Frank Odoom of the Department of Mines Inspectorate in the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development gave this advice to the leader of a ministerial task force team on inspection and sensitization to Mailumba- Garin Gabas Mine Site in Rafi Local Government Area of Niger State where gold is mined and processed.
In a statement signed by Marshall H. Gundu, Deputy Director of Press, Odoom directed that the informal miners should stop operations at the mine site and other places in the state until they formalized their operations in line with Nigeria’s 2007 Minerals and Mining Act and the 2011 Mining Regulations.
The statement said the ministerial task force team leader assured that the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development was ready to facilitate the processing of their applications to formalize their operations.
It said: “In order to stop the informal mining of gold in the area and other parts of Niger State, the task force team leader said that security agencies would be alerted to apprehend their sponsors.
It was discovered that the miners were mining gold and processing it without any mineral title in the area. The miners were also using mercury in the dry milling process for the gold ore.
“Investigation revealed that the miners were not aware of the health implications in the use of mercury and the dry milling method for extracting gold.”
Two of the miners, Mohammed Sani and Haruna Dankano, expressed their happiness over the visit and also expressed the readiness of their colleagues to formalize their operations in line with the 2007 Minerals and Mining Act and the 2011 Mining Regulations of the sector.
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