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Alake reads riot act to illegal miners, revokes 1,633 licences

The Minster of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake, yesterday announced the revocation of 1,633 mining licences and read the riot act to illegal miners that it’s no longer going to be business as usual in the solid minerals sector.

Speaking in Abuja at a press conference organised by the Ministry, he said the licences revoked included 536 exploration licence, quarry licence, 279; small scale mining licence, 787 and 31 mining leases, adding that the revocation was for operators who defaulted in the payment of Annual Service Fee.

Warning illegal miners, Dr Alake said: "I want to use this opportunity to send a stern warning to illegal miners; it’s no longer business as usual, there is a new Sheriff in town, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the new Sheriff in town and it cannot be business as usual, those who indulge in illegal mining are hereby warned for the umpteenth time to desist because the security agencies are moving in as we speak and whoever is apprehended would have himself or herself to blame.”

He said the notice for defaulters was published in accordance to the law in the Federal Government Gazette Number 178, Volume 110 of October 10, 2023 and a mandatory 30 days expired on November 10, 2023 was given.

Alaka said of the initial 2,213 defaulters, only 580 title holders responded by settling their indebtedness and with the development, the Mining Cadastre Office (MCO) recommended the revocation of 1,633 mineral title which he gave approval to.

He also warned defaulters whose titles have been revoked to stay away from revoked areas because anyone caught would be apprehended.

He said: "We shall continue to carry all stakeholders along in this rescue mission and shall always ensure that we are fair to all concerned. However, we don’t intend to bend or break the rules whenever and wherever there are violations and non-compliance. Rather, we shall make such cases the examples for others to emulate.

"It is indeed very unconscionable for corporate bodies making huge profits from mining to refuse to give the government its due by failing to pay their annual service fee. It is indeed a reasonable conjecture that such a company will even be more unwilling to pay royalties and honour its tax obligations to the government. The amount the companies are being asked to pay is peanut compared to their own revenue projections. For example, the holder of an exploration title pays only N1,500 per cadastral unit not exceeding 200 units. Those holding titles covering more than 200 units pay N2,000 per unit, In short, the larger the area your title covers, the more you pay. This principle was applied to ensure that applicants don’t hold more than they require to explore. With a cadastral unit captured as a square of 500 metres by 500 metres, any law-abiding title holder should not hesitate to perform its obligations.

"In compliance with the law, the MCO on October 4, 2023 began the process of revoking 2,213 titles. These included 795 Exploration titles, 956 Small Scale Mining Licences, 364 Quarry licences and 98 Mining Leases. These were published in the Federal Government Gazette Number 178, Volume 110 of October 10, 2023 with the notice of revocation for defaulting in the payment of Annual Service Fee.

"The mandatory 30 days expired on November 10, 2023; only 580 title holders responded by settling their indebtedness. With this development, the MCO recommended the revocation of 1,633 mineral titles as follows: Exploration Licence, 536; Quarry Licence, 279; Small Scale Mining Licence, 787 and Mining Lease, 31.

"In line with the powers conferred on me by the NMMA 2007, Section 5 (a), I have approved the revocation of the 1,633 titles. I hereby warn the previous holders of these titles to leave the relevant cadaster with immediate effect as security agencies shall work with the Mines Inspectorate of the Ministry to apprehend any defaulter found on any of the areas where titles have been revoked.

"So they were given 30 days’ notice, and the holders were published in the Federal Government Gazette as required by the law, there is a provision in the mining act guiding this exercise were before you can revoke, you have to ensure that the people are defaulting, there is a portal in the Mining Cadastre Office (where immediately their default, the system sends them an alert. Apart from that, when the MCO satisfies itself that you are belligerent and you are due for revocation, they then send a notice of 30 days and these notice is published in a Federal Government Gazette, there are other avenues of course but we choose the Gazette.

"In this instance, we are going to review upwards because there is no operator to the best if my knowledge who cannot afford to pay an upward review of mining titles, of course we don't want any investor to go bankrupt but there is a huge profit margin but in spite of that they must give unto Caesar what is Caesars because we have invested heavily in all the operations, processes and applications of licences, we have invested a lot of technology into these operations, we have invested heavily into data generation, so without us updating the data periodically and frequently, we will not have adequate information on you will not have the justification of where to invest.

"So infrastructure has been provided and these things are very expensive and on the other hand the ease of doing business is already in place.

"Few days ago, the two Ministers of Defence were here to see me and it was in furtherance of the objective of consolidating the mining police, the Minister of Defence said the Military would go and clear sites before the deployment of our Mining Police because it is the job of the military to clear the ground because you know that illegal mining operators have been accused of sponsoring banditry so we can't just first push the police.

"In the same vein, those who are defaulting in remitting payment, fees, royalties, taxes in this sector are also warned. These exercises of the revocation of licences is an ongoing one and there is even a bigger one coming, all aimed at sanitising the sector."