FG may require state governments to authenticate mining consents given operators ―Fayemi

STATE Governments may be required to authenticate mining consents issued to miners by host communities in order to sanitize the process and minimize the rancor that had followed its improper handling among communities across the country, the Federal Government has stated.

According to the government, “consent had been abused in some communities because at certain points it is difficult to know who is giving it.”

Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi, who stated this in a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Olayinka Oyebode, a copy of which was made available to the Tribune Online in Abuja, on Tuesday, reiterated this when he, in the company of the Minister of State, Honourable Abubakar Bawa Bwari, paid a courtesy visit on Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa State in Lafia.

The minister, who was on the third leg of a nation-wide tour of mining sites and host communities, said his team was in the state to examine what was happening to active mines and the abandoned ones with a view to seeing what could be done to reactivate them and strengthen the bonds between miners and the host communities.

He observed that as a naturally endowed state, people were returning to abandoned sites with tensions increasing between investors and host communities as a result of which he said the work that needed to be done required partnership with States where mining actually takes place.

“We are very determined to enforce the provisions of the mining and minerals Act in support of host communities via the states,” he said.

He then reiterated that era of producing and shipping out raw minerals from Nigeria was over and urged miners to be ready to set up processing plants and machinery in the country with a view to adding value and create jobs.

Responding, Governor Al-Makura said the state was among three leading states in the vanguard of states that were key to President Mohammadu Buhari’s diversification drive.

“Your visit has given us the impetus to reaffirm that Nasarawa State counts with every Local Government Area having many minerals in them and over seventy different types present in the state as at the last count,” he said.

Governor Al-Makura welcomed the idea of state certification of consent and promised that they would go to the drawing board and prepare for the time when the proper instruments for its actualization were finalized.

He then appealed to the government to carry Nasarawa State along where policy considerations on mineral resources were concerned and advised that dedicated outfits be provided for the protection of mines and their operators.