FG to Retract Unsubstantiated Mineral Titles

The federal government in its effort to check the activities of illicit miners across the country, has said it would revoke all unsubstantiated mineral titles in the next one week.

The Minister of Solid Mineral Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi, lamented that the activities of illegal miners had become a most worrisome development in all parts of the federation.

”this is a worrisome development but not something we are not aware of,while the illegal miners are only concerned about the minerals that will earn them some little money,it has great health and safety hazards in the long run”.

 “it was unfortunate that despite the gold being mined from various parts of the federation,there was no record of gold in the nations federal inland revenue service(FIRS),leading to the fact that all gold taken out was sold for peanuts and yielding no tax or revenue to the federal government”.

“Under our watch we will bring this to a stop and restructure and formalise illegal mining to meet health and safety standards,” he said.

The Minister stressed that “it was the desire of government to provide employment for its teeming youths and urged the illegal miners under the Artisanal and Small Scale Mining (ASM) department of the ministry to get formalised.”