THE CHALLENGE OF ILLEGAL MINING 

The authorities could do more to stem the menace

In the last eight months, no fewer than 80 illegal miners have been arrested by the Ilorin Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) with truckloads of assorted minerals. Acting on intelligence, some Chinese nationals were last week arrested in the state for offences bordering on illegal mining activities. The suspects, made up of 12 males and a female, confessed to being workers of a Chinese company situated at Olayinka in Ifelodun local government area of the state. They reportedly operate different mining sites in virtually all the 16 local government areas of the state without permits, and using the illegally mined crude to produce marble which they sell locally in Nigeria.  

The latest arrest in Kwara State has again validated the 2018 Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) solid mineral sector report which highlighted the prevalence of illegal mining activities in the country. The comprehensive audit explained that except for isolated cases of registered cooperative societies, the sector is largely challenged by illegal miners. About 80 per cent of mining in the Northwest region is said to be carried out illegally. The federal government’s ban on artisanal mining in Zamfara State which has significant deposits of gold, and indeed across the region since April 2019, has yielded little or no results. 

To be sure, Nigeria’s solid minerals sector is private sector driven. Through a cadastre like system, the government allocates mineral titles to investors and subsequently provides oversight functions through policy direction and regulations. The country’s law in the sector also specifies who could be in possession of or purchase minerals in Nigeria and establishes Minerals Buying Centre (MBC) which according to NEITI are more than 100 across the country. But from Osun to Katsina and elsewhere, illegal mining is done in the open. 

A recent report commissioned by Global Rights blamed the federal government for the challenge in the mining sector. Lead researcher, Nana Nwachukwu listed factors promoting illegal mining activities in the country to include poverty, high cost and cumbersome criteria required for formalising operation, and the lucrative nature of the illicit business. While artisanal mining makes up about 80 per cent of all mining activities in Nigeria, that aspect of the sector is not properly defined. “There is a lot of confusion in the industry about what is illegal mining, unregulated mining, and informal mining. Those are terms that have come up overtime and it is really about what level of responsibility the government is willing to take for itself,” said Global Rights cordinator, Abiodun Baiyewu. 

The spate of illegal mining activities in several states, especially in the north, besides undermining the economy, has already thrown up security challenges, with widespread cases of banditry, kidnapping and community unrest. Indeed, the bid to exploit mineral deposits by criminal networks is fuelling community violence particularly in Zamfara where some influential and well-connected individuals connive with some foreign corporations to loot the commonwealth of the nation. According to the immediate past Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, over $500 million was being generated annually, with no single naira going into the state’s coffers. No reasonable country should allow such brazen economic haemorrhage. 

Even so, we must acknowledge some of the reforms initiated by the immediate past administration. These include improving mobility for field officers and organising artisanal miners into cooperatives.  The challenge of the moment is how to improve on them to significantly reduce the incidence of illegal mining in the country. There should also be more focus on how to properly organise the sector to attract local and foreign investors. We hope whoever President Bola Tinubu appoints as Minister for the sector will work to tackle this menace.