have mineral resources. And these are abundant wealth for the country. We need to ensure that this wealth should rather be a blessing to us rather than a curse.”

Speaking on the electronic mining Cadastre system, he explained, “The electronic mining Cadastre system which has been computerized is now migrated to an online system so that miners and anybody else anywhere in the world do not need to physically come to the office to submit applications. There are quite a number of other benefits from the latest innovations.”