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Nigerian Mining Com_29 November 2024_Ogun Residents Raise Alarm Over.txt	Nigerian Mining Com	29 November 2024	2024-11-29	Ogun Residents Raise Alarm Over	/content/Nigerian Mining Com_29 November 2024_Ogun Residents Raise Alarm Over.txt	Mining News\nOgun Residents Raise Alarm Over Chinese Illegal Sand Mining\n\nIllegal sand and laterite mining pose a multifaceted threat to Ogun State, disrupting the environment and local livelihoods. These unauthorised activities continue to degrade ecosystems and contribute to a cascade of environmental and social problems. Despite government interventions, illegal mining persists, driven by high demand for construction materials.\nThe extraction of laterite and smooth sand is critical for building roads and houses. However, unchecked mining erodes topsoil, destabilises riverbanks, and alters drainage systems, increasing flood risks. These practices destroy habitats for aquatic and terrestrial species, disrupting biodiversity. The visual and ecological damage caused by illegal mining is a growing concern for affected communities.\n\nIn response to the crisis, the Ogun State government, led by then Special Adviser and current Commissioner for Environment Ola Oresanya, banned sand mining in 2021. During an environmental assessment in Magboro and other affected areas, Oresanya described the activities as a “public health and environmental nuisance.” He stated:\n\n“No government worth its salt will allow a few individuals, for economic gains, to jeopardise the health and well-being of the populace.”\n\nDespite this, enforcement of the ban remains patchy, with illegal mining activities continuing across the state.\n\nThe Role of Traditional Leaders in Illegal Mining\nAn insider revealed that some traditional rulers actively back illegal miners, signing agreements and facilitating operations. This complicity has prompted the state government to place certain monarchs on a “red list” for their involvement.\n\nTwo Categories of Sand Mining in Ogun\nIllegal mining activities in Ogun fall into two main categories:\n\nOperators extract sand using dredgers in rivers or by blasting rocks in quarries. Sites owned by Chinese nationals, especially in communities like Oba and Alagada in Abeokuta, feature state-of-the-art equipment and are highly patronised. Trucks queue to purchase sand from these sites, with Chinese operators selling at N14,000 per scoop.\n\nIn contrast, local operators charge between N23,000 and N35,000, depending on truck size. Many local sites face conflicts, often involving landowners.\n\nThis involves extracting sand used for foundational construction. Like laterite mining, it is characterised by a lack of regulatory oversight.\n\nCommunity Impacts and Infrastructure Challenges\nThe negative effects of mining are particularly visible in Magboro and Abeokuta, where erosion and flooding have displaced residents and left buildings precariously unstable. Magboro, rich in laterite, continues to attract miners, worsening local environmental conditions. Some homes appear to lack support due to extensive sand excavation.\n\nThe damage extends to infrastructure. Roads leading to mining sites are heavily degraded, marked by potholes, bumps, and erosion. The poor state of these roads deters commercial transport, leaving residents to navigate treacherous paths.\n\nChinese-controlled sites dominate the illegal mining sector in Ogun, utilising advanced machinery and benefiting from organised operations. While their sites operate smoothly under police surveillance, they exacerbate environmental issues without contributing to community development.\n\nResidents of affected areas, such as Magboro, have expressed frustration with the government’s lack of decisive action. Raheem Babalola, a local, said:\n\n“The rainy season has caused panic among us. Flooding has forced many to abandon their homes. The government must act deliberately to curb these miners’ activities.”\n\nIllegal sand and laterite mining in Ogun State pose grave threats to the environment, infrastructure, and human livelihoods. While the government has taken steps to address the issue, enforcement remains inadequate. The complicity of local leaders and the dominance of well-organised Chinese operators further complicate the situation. Urgent, sustained action is needed to regulate the sector and protect the environment, ensuring a sustainable future for Ogun communities.\n
Daily_Post_26 September 2024 Nigerian Senate Passes Bill To Curb.txt	Daily	Post	NaT	26 September 2024 Nigerian Senate Passes Bill To Curb	/content/Daily_Post_26 September 2024 Nigerian Senate Passes Bill To Curb.txt	NewsNigerian Senate passes bill to curb illegal mining\n\nPublished on September 26, 2024\nBy Matthew Atungwu\n\n\nThe Nigerian Senate has passed for second reading, a bill to establish the Nigeria Mines Rangers Service, NMRS, to combat illegal and artisanal mining in the country.\n\nThis followed the presentation of the general principles of the bill by the sponsor, Senator Mohammed Onawo (SDP-Nasarawa) at plenary on Thursday.\n\nOnawo said the proposed NMRS when established, would be saddled with the responsibilities of safeguarding mining operations, enforcement of mining environmental and safety regulations.\n\nHe said the NMRS would also promote sustainable mining practices in Nigeria.\n\nAccording to him, the proposed Mine Rangers Service, as a specialised security outfit, would among others, curb illegal mining across the country, rescue trapped miners, provide emergency medical care, investigate mining accidents and enforce compliance with mining regulations.\n\nHe said, “The bill has been painstakingly developed and streamlined to curb illegal mining, thereby providing avenues for harnessing the vast mineral resources in Nigeria.\n\n“The bill is a bold legislative step geared towards the diversification of our economy by de – emphasising monolithic focus on oil as the main source of the country ‘s revenue.”\n\nLawmakers who contributed to debate described the proposed Mine Rangers Service as a veritable outfit to protect and securing the mining sites across the country.\n\nSen. Orji Uzor Kalu (APC-Abia) said the proposed security outfit would help stop the yearly loss of $18.9 billion to illegal mining.\n\n“The proposed specialised security outfit for protection of mining sites across the country , will end yearly loss of $18.9 billion to illegal miners.\n\n“The Mine Rangers Service, as envisioned, will not only curb illegal mining but also combat banditry,” he said .\n\nThe Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Barau Jibrin (APC-Kano), who presided over plenary, described the bill as apt, given the needed protection, regulations and enforcement in the mining sector.\n\n“We need special security arrangement in the mining sector which this bill is proposing.\n\n“It will also help to combat banditry because, one of the recently killed notorious bandits, was just a security guard to miners , later turned to miner himself and added banditry to it.\n\n“He had a lot of mining sites where he carried out illegal mining.\n\n“The proposed law for special security outfit for mining sector is very apt, because it will also help to identify criminals,” Barau said.\n\nBarau referred the bill to Senate Committee on Solid Minerals for further legislative inputs.\n\nHe also mandated the committee to report back to plenary in two weeks.
Punch Newspaper_08 February 2006_Nigeria Offers Coal Assets To Anglo Enel Other Investors.txt	Punch Newspaper	08 February 2006	2006-02-08	Nigeria Offers Coal Assets To Anglo Enel Other Investors	/content/Punch Newspaper_08 February 2006_Nigeria Offers Coal Assets To Anglo Enel Other Investors.txt	Nigeria offers coal assets to Anglo, Enel, other investors\nBy Layi Adeloye with agency report\n\nNigeria plans to pass new mining laws next month and offer the country’s coal assets to private investors, including Anglo American Plc, the world’s second biggest mining company, and Enel SpA, Italy’s biggest utility.\n\nThe two companies are among investors that will exclude coal companies from India and China, who have also expressed interest in the properties, which contain more than two billion metric tonnes of coal, said Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili.\n\nThe country will also allow for two exploration concessions for bitumen in the southwest of the country, as well as about 100 other exploration opportunities, she said in an interview on the sidelines of the Investing in African Mining Conference in Cape Town, South Africa on Tuesday.\n\nNigeria has fired more than 2,400 workers at its national coal and mining companies in preparation for their sale, Ezekwesili said.\n\n...as South African miners raise $10bn bid\nAnglo-American and BHP Billiton may be among 15 firms interested in buying coal-fields currently owned by state-run Nigerian Coal Corporation, said Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili.\n\n"We already have about 15 companies from all over the world, including South Africa, who have indicated interest in our coal assets," she said.\n\nAnglo or BHP might bid, Ezekwesili said. "Yes, those are the kind of investors we are talking to."\n\nAnglo American spokesman in South Africa, Mr. James Duncan, declined to comment on the bid. BHP Billiton was yet to be reached at Tusaca.\n\nEzekwesili said that the government had been on an effort to rebuild the country’s mining industry, as it was vital to national investment.\n\n"Nigeria is endowed with large mineral reserves, and we have taken our time to identify these reserves and investors who can explore them in a sustainable manner," she said.\n\nThe minister said that there was also an interest in selling the small coal fields, which have been dormant for a long time.\n\nShe said the government was also considering a major investment in a high-energy thermal coal plant located in the Ovidos Coal Belt.
Punch Newspaper_15 April 2005_Miners Kick Against Fake Revenue Agents.txt	Punch Newspaper	15 April 2005	2005-04-15	Miners Kick Against Fake Revenue Agents	/content/Punch Newspaper_15 April 2005_Miners Kick Against Fake Revenue Agents.txt
Eastern Guardian_29 April 1950_European First Aided In Fatal Accident 2 Miners Rewarded.txt	Eastern Guardian	29 April 1950	1950-04-29	European First Aided In Fatal Accident 2 Miners Rewarded	/content/Eastern Guardian_29 April 1950_European First Aided In Fatal Accident 2 Miners Rewarded.txt	European First Aided In Fatal Accident: 2 Miners Rewarded\n\nENUGU, April 28.-His Majesty the King has approved the award of the King's Recommendation for Brave Conduct to Mr Henry Agwuegbu and Mr Jackson Oparagu, two workers in the Enugu Colliery.\n\nThe award is in connection with a fatal accident at the Obwetti mine last year when Mr J. C. Graham, Colliery Overman, was killed by a fall of stone.\n\nAt the time of the accident Mr Graham was supervising the resetting of roof timbers and Henry Agwugbu who was the Joy Loader Operator and Jackson Oparagu, the Shot Firer, were standing by.\n\nThey both showed great presence of mind in calling other workmen who were employed on repair work at some distance back in the heading to assist them in releasing Mr Graham from the fall.\n\nThey did this on their own intiative and not until the body had been recovered did they waste what might have been valuable time in sending for Euro-pean assistance.\n\nThe actions of those two men were in the best traditions of miners everywhere and they risked their own lives in the attempt, as they thought, to save the life of a fellow man.\n
West African Pilot_14 November 1961_Nigerian Coal Corporation.txt	West African Pilot	14 November 1961	1961-11-14	Nigerian Coal Corporation	/content/West African Pilot_14 November 1961_Nigerian Coal Corporation.txt	NIGERIAN COAL CORPORATION\n\nNo. 37/A/533\n\nEnugu, Nigeria\n\n6th November, 1961\n\nTenders are invited for the tarring of the Iva Valley road from the junction of Onitsha Road and Iva Valley to Ekulu Mine.\n\nSpecifications can be obtained from the Secretary of the Corporation on request.\n\nTenders should reach the Secretary, Nigerian Coal Corporation not later than 20th November, 1961.\n\nThe Corporation does not bind itself to accept the lowest or any tender.\n\nSECRETARY\n\n
Premium Times_18 December 2024_Abandoned Barite Mines Poisoning People.txt	Premium Times	18 December 2024	2024-12-18	Abandoned Barite Mines Poisoning People	/content/Premium Times_18 December 2024_Abandoned Barite Mines Poisoning People.txt	INVESTIGATION: Abandoned barite mines poisoning people in Nigerian communities\n“I don’t want to die young,” Mr Ogina said of the impact of the barite mines on him and his family. “I plead with the government to do something urgently.”\nbyEkpali Saint December 18, 2024\n\nAfter working for about seven hours on his cassava farm during the dry season in February 2018, Nathaniel Ogina approached the stream that runs through his farm in Iyamitet, a community in Nigeria’s Cross River State. As he crouched at the streambank, the change in the water’s colour startled him.\n\n“I noticed the strange colour of the water. It was orange instead of the clean water we were used to,” the 30-year-old recounted.\n\nBut thirst overcame his hesitation. He drank the water despite its odd appearance, only to be disappointed by an unusual taste and the sudden onset of stomach pain. “The taste was different, and I started feeling a kind of stomach pain I had never experienced before,” he recalled, his gaze cast downward.\n\nAlarmed, Mr Ogina rushed to his local chief’s house to report his experience. Although aware of abandoned barite mining sites near his farm, he was shocked to learn from the chief – who had attended a seminar on the effects of mining – that the stream could have been contaminated by leachates from waste indiscriminately dumped by barite miners.\n\nLater that day, Mr Ogina took some medication, which relieved his symptoms. However, days later, his two brothers experienced similar pains, compelling them to take medication as well. These incidents prompted Mr Ogina to stop his mother and six siblings from drinking water from the contaminated stream.\n\nBut his worry lingered.\n“That experience in 2018 upset me because the stream wasn’t like that before,” Mr Ogina lamented. “I am not happy that barite mining activities have affected our water.”\n\nMr Ogina’s experience is not unique to him and his family.\n\nTwo hours’ drive from Iyamitet, in the Ibogo community, Esther Onete experienced a similar ordeal in March 2024. On her first visit to her mother’s farm with her two children, her eldest son fetched water from a nearby stream and gave it to his younger brother to drink. Shortly afterwards, Ms Onete noticed strange symptoms in her one-year-old.\n\n“I started noticing weakness in my baby,” the 26-year-old mother said. Though they left the farm early, the situation worsened later that night.\n\n“He developed diarrhoea, his temperature rose, and he couldn’t sleep,” Ms Onete explained. She rushed her baby to a nearby hospital the next morning, where nurses attributed the symptoms to poisoning from possible contamination of the stream by the adjacent mine site. After three days of treatment, her baby recovered.\n\nThis incident became a wake-up call.\n\n“Since then, I haven’t taken them [my children] to the farm. I no longer drink from the stream near the farm because I still breastfeed the baby and don’t want to take any risks,” Ms Onete said.\n\n\nHighly significant in the oil and gas sector\nThe oil and gas industry forms the backbone of Nigeria’s economy. The industry relies heavily on barite, a mineral essential for drilling operations. Barite prevents blowouts during drilling, but its extraction is wreaking havoc on farmlands, streams, and human health in Nigeria. The mineral has been discovered in nine Nigerian states: Adamawa, Benue, Cross River, Ebonyi, Gombe, Nasarawa, Plateau, Taraba, and Zamfara.\n\nNigeria possesses the fourth-largest deposit of barite in the world, with estimated reserves exceeding 22 million tonnes. Despite its critical importance to the oil and gas sector, local production remains insufficient, forcing the Nigerian government to spend $300 million (over N500 billion) annually on barite imports, according to Olamilekan Adegbite, the former Minister of Mines and Steel Development.\n\nThe Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act of 2010 mandates that stakeholders prioritise local content in their operations. Yet, the country struggles to reduce its dependence on imports. To address this, the government commissioned a barite processing plant in Cross River State in May 2023, aiming to discourage importation and promote local production.\n\n“Barite is one of the minerals that, if properly developed, can save the country significant foreign exchange,” said Stephen Alao, national president of the Association of Miners and Processors of Barite in Nigeria (AMAPOB). He noted that about 50 local barite mining companies and 35 processors are registered with the association. “We have enough deposits in this country to sustain us and even export. That’s why we keep appealing to the government for support.”\n\nCross River State, home to Mr Ogina and Ms Onete, is rich in barite deposits, with estimates ranging from 8.6 million to 11 million tonnes. The region has attracted numerous companies, which employ open-cast methods to extract the mineral.\n\n“Open-cast mining is a surface technique that extracts minerals from an open pit in the ground,” explained Godswill Eyong, a geologist at the University of Calabar.\nBefore mining begins, the overburden – earth material covering the barite vein – is removed to expose the deposit. “Overburden refers to the material excavated to access the mineral deposit,” Mr Eyong elaborated.\n\nIdeally, after mining, companies are expected to reclaim the land by refilling the pits with the overburden. However, only one of the eight barite mining sites visited across three local government areas in Cross River State had been properly reclaimed, according to locals. The others were abandoned, leaving open pits and overburden to pose environmental and health risks to nearby farming communities.\n\n“In many cases, overburden contains mining tailings,” said Mr Eyong, explaining that tailings are the materials left after separating valuable minerals from the uneconomic fraction of ore. “Some of these materials contain heavy metals. Rain washes them into streams, which may then be consumed unknowingly by local residents.”\n\nThe reporter observed that abandoned pits have filled with rainwater, creating stagnant pools containing heavy metal residues. Locals in Iyamitet reported that during the dry season, the water in these pits appears to boil, and animals like pythons have been sighted in the vicinity.\nThe deep pits also present physical hazards. Farmers and hunters risk falling into these uncovered sites.\n\n“They should have covered the pits to prevent accidents,” said Theophilus Ngbongha, a resident of Iyamitet. “So far, no one has fallen in, but we pray it doesn’t happen.”\n\nChristopher Adamu, a professor of environmental geosciences at the University of Calabar, said these barite mine sites constitute some of the largest barite mines in Nigeria and yet were abandoned without “proper demobilisation, remediation, and restoration of the environment,” which is ideal for preventing devastating environmental and health impacts.\n\nIncreasing health risk\nThe rate at which companies abandon barite mining sites in Cross River State has attracted environmental geochemical studies amongst local scientists. In 2015, researchers from the University of Calabar published a study in Science Direct that examined the heavy metal contamination and health risk assessment associated with abandoned barite mines in the state. Findings showed contamination at these mining sites and that the average concentrations of Fe (iron), Hg (mercury), and Pb (lead) in stream water were above the required standard.\n\nTo examine the level of water quality in Cross River State, this reporter collected 21 samples from three barite mines in Alese, Ibogo, and Iyamitet communities. The samples consist of seven surface water samples, six surface (0-15cm depth) soil samples, five cassava tubers, and three cassava leaves.\n\nSamples were subjected to standard digestion and geochemical analysis and the major parameters analysed include Ba (barium), Cd (cadmium), Cu (copper), Fe (iron), Hg (mercury), and Pb (lead) for all samples using GBC XplorAA Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer instrument from Akwa Ibom State MST-RD Laboratory.\n\nResults of the water quality show that the water is acidic with a pH of 5.3-5.7, despite that the samples were taken during the rainy season in September. The pH of the water samples is below the acceptable range of 6.5 – 8.5 set by both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Nigeria Standard for Water Quality (NSDWQ) set by the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON).\n\n“The findings reveal that surface water samples were moderately acidic and contaminated with cadmium (Cd), exceeding acceptable levels. This indicates that the water is not of good quality and not good for drinking,” Mr Adamu said, adding that the implication of the result is “[the] potential health risks to inhabitants, including kidney damage, osteoporosis, and cancer.”\n\nAcidic water consumption can cause gastrointestinal issues such as stomach problems. This may be a better explanation to the reason for the unusual stomach pain experienced by Mr Ogina and Ms Onete’s son.\n\n“There is a big difference”\nScientists argued that mining typically has the potential to affect soils that locals depend on for farming activities. In 2022, another group of researchers carried out a study to assess the health risks of potentially toxic elements in soils within barite mining areas. Findings showed that most of the samples “present high chronic cancer risks from dermal contact and ingestion for children and adults.”\n\nAfter analysing soil samples taken from abandoned barite sites, this reporter found that all the heavy metals have concentrations below their respective maximum standard values set by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) of Nigeria (Ba 2,000mg/kg, Cd 0.8mg/kg, Cu 36mg/kg, Fe 5000mg/kg and Pb 85mg/kg). Mr Adamu explained that since the samples were taken during the rainy season, frequent rainfall may have washed away substantial amounts of the heavy metals.\n\n“The probable causes of low concentration of heavy metals in soils close to mine sites may be leached away from the soil due to rainfall, irrigation, or groundwater flow [and] presence of minerals that bind or immobilize heavy metals [for example, iron oxides and clay minerals],” he said.\n\n\nImpact on Agriculture\nLocals like Mr Ogina are beginning to notice a decline in crop yields. He explained that when he followed his father to the farm in the 90s, they usually got a bumper harvest. He adds that his father has a big yam barn and at every harvest, they arrange at least 200 rows in the barn. Each row contains the equivalent of 30 bags of yam — and it is counted as one, then across 200 rows, Mr Ogina said. He said things have changed as his number of rows has reduced.\n\n“There is a big difference [now],” he said. “I get 16 or sometimes 12 rows. That is because the yam gets rotten when you harvest it, and for this, it reduces the number of bags I get.”\n\nThis contaminated crop is slowly poisoning locals who consume it. A 2021 study by researchers from the University of Calabar, which examined the heavy metals concentration in soils and crop plants within the vicinity of abandoned barite mine sites, found that inhabitants in Iyamitet – Mr Ogina’s community – and the next community in Okurumutet are exposed to heavy metal contamination from the consumption of cassava tubers.\n\nLaboratory investigation\nTo determine whether exposure to heavy metals has any impact on the people, this reporter selected two human samples – a male and a female from Iyamitet – for radiology and laboratory tests which include full blood count, kidney function test, liver function test, and urinalysis.\n\nThe radiology was done at the Nigerian Navy Reference Hospital, Calabar, and results for both human samples showed that their lungs were clear as there was no growth in their lung cavity. However, “the only significant finding in their radiography result is that their hearts are enlarged as a result of hypertensive heart disease,” explained Daniel Akpotuzor, a laboratory technician at St. Joseph Specialist Clinic and Cancer Specialist Treatment Centre (SJSCCC) in Calabar, capital of Cross River State. While it is difficult to satisfactorily and clinically argue the cause of this chronic condition as there are different causes, environmental factors such as air pollution, perhaps from barite mining activities, may have contributed.\n\nAlexius Ayami, a 67-year-old father of nine and Iyamitet’s community leader, is one of the samples and the laboratory investigation showed that for his full blood count, only his Packed Cell Volume (PCV) is slightly low and not within the standard range. Also, results from his kidney function test showed that his creatinine is elevated and above the normal standard. Creatinine is a waste product from the digestion of protein in food and the breakdown of muscle tissue, but healthy kidneys help to remove creatinine from the blood.\n\n“One of the causes of elevated creatinine is heavy metals poisoning,” explained Mr Akpotuzor of the SJSCCC, where the laboratory tests were conducted.\n\n“The kidney is responsible for filtration function and detoxification. Any toxins that get into the body, the kidney filters it out and attempts to excrete it. So in the process of handling all of that stress, most times, the kidney can be damaged,” Mr Akpotuzor said. “So this creatinine result is suggestive of the impact of heavy metal poisoning on this individual [Ayami].”\n\nAlso, Mr Ayami’s liver function test showed that his alkaline phosphatase – that is enzymes found in the body – is 121, which is high and above the standard of (22-92). Mr Akpotuzor explained that heavy metals often settle in vital organs and form deposits in the kidney, liver, bone marrow, and brain. “This elevated alkaline phosphatase is a possible suggestion of heavy metal toxicity as a result of chronic exposure to toxins that are stressing the body in the process of breaking the toxins,” Mr Akpotuzor explained.\n\nOn the other hand, the results of Sarah Okon, the female human sample, showed that both haemoglobin and packed cell volume (PCV) are low. Mr Akpotuzor explained that “she is not very healthy” with her PCV result, which is 32 per cent as against the standard of 40-54 per cent; and that if the PCV drops to 30, she will need a blood transfusion “to be able to cope.” He adds that even her neutrophil, which helps to boost immunity and fight infections, is low as it is currently at 29 per cent as against the standard of over 50-70 per cent. Lymphocytes, which also help to fight infection, are usually on the lower side, said Mr Akpotuzor, but they are on the higher side for Ms Okon.\n\nMr Akpotuzor also explained that her full blood count is mildly suggestive of bone marrow suppression because there is a suppression in her red blood cells, and white blood cells are not up to normal, meaning the “white cell and red cell have been compromised.”\n\n“[The result] is more typical of what you see in lead poisoning and the inhalation of dust that comes from mining activities and they are deposited in the bone marrow. They displace the space that is to be occupied by cells that are to be producing blood and that is why you have bone marrow suppression,” Mr Akpotuzor explained. “This result is suggestive of bone marrow suppression.”\n\nWhile her kidney appears normal, laboratory investigation showed a slight elevation in her liver enzymes. “The elevation is suggestive of a damaging process ongoing, so whatever is happening to her is possible it is in an early stage,” Mr Akpotuzor said.\n\nYet, Ms Okon said she not only eats crops that studies found to contain some level of heavy metals, “I still drink from the stream and my [seven] children also drink from the stream.”\n\nOn the whole, Mr Akpotuzor said if both Mr Ayami and Ms Okon have continuous exposure to the toxic mining environment, there could be more derailment in their results when they are more advanced in age given that health complications compound as humans advance in age.\n\n“At this stage, they are asymptomatic. If they are in another environment, the parameters [will] go back to normal. [And] If you keep them there, they will begin to experience the cumulative effect of the exposure that has caused this level of derailment [in their results]. At some point in the future, they will see the consequences of exposing themselves to the [toxic] environment,” Mr Akpotuzor said.\n\nBut it appears locals have no other option.\n\n“I am still drinking from the stream. I took drugs the different times I had stomach pain. [But] I think I am used to the water as I no longer take drugs. I believe my system has adapted to it,” 48-year-old Mr Ngbongha, a father of four, said.\n\n“It will not kill you”\nDespite researchers’ findings, Mr Alao, the national president of the Association of Miners and Processors of Barite in Nigeria (AMAPOB), insists that it is the associated minerals, such as lead, that are hazardous, not barite itself. He argues that, unlike the mining of minerals such as gold, barite mining does not pollute streams.\n\n“Water pollution does not occur in barite mining [because] we don’t use chemicals to mine barite; we do extraction,” Mr Alao said. “You can even drink barite—it will not kill you. It is a medicinal product [and] can be taken as a formula before undergoing an internal x-ray.”\n\nWhile Mr Alao is correct that barite is used in medical imaging and other industries, such as cosmetics, paper-making, rubber, plastics, and paints, its applicability in these contexts does not negate the fact that it contains heavy metals.\n\nOne of the abandoned barite sites in Alese belongs to Presco Log Nigeria Limited. According to James Egbo, the company’s founder, it was registered in 2014. Mr Egbo claimed his company began mining barite at the site one year ago, having obtained community consent for an undisclosed fee. However, Mr Egbo said financial challenges forced the company to pause operations, although the project remains licensed for five years.\n\n“It’s still on,” Mr Egbo explained. “I intend to return to the site to continue mining.”\n\nMr Egbo also denied that his company’s activities had contaminated local streams, claiming that environmental impacts are carefully considered.\n\n“Whenever we need to drain water, we do so around 9 p.m., ensuring the stream clears before morning,” Mr Egbo said. “We also ensure the drainage is not near any streams.”\n\nWeak implementation\nAccording to Mr Alao, barite mining pits often become too deep and dangerous for continued operations, leading companies to abandon them. He noted that in such cases, the Environmental Protection and Rehabilitation Programme (EPRP) mandates companies to reclaim the land by properly refilling pits and planting trees.\n\n“[The companies] are supposed to reclaim the land properly,” Alao said. “But if there are many abandoned sites, it means the federal mines officers are not doing their jobs.”\n\nArchibong Otu, chairman of the Cross River State branch of the Mineral Resources and Environmental Management Committee (MIREMCO), admitted that mining is inherently destructive. He explained that adherence to established environmental standards is essential but often poorly enforced.\n\n“Mining, by its nature, destroys the environment. The law provides measures to mitigate these damages and protect water sources,” Mr Otu said. “But compliance levels have not been good.”\n\nMIREMCO, established under the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act of 2007, is tasked with supervising mining activities and addressing illegal mining nationwide. It operates as a collaboration between federal, state, and local governments. In Cross River State, MIREMCO draws its membership from state ministries of agriculture, environment, mineral resources, and lands, with the federal mines officer serving as secretary.\n\nHowever, Mr Otu highlighted that MIREMCO’s efforts are hampered by a lack of funding. Since the committee’s inauguration in March, it has received no financial support.\n\n“We have not been funded with a single naira,” Mr Otu said. “Despite this, we are working and will continue to do our best to rescue the state from destruction.”\n\nMr Otu attributed many of the challenges in the sector to poor enforcement of the Minerals and Mining Act and federal control over the extractives industry. He criticised the federal government for failing to decentralise mining regulations, leaving state governments powerless to address the environmental and social impacts of mining.\n\n“The state is closer to the people, but the federal government insists mining is on the exclusive list,” he said. He explained that when Cross River State attempted to regulate mining activities, companies took legal action, citing the Mining Act.\n\n“Some investors have taken the state to court and won judgments based on the blind spots in the Mining Act,” Mr Otu said.\n\n“There is an urgent need to reclaim abandoned mining sites,” he added. “Some pits, abandoned for over 20 years, are so deep that anyone who falls in is unlikely to survive. Reclamation must be funded, either through a dedicated fund or by holding the federal government accountable for collecting royalties from mining companies.”\n\n\n“I don’t want to die young”\nBarite mining in Iyamitet began in 1995 on a small scale. However, according to Alexius Ayami, a 67-year-old community leader, the arrival of companies with excavators in the 2000s intensified operations. The barite was transported by trucks to oil-rich Port Harcourt.\n\nMr Ayami said the community has no exact record of how many companies have mined in Iyamitet. However, he listed 16 companies that mined and abandoned sites and three still in operation. A search of CAC records revealed no matches for most of these companies.\n\nMr Ayami explained that before the community gives consent to a company, the company pays a fee of N2.5 million, and the community gives one-year probation, which entails the company prospecting on the site to ascertain the deposit of the mineral. As soon as the company confirms this, the community invites the company and hands over a Community Development Agreement (CDA), a document that will specify what the company will do for the community, which often includes awarding scholarships to community members and building roads and medical treatment centres.\n\nBut rather than provide all this, most of these companies left a legacy of pollution, contaminating the streams locals depend on for drinking and cooking. Close to some of the abandoned barite sites, this reporter found makeshift security houses, which Mr Ayami said were erected by some of the companies.\n\n“The only way you can know they have polluted the stream is the change in colour of the water,” Mr Ayami said. “If you drink from it, you might not notice any change. But most of us who know the effect don’t drink. The joy I have is that we have never had a casualty.”\n\nMeanwhile, these companies employed some of the locals to mine barite. In the Alese community, for example, Oscar Asari said that Omar International Limited first came to the community in 1998 and entered into an agreement with the community. Like Iyamitet, Mr Asari said the company paid the Alese community consent fee. Once that was completed, he said the company brought in workers and also employed workers from the community.\n\nMr Asari was one of the miners. Then, the extraction was done by these miners, and each miner had his pit where he extracted the mineral. With a chisel, digger, and hammer, Mr Asari said each miner can dig and extract five tonnes. A tonne was N1,000 in the 90s but now N10,000, which the company pays. The company then brings in its truck, loads it with about 30 tonnes, and then heads to Port Harcourt, Mr Asari said.\n\nIn addition to the physical injury barite can cause as the stone is sharp, Mr Asari said they have also noticed the quality of the water they fetch from the stream has reduced.\n\n“Now, water is flowing well, so you will not notice,” Mr Asari told this reporter in September just after the heavy rain that fell for about 40 minutes stopped. “[But] any barite site where its water flows into the stream, the water is usually different. I have noticed it. If you drink the water, it will seem as though they put alum and one could get skin rashes.”\n\nOne day in 2001 for example, Mr Asari said one of his son’s friends bathed with the water from one of the abandoned mine pits and started experiencing skin rashes. “I know the thing is poisonous. [That is why] I usually beat children not to go close to that place,” he said, pointing to an abandoned barite mine pit.\n\nMr Asari said about three companies have mined and abandoned in Alese, where Mr Egbo’s company has a mine pit.\n\nThis reporter could not assess the depth of the abandoned barite mine pits because it was the rainy season and they were filled with water.\n\nBack in Iyamitet, Mr Ogina has stopped taking water from the stream near his farmland. So, while going to the farm, he fetches water from another stream that is not connected to the mining sites. But he hopes the federal government will regulate mining activity so that locals’ lives won’t be at risk.\n\n“I don’t want to die young,” Mr Ogina said, leaning forward to make his point. “I plead with the government to do something urgently.”
The Nigerian Citizen_10 December 1953_Mining Leases.txt	The Nigerian Citizen	10 December 1953	1953-12-10	Mining Leases	/content/The Nigerian Citizen_10 December 1953_Mining Leases.txt	Mining Leases\n\nM. Michael Audu Buba (Plateau): To\n\nask the Civil Secretary :\n\n(a) What is the total mining leases on the Plateau? (b) What is the total acreage of land now being used for mining on the Plateau?\n\nAnswer: (a) At March 31, 1953, 2,000 Mining Leases and Rights were extant in Plateau Province. (b) At March 31, 1953, 182,569 acres were held under Mining Leases and Rights in Plateau Province. Only a very small percentage of this acreage is actively mined at any one time or, in fact, ever mined, the remainder generally still being available for farming.\n\n
The Guardian_27 August 2019_Government Not Working For Nigerians In Mining Sector.txt	The Guardian	27 August 2019	2019-08-27	Government Not Working For Nigerians In Mining Sector	/content/The Guardian_27 August 2019_Government Not Working For Nigerians In Mining Sector.txt	Government not working for Nigerians in mining sector, stakeholders allege\nBy Cornelius Essen, Abuja\n27 August 2019\n\n“Colonial mentality will do the Federal Government no good. Australia and Canada have taken this into consideration. The\nNigerian government is not serving the citizens in the mining sector.”\n\nWith the above, the Executive Director of Global Rights, Abiodun Baiyewu, and other stakeholders yesterday came down hard on government at a town hall meeting to promote sustainability in the extractive sector through adherence to human rights in Abuja.\n\nThey, therefore, sought a review of the 2015 roadmap on solid minerals to check environmental degradation and enthrone community-based and participatory governance.\n\n\nBaiyewu accused operators of flouting extant laws, adding that sources of water and the environment in the host communities had been contaminated on account of unregulated activities in the industry.\n\nShe argued that the impact of the roadmap had been felt in most of the states they had toured, noting that secrecy remains the order of the day in mining administration.\n\nFaulting the portal of the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, the executive director accused the government of not carrying the stakeholders along in the decision-making process, especially those that relate to climate change.\n\nAlso speaking, Garba Dauda of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) deplored the death of 400 artisanal miners in Zamfara State and ongoing incidents in other communities, noting that this set of Nigerians had important roles to play in the nation’s economic regeneration.\n\nContributing, Godwin Ojo of Environmental Rights Action (ERA) called on government to externalise costs of environmental degradation and put mining in the hands of locals instead of engaging foreign investors.\n\nHe believed that when this is done, the environment and security would be better for it, describing as double colonialism the manhandling of Nigerians by expatriates and granting of waivers to the same people.\n\nOn his part, Linus Adie of the concerned ministry admitted that the roadmap was not formulated by ‘real’ stakeholders and as such, were not that much conversant with the challenges besetting the sector.
The Guardian_01 February 2005_Govt Approves New Management Outfit For Mining Firm.txt	The Guardian	01 February 2005	2005-02-01	Govt Approves New Management Outfit For Mining Firm	/content/The Guardian_01 February 2005_Govt Approves New Management Outfit For Mining Firm.txt	Govt approves new management outfit for mining firm\n\nThe Federal Government has conceded the management of Nigeria Iron Ore Mining Company (NIOMCO) to Global Infrastructure Holdings Ltd.\n\nA statement issued at the weekend in Abuja by the Ministry of Power and Steel says that the new manager will operate the mines, maintain the equipment and plants, and pay royalties to the Federal Government.\n\nNIOMCO, located at Itakpe, Kogi State, has the potential of producing billets, the core raw material needed by Ajaokuta Steel Company for the production of liquid steel, iron rods, and a host of other steel products.\n\nThe move, according to the statement, is to ensure uninterrupted supply of iron ore to the Ajaokuta Steel Plant.\n\n"Federal Government’s move stems from the basic belief that not only should steel be manufactured locally, but that even the raw materials used in its production be sourced locally," the statement adds.\n\nGlobal Infrastructure Ltd in 2004 also entered into a concessional agreement with the Federal Government to manage the Ajaokuta Steel Plant.\n\nContinued from Page 29\n\nThe NIOMCO agreement would be strictly supervised by the Power and Steel Ministry, which would set up a monitoring team for that purpose.\n\nGovernment, since the inception of Ajaokuta Steel Company two decades ago, established NIOMCO as the primary source of raw material for the steel company.\n\nMeanwhile, the Geological Department of the state Ministry of Industries, Commerce, and Co-operatives will soon produce a directory of mineral resources in Ogun State.\n\nThe state director of Geology Services, Mr. Steve Ipinniwa, said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) last week in Abeokuta that the directory would provide necessary information for investors to tap the massive natural resources in the state.\n\nHe disclosed that the department, established in September last year, then had 80 geologists, each working on specific schedules.\n\nIpinniwa stated that the department’s major achievement in the last three months was the preliminary report on clay deposits in Ogun State.\n\nHe pointed out that the report, sent to Europe, was now the basis for a Spanish ceramic company’s interest in establishing its company in the state.\n\nIpinniwa said that his department was also working on laterite deposits and their suitability for building houses at a cheaper cost.
The Guardian_25 June 2023_Youths In Plateau Abandon Education Pursue Artisanal Mining.txt	The Guardian	25 June 2023	2023-06-25	Youths In Plateau Abandon Education Pursue Artisanal Mining	/content/The Guardian_25 June 2023_Youths In Plateau Abandon Education Pursue Artisanal Mining.txt	Youths in Plateau abandon education, farming, pursue artisanal mining\nBy NAN\n25 June 2023\n\nFollowing the rising spate of mining activities in some parts of Plateau, young people have abandoned their academic pursuits and have ventured into artisanal mining.\n\nThe booming artisanal mining in Barkin Ladi, Riyom, Bassa and Jos South local government areas (LGAs), have also made the largely under aged children to leave agricultural activities, which they were combining with their academics.\n\nSome community leaders from the localities, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in separate interviews, described the situation as worrisome and called for urgent action to curb the looming dangerous trend.\nThey raised this alarm on the sidelines of a training, recently organised by the Centre for Advocacy of Justice and Rights (CAJR) in Jos.\n\n\nMr Gyang Gerre, the community leader of Jol, in Riyom, accused some parents of influencing their children’s decision to drop out of school and go into mining.\n\nGerre, who decried the rising number of school drop outs in Riyom, said that the ugly situation was posing serious danger to the growth and development of society.\n\n“Children in both primary and secondary schools no longer go to school; the number of school drop outs in Riyom is alarming.\n“This is not a good omen for us, it has adverse effects on the future of the children and the society in general.\n\n“Most children in Riyom don’t go to school or farm again; majority of them have delved into mining.\n\n“The unfortunate aspect is that most of these kids are being encouraged by their parents because they are making quick and easy money,’ ‘he said.\n\nGerre also decried the looming hunger in most of these communities, and by extension, the state and country at large, because the mining activities were slowly crippling agricultural production.\n\n“We commenced farming activities in April, but not much progress has been made because for the past three years, our people have not been consistent with farming as a result of artisanal mining.\n\n“As we speak serious hunger looms in our communities; parents now prefer to buy food instead of producing the food to feed their families and also sell.\n“Our people have abandoned both the wet season and irrigation farming that they are known for, and have all gone into mining,” he stated.\n\nOn his part, Mr Jonathan Dangyang, from Gyel Community, Jos South, decried the growing trend of sexual immorality and drug abuse among young people at mining sites.\n\nDangwang particularly decried the rate of unwanted pregnancies among teenage girls, adding that miners were the ones taking advantage of these young girls and impregnating them without taking responsibility.\n\n“Socially, mining activities has massive devastating effects on our communities.\n\n“Young girls of school age get impregnated at mining sites by people who are not ready to take responsibility.\n\n“There is also an unchecked trend of drug abuse among young people; they consume all kinds of illicit substances.\n“Worst still is the increasing rate of adultery among married men and women at the mining sites,” he said.\n\nMeanwhile, Ms Sarah Johnson, the Programme Manager of CAJR, said that the training was part of its project tagged;\n\n“Effects of Tin Mining on Ancestral Lands, Land Productivity and the Future of the Next Generation in Plateau”.\nJohnson said that the project was being supported by Global Greengrants Fund, an international organisation.\n\n“This project aims at checking how mining activities are affecting the preservation of ancestral lands, agricultural activities and the social lives of the people.\n\n“Because the ongoing mining activities in Plateau are huge, this project also seeks to find out the economic importance of abandoned mining ponds scattered all over the state.\n\n“The project also wants to find out the social and health implications, due to increasing mining activities in communities across Plateau.\n\n“So, this meeting is to sensitise these stakeholders and find out possible ways we can collectively address the challenges that come with mining activities on our lands,” Johnson said.\n\nShe, however, explained that the project was not aimed at discouraging artisanal mining in the state, but to ensure that it was done with minimal negative impacts on the land.\n\n“All we are after is to ensure that mining activities improves the health and social lives of the people.\n\n“We want to ensure that mining doesn’t affect farming, tourism, among other activities due to land degradation, as result of exploration of the commodities,’ she added.
Eastern Guardian_23 November 1949_Responsibility For Shooting.txt	Eastern Guardian	23 November 1949	1949-11-23	Responsibility For Shooting	/content/Eastern Guardian_23 November 1949_Responsibility For Shooting.txt	Responsibility For Shooting \n\nMUCH AS the official version of the Enugu incident gives some indication of what might have happened, we are very much concerned in the way officialdom has capitalised on that report and flung same to all corners of the world. This seems just to be a well planned propaganda technique to prepare public mind to justify the condemnable shooting incident by the Nigeria Police. Nigerian miners and strikers have been portrayed as unreasonable, rash, trouble brewers and outlaws. Naturally, the conclusion is tentatively reached that outlaws should be dealt with as dictated, by circum-stances, and according to one Police high official, it was the duty of the Police to maintain peace and order at all cost and they only acted in self-defence when the situation was dangerous to the extreme. These are all direct and circumstantial evidences placed at the bar of public opinion for a verdict to be pronounced against the strikers. We make a statement straight from the shoulders that none but the unscientific idiot would swallow line, hook and sinker this official propaganda stunt that has already been played up to the gallery for imperialist propaganda purposes.\n\nWe seem to be pretty certain that His Excellency was at Enugu a few days ago and was in this Garden City of ours, where he passed the night. Believe it or not, but do not ask us for proof. It is understood that His Excellency took the gravest view of the situation as he gave no authority for the shooting down of the strikers, and alleged to have exonerated himself from the repercusions of the shooting episode and blamed it all on the local heads in the Eastern Provinces. This might sound fantastic, but at the same time, probable.\n\nWe dare ask, since the power to order the shooting of strikers is vested by law on the Commander-in-Chief of the imperial forces in this country, who is His Excellency the Governor, in the absence of any delegation of such power to either the Chief Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner of Police in cases of emergency, and in the light of the above allegations, is the Enugu shooting incident lawful or unlawful? This is the crux of the issue.\n\nWe also demand to know who was the officer who ordered the shooting. Mere generalising on casualties suffered by the Police is inadmissible. We want to know exactly whether any Police was killed. The public are entitled to know the exact figures. So far, we know the number of strikers dead now seems to be no less than thirty. Give us the correct figures and stop quibbling and pre-varicating over the issue. Who was responsible for the shooting episode must be told the country. A Commission of Enquiry has to be appointed by the Governor to investigate into the scandalous episode. This is no capital news to us, as it is always the medicine after death prescription of our imperialist physicians.\n
Punch Newspaper_17 March 2005_Solid Minerals Natural Disasters T.txt	Punch Newspaper	17 March 2005	2005-03-17	Solid Minerals Natural Disasters T	/content/Punch Newspaper_17 March 2005_Solid Minerals Natural Disasters T.txt	Solid minerals, natural disasters top mining conference’s agenda\n\nThe development of the nation’s solid mineral endowments and ways to tackle natural disasters are some of the core issues to be discussed at the 41st Annual International Conference of the Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society.\n\nTagged, “Eko 2005,” the conference, which will hold at the Eko Hotel & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos, from March 6 to 11, has as its theme, “Policy Imperatives for Sustainable Development in the Energy and Minerals Sector.”\n\nAbout 90 papers to be presented by academics, professionals in geosciences and mining, investors in mineral and energy sectors as well as bureaucrats, would be delivered at the conference.\n\nThe papers will cover five sub-themes – coal mining, water resources development, the search for alternative fuel, in the light of environmental degradation and soaring prices of hydrocarbons.\n\nSome of the topics include – geophysical techniques and applications, sedimentology, petrology, biostratigraphy, sequence stratigraphy, geochemistry applications, safety and environmental pollution control, mineral exploration, mines and steel development.\n\nIn the wake of the disastrous Tsunami waves, which adversely impacted lives and property in the coastal cities and settlements in southern Asia, the panel discussion on the first day of the conference will focus on “The Role of Geosciences in Flood Control in Urban and Regional Planning.”\n\nSpeaking on the subject, the Director, Department of Petroleum Resources, Mr. Macaulay Ofurhie, who is also the Chairman of the Local Organising Committee for the conference, said that the NMGS as a professional body, which deals with the studies of the earth, should be concerned with disasters like the Tsunamis.
Punch Newspaper_18 October 2007_Electricity Workers Want Coal Option Explored.txt	Punch Newspaper	18 October 2007	2007-10-18	Electricity Workers Want Coal Option Explored	/content/Punch Newspaper_18 October 2007_Electricity Workers Want Coal Option Explored.txt	Electricity workers want coal option explored\nBy Udeme Esuene\n\nThe National Union of Electricity Employees has suggested that more attention be focused on coal production for electricity generation in the country.\n\nThe General Secretary, NUEE, Mr. Joe Ajaero, who spoke on the subject, explained that the solution to help the electricity situation which he said was at an all-time low, was to go back to coal.\n\nAjaero, who made this position known in an interaction with The Punch on Tuesday, said the option, and "not the much talked about privatisation and the Independent Power Project, was key to boosting power generation, because of its better environment, cost, availability and the power return.”\n\nHe, however, hoped that the improvement would be done in line with the Renewable Energy, Biomass, Bio-fuel and Climate Change initiative, which he said could help push the country towards being an industrial hub of the world.\n\nThe union argued, however, that the government has its priorities misplaced by focusing more on the energy mix that was based on hydro and thermal, assumed to be the most reliable.\n\nThe Chief Press Secretary of the Ministry of Mines and Steel, Mr. Ifeatu Chukwuma, also noted in his views on the subject, that the call was in order, as it reflected the growing concern on the need to boost power generation.\n\nAccording to him, "the major component of the world's energy mix is hydro, but it is quickly giving way to fossil fuel."\n\nChukwuma further explained that government was not competitive enough in encouraging industry in regards to coal generation. “The school of thought which says that coal is already a retrogressing phenomenon, has an accuracy problem, which they can only present as that instead of very rigid Government is only myopic to wind and solar.”\n\nHe maintained that if the coal option was pursued, Nigeria had the potential to be nearly an industrial nation, as resources within our coal sector are more than what most other African major users of the fuel rely on.\n\nHe explains, "Other countries in the world such as China, America, South Africa, and Ghana generate power in their countries, in some cases more than 50 per cent on coal and South Africa depends on coal for 70 per cent of their total energy generation. Ghana and USA also get about 50 per cent of their total energy from coal as well."\n\nHowever, he submits that "even at that, we have not given this sector nearly a supportive framework in Nigeria."\n\nHe adds that in the 1960s, when industries in the South-East region, including Aba, Onitsha, Owerri and Onukpa had their own coal reserves in Benue and Kogi, production was at an all-time high.\n\n“In 1964, Nigeria used coal to produce about 429 megawatts of power, an amount that would almost double the total power supply in the country today,” he said.\n\nCoal consumption in local cement industries, breweries, and foundries, in laundries and textiles mills, as much as maritime transport industries such as the Nigerian Railways, depended largely on coal production for their energy needs.\n\n"It is in our commercial and industrial concept that growth should flow from a thriving coal sub-sector, as it should do things that must be fixed or reconsidered in the energy equation.”\n\nStudies, he says, "show that the industry has actually stagnated with regards to improving supply in the last 30 years and the evidence is there for all to see."\n\n"In Nigeria, the coal industry has recorded over 3.7 billion metric tons in coal reserves, and it is quite unfortunate that today coal mining is a non-active sector in our industry, unlike what obtained in the 1960s."\n\nThese industries include the Marine, the Nigerian Railways, the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (now Power Holding Company of Nigeria) and the Nigeria Cement Industry.\n\nThe Nigerian government had in the 1970s adopted an energy policy that was to discontinue the use of coal. It was this policy that ultimately led to the stagnation of Nigeria in the energy sector as well as the crisis that was birthed in the power industry.\n\nAjaero said that the climate under which coal is being promoted must attract modern industry or generate another energy collapse.\n\nSpeaking on the issue, Otuya says, “We don’t see coal mining as an environmental hazard, but an energy gain in the sense that it will help to balance our energy sector and remove the fluctuations that come from gas.”\n\nHe maintains that government has to be realistic on the sector, rather than see it as a thing of the past.\n\nHe, therefore, suggests that there should be a decentralization of the power sector in such a way that “the challenges are met by opening the industry."\n\nIn his words, "Governments in other climes have seen that they could balance the gas and hydro bias in the energy equation with coal, and have done just that."\n\nAjaero, however, argues that if the government continues to show negligence to coal power generation, it will be impossible for Nigeria to meet its energy demands or even significantly push industrial economy forward.
Eastern Guardian_02 February 1950_Aftermath Of Enugu Colliery Massacre Ends Up In Sentences.txt	Eastern Guardian	02 February 1950	1950-02-02	Aftermath Of Enugu Colliery Massacre Ends Up In Sentences	/content/Eastern Guardian_02 February 1950_Aftermath Of Enugu Colliery Massacre Ends Up In Sentences.txt	Aftermath Of Enugu Colliery Massacre Ends Up In Sentences\n\nAs a sequel to the Enugu Colliery massacre followed by the historic riot and looting which broke out here on November 25 last, sentence was passed on James Ogbonna and four others, including a woman, on Wednesday, February 1, by His Worship, Mr A.A. Adesigbin.\n\nJames Ogbonna and one other were each sentenced to one year imprisonment to run concurrently with the previous sentence of two years.\n\nThree others were each sentenced to seventy-five pounds fine or nine months' imprisonment in default.\n\nThere were eight others who were also involved, but were found not guilty and discharged.\n\nMr J. N. Odogwu, B.L., who appeared for some of the accused, pleaded for leniency and option of fine.\n\nSub-Inspector B. H. Etomi asked for severe punishment.\n\nIt will be remembered forty seven were discharged and thir-teen convicted, of those involved in this riot case by His Worship, Mr Adesigbin, on Monday, January 31.\n\nThose sentenced, on February 1, were charged with wilful dam-age to property, including stealing and receiving stolen property from Mr J. Keil's shop at 8, Aggrey Road.\n\n
Eastern Guardian_15 December 1950_Evidence Of Prosecution Closes In Colliery Union Funds Case.txt	Eastern Guardian	15 December 1950	1950-12-15	Evidence Of Prosecution Closes In Colliery Union Funds Case	/content/Eastern Guardian_15 December 1950_Evidence Of Prosecution Closes In Colliery Union Funds Case.txt	Evidence Of Prosecution Closes In Colliery Union Funds Case\n\nENUGU. When the evidence for the prosecution ended last Friday, in the celebrated colliery union funds case, it was revealed that the accused persons were arrested on October 27; Uba and Ezeani made s'atements to the Police, waile Ojiyi, Agu and Onyinwa reserved theirs.\n\nOnyekwelu stood by his earlier voluntary statement.\n\nLast Saturday, Ojiyi defended himself for one hour and fifty-five \nminutes.\n\nHe stated that in January 1946, he was on a salary of £128 per annum.\n\nWhen colliery workers retrospective arrears as a drew result of conciliations during which period he was their spokesman, the workers decided to grant him some compensation.\n\nOjiyi endeavoured to give evi dence to prove that certain Crown witnesses were not members of the Colliery Workers Union.\n\nHe revealed that he had no knowledge of accounting and cited various portions of union's constitution and rules.\n\nHe further revealed that a total sum of £2,192 was collected by Levy\n\nWhen the other five accus perons gave evidence, they stated that the levy was raised for Ojiyi on the decision of the annual delegates conference and general meeting and that the executive committee merely carried out instructons of those assemblies.\n\nSix members of the Colliery Workers Union, a screen labour er, four hewers, and a blacksmith also gave evidence for the defence. All these witnesses gave corroborative evidence to the effect that that levy was raised by voluntary contribution as gift to Ojiyi for his services during the 1947 conciliation.\n\n
The Guardian_22 December 2024_Nasarawa Govt Clamps Down On Lithium Firm.txt	The Guardian	22 December 2024	2024-12-22	Nasarawa Govt Clamps Down On Lithium Firm	/content/The Guardian_22 December 2024_Nasarawa Govt Clamps Down On Lithium Firm.txt	Nasarawa govt clamps down on lithium firm for illegal mining\nBy NAN\n22 December 2024 \n\nThe Nasarawa State Government on Sunday arrested the manager of a lithium mining company for operating illegally in Kokona Local Government Area of the state.\n\nMr Yakubu Kwanta, Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, led a joint team of security agencies comprised of the Police, Department of Security Services (DSS), and Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) on the operation.\n\nSpeaking to journalists during the operation in Amba Kure Community, Kokona, the commissioner said that the manager of the company was arrested for operating on the site despite being shut down.\n\nKwanta said that the site was shut down in June 2024 when it was discovered that the mining company was operating without community consent and state government approval.\n\nHe said, “instead of the management of the company to visit our office to address the problem and follow the laid down regulations of mining in the state, they went behind to continue operation.\n\n“We got information that they entered the site in the night and started blasting rocks. We had to mobilise and storm the place immediately.\n\n“They are bragging that they have the backing of some prominent persons in the country and that the state government cannot stop them from operating.\n\n“We will no longer tolerate any act of economic sabotage capable of deying us the desired revenue and constituting a security threat.”\n\nKwanta explained that Gov. Abdullahi Sule had recently directed the ministry to go after illegal miners and flush out crimes and criminality within the sector.\n\nHe pointed out that some highly placed persons were colluding with some of the mining firms to undermine the effort of the state government to sanitise the sector.\n\n“The natural resources are supposed to be a blessing to our people. So, any company coming to mine in the state must get the community consent and government’s approval to enable the community and state to benefit.\n\n“We will not allow our people to be short changed by anybody, no matter how highly placed,” the commissioner said.\n\nHe, therefore, called on miners and mining firms to register with the state government before they begin operation or would be sanctioned.
Dailt Times_25 October 1955_[1] Plateau Strike Takes A Serious Turn.txt	Dailt Times	25 October 1955	1955-10-25	[1] Plateau Strike Takes A Serious Turn	/content/Dailt Times_25 October 1955_[1] Plateau Strike Takes A Serious Turn.txt	PLATEAU STRIKE TAKES A SERIOUS TURN\nNon-striking workers carry spears, bows and arrows\nTHOUSANDS OF non-striking workers In the Plateau minefield have now armed themselves with spears, bows and arrows, following a threat by 30,000 strikers to use force to compel them to join in the strike.\nEmployees of the Bischi Tin Mines, who are not on strike, particularly those working in paddocks and producing centres, now go about their duties armed.\nStrikers held a meeting at Bukuru over the week-end and agreed to take "positive action" to persuade non-strikers to join. They stated that if necessary they would be made to join the strike by force.\nFive hundred workers of two mining companies the United Mine Areas and the Associated Minerals Limited who had not been on strike have now joined.\nAn attempt made by thousands of striking workers to call out Bischi Mines employees by force was thwarted by the police, who have taken precautionary measures to prevent any clash between striking and non-striking workers.\nEight strikers were arrested on Saturday, bringing the total number of arrests to about forty since the strike began eight days ago.\nIt was stated that the unions have paid a total of £108 in court fines on behalf of striking members charged with picketing offences. The strike of the Public Utility and Technical Workers' Union at Kaduna has ended, following the acceptance by the union of the 'new award made by the Government.\nThe Government offered to pay 3s. to General Labour with arrears of payment for one year from October 1, last year. The union later stated that it accepted the awards on protest\n\n\n
Eastern Guardian_12 June 1950_Lump Sum Of £400 Will Go To Estate Of Dead Miners.txt	Eastern Guardian	12 June 1950	1950-06-12	Lump Sum Of £400 Will Go To Estate Of Dead Miners	/content/Eastern Guardian_12 June 1950_Lump Sum Of £400 Will Go To Estate Of Dead Miners.txt	Lump Sum Of £400 Will Go To Estate Of Dead Miners\n\nAdditional £25 For Each Child\n\nENUGU, June 11.- According to an official release, pending the publication of the report of the enquiry into the disorders in the Eastern Provinces, Government has been paying to the dependents of those who lost their lives as a result of police action at Iva Valley on November 18, 1949, a sum equivalent to the basic wage of the deceased.\n\n"Now that the report has been published, Government (subject to the approval of the Finance Committee), has decided to make an ex-gratia payment to the dependents on the estates of each of the deceased a lump sum of £400.\n\n"Where the deceased left children under the age of sixteen, the lump sum will be increased by £25 in respect of each child up to a limit of three", the release concludes.
Premium Times_9 June 2024_Niger Collapsed Mine Alake Condoles Victims.txt	Premium Times	9 June 2024	2024-06-09	Niger Collapsed Mine Alake Condoles Victims	/content/Premium Times_9 June 2024_Niger Collapsed Mine Alake Condoles Victims.txt	Niger Collapsed Mine: Alake condoles victims, vows to enforce miners insurance\nbyPress Release June 9, 2024\n\nTo enhance safety measures and relieve miners and their families in the event of accidents, Mr Alake declared that insurance policies for miners across the country will be enforced.\n\nThe Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, has reaffirmed the federal government’s commitment to enforcing insurance policy for mine workers in Nigeria.\n\nRepresenting President Bola Tinubu on a condolence visit to Niger State Governor, Umar Bago, in Minna, Mr Alake conveyed the President’s sympathies following the recent mine pit collapse in Galadima Kogo, Shiroro Local Government Area.\n\n“I bring the condolences and sympathies of Mr. President to the families of victims, those injured, the entire community, and the government and people of Niger state on the mine pit collapse. It is unfortunate and avoidable. Though we learned the disaster was due to heavy downpours, we are committed to intensifying the monitoring of mining operations to ensure conformity to environmental standards,” Alake stated.\n\nThe minister commended the state government for swiftly mobilising emergency rescue operations in collaboration with federal agencies, stressing that all efforts must be made to rescue those still trapped.\n\nTo enhance safety measures and relieve miners and their families in the event of accidents, Mr Alake declared that insurance policies for miners across the country will be enforced.\n\nThe minister also emphasised the federal government’s stance that remediation plans must accompany mining licence applications, stating that irresponsible mining operations that threaten the environment and communities will no longer be tolerated.\n\n“We must also put in place contingency plans to mitigate the impact of natural disasters on mining sites. For instance, we are making installing support pillars under shafts mandatory. This practice is common in other countries,” he added.\n\nGovernor Bago expressed gratitude to President Tinubu for the condolence visit. He emphasised the need for a concerted effort between the federal government and subnationals to ensure mining companies comply with safety standards.\n\nHe advocated the strengthening of collaborative measures to enhance periodic monitoring and evaluation of the environmental impact of mining operations to minimise the recurrence of the unfortunate incident.\n\nCiting the preponderance of commercially viable critical minerals in the state, Governor Bago appealed to the federal government to focus on making the state the pivot of developing the nation’s mining sector.\n\nGovernor Bago accompanied the minister to visit recuperating victims at IBB Specialist Hospital. On behalf of President Tinubu, he announced a donation of N50 million to assist affected patients and families.\n\n*Segun Tomori*\n\nSpecial Assistant on Media to the Honourable Minister of Solid Minerals Development.\n\n\n
Eastern Guardian_29 May 1945_Tiger Visits Colliery Worker Asleep.txt	Eastern Guardian	29 May 1945	1945-05-29	Tiger Visits Colliery Worker Asleep	/content/Eastern Guardian_29 May 1945_Tiger Visits Colliery Worker Asleep.txt	Tiger Visits Colliery Worker Asleep On Bed Smells His Ear And Roams Into Bush\n\nENUGU- The amazing story of the narrow escape of Mr Peter K Ejiogu, Colliery storekeeper, of Foresty Avenue, Iva Valley, from a hungry tiger after rubbing should-ers with it, has spread much sensa tion throughout Iva Valley NO 1 camp.\n\nAccording to Peter he retired to bel in the night, but woke up not long after perspiring profusely\n\nHe then opened his back doors went out, and rested on his easy chair to cool off in the moon light.\n\nWhilst there, he heard repeated ery of a goat and the beating of a sheep locked in the kitchen for slaughter the following morning in connection with the send off of his colleague who had resigned his appointment under the colliery.\n\nWhat actually happened was that the tiger having discovered that the animals were in the kichen attempted through all corners to find its way into it.\n\nBy unfortunate coincidence, it walked close him, forced its nose into his right ear and exhaled\n\nContinuing Mr Peter said: " I woke up and asked who did this'\n\nNo one replied.\n\n"Then I looked behind the chair 1 sat on and saw nothing, but when 1 looked forward, behold a hungry tiger only about one yard away from me.\n\n"To run or raise an alarm 1 could not because a sort of magic power emanating from the angry beast sized me"\n\nConcluding the narration of the story, Mr Ejiogu said the animal entered the forest near Udi hill while he for his part staggered un-consciously into his room leaving the chair behind.\n\nThe following morning the news was spread and confirmed by the tiger's footprints everywhere in the yard\n
The Nigerian Citizen_20 June 1965_Mines Rise.txt	The Nigerian Citizen	20 June 1965	1965-06-20	Mines Rise	/content/The Nigerian Citizen_20 June 1965_Mines Rise.txt	MINES RISE\nMany mine operators and thousands of workers in the flourishing Plateau Minesfield are to have another experience of a boon in the columbite and tin trade – the second within a decade if the present output continues to rise in accordance with the increasing demand of these two major revenue-earning ores of the Federation.\n\nThis encouraging trend in the tin and columbite business was forecast by Mr. S. A. Tibbets, chairman of Jantar Nigeria Co. Ltd., in his annual statement published in London recently.\n\nIn his report, Mr. Tibbets shows that there has been a ready market for Nigerian tin and that the smelting industry in the Plateau are at present utilizing all the tin produced in the area.\n\nDuring the year ended September 30, 1963, the mine’s output of tin was 250.11 tons, compared with 191 tons in the previous year, while production of columbite was 432.39 tons, the same as the previous year. In the first five months of this year, output of tin rose to 129 tons compared with 87 in the same period of last year, while that of columbite rose to 258 tons compared with 186 tons.\n\nThe chairman states that the whole of the tin output is now being sold to smelters on the Plateau.\n\nTurning to the firm’s acquisition of the Mineral Research Syndicate’s properties since the end of the financial year, Mr. Tibbets says that the producing areas at Mallam Awa and Pengel achieved record figures of 153 tons of tin concentrates and 72 tons of columbite in the first six months of the year.\n\nThe complete reappraisal of the Mineral Research Syndicate’s ore reserves will take several years, but drillings are described as “promising.”
Nigerian Citizen_01 May 1952_£150 000 Rail Line For Coal Mine.txt	Nigerian Citizen	01 May 1952	1952-05-01	£150 000 Rail Line For Coal Mine	/content/Nigerian Citizen_01 May 1952_£150 000 Rail Line For Coal Mine.txt	£150,000 RAIL LINE FOR COAL MINE\n\nTHE sum of £150,000 has been made available by the Nigerian Coal Corporation for a branch railway line to be laid to the new mine which is being developed near Enugu. It is understood that the branch will lead off from the main line south of Enugu and be about seven miles long.\n\nThe approach road is being metalled by Messrs Costains and nearly 200 tons of coal a day are being mined and transported for local consumers via this road.\n\nA mechanical coal cutter and four conveyors are now working at the site.\n\n
Eastern Guardian_02 December 1949_Colliery Workers Now Resume Fully.txt	Eastern Guardian	02 December 1949	1949-12-02	Colliery Workers Now Resume Fully	/content/Eastern Guardian_02 December 1949_Colliery Workers Now Resume Fully.txt	Colliery Workers Now Resume Fully\n\nENUGU. -- A joint telegram signed by Messrs H. O. Davies, Ozuomba Mbadiwe, M. Α. Ο. Imuodu, Gbadamosi, Maduike, Onyiuke and Orizu as team of experts deputised by the National Emergency Committee, Labour Unions and idependent agencies to investigate into the causes of Enugu shooting incident and gather data on the the spot, states:\n\nAfter mature deliberations and consultations with all concerned and on instruction from the National Emergency Committee Lagos, we have directed Colliery workers to resume full production after midnight Wednesday, November 30 in the interest of national economy.\n\nThe National Emergency Committee is satisfied with. the personnel of the Com-mission of Inquiry already appointed and pledges to secure full justice to the workers.
Daily Times_27 August 1955_Miners Dispute Settled.txt	Daily Times	27 August 1955	1955-08-27	Miners Dispute Settled	/content/Daily Times_27 August 1955_Miners Dispute Settled.txt	MINERS' DISPUTE SETTLED\nTHE long-standing dispute be-tween the management of the Coal Corporation, Enugu, and its 500 workers at the Hayes Mines has been resolved.\nAt a meeting between the workers' union and the Chairman of the Coal Corporation, the Corporation agreed to abandon the previous proposal to build residential quarters for the workers in the Hayes Mines.\nIt is understood that the union will continue to press the Corporation to accept the workers' request to build more residential quarters for them at the Asata Coal Camp\nPreviously, the workers had threatened to strike if the Corporation refused to build quarters for them at the Asata Coal Camp as requested.
The Guardian_29 January 2024_Court Remands 41 Suspects Over Alleged2.txt	The Guardian	29 January 2024	2024-01-29	Court Remands 41 Suspects Over Alleged2	/content/The Guardian_29 January 2024_Court Remands 41 Suspects Over Alleged2.txt	Court remands 41 suspects over alleged mining of Oyo govt’s gold\nBy NAN\n29 January 2024\n\nAn Iyaganku Chief Magistrates’ Court in Ibadan on Monday ordered the remand of 41 illegal miners in Agodi Correctional facility over alleged mining of gold, property worth N1.248million belonging to Oyo State Government.\n\nThe defendants, of undisclosed address pleaded guilty to the charges against them.\n\nThe Chief Magistrate, Mrs O. O. Ogunkanmi, who did not take the plea of the defendants, ordered that they should be remanded at Agodi Correctional facility pending the outcome of the case file at the Oyo State Ministry of Justice.\n\nOgunkanmi, thereafter, adjourned the matter until Feb. 6 for hearing.\n\nThe News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the police accused the defendants of conspiracy and illegal mining.\n\nThe defendants: Babangida Salihu, 25, Adamu Sanni, 39, Abdulaziz Lawal, 18, Mamman Ibrahim, 50 and 37 others were arraigned before the court on the two counts.\n\nThe Police Prosecutor, Insp Sikiru Opaleye, told the court that defendants and others at large allegedly conspired together to commit the offence.\n\nOpaleye said the defendants on Jan. 25, allegedly extracted 24.96 grams of gold from an illegal mine at Onipanu village, Ilaju, Ibadan, unlawfully and concealed it without the consent and authority of Oyo State Government.\n\nThe prosecutor put the value at N1. 248 million, from the land that belongs to Oyo state government\n\nOpaleye said the offence contravened Sections 516 and 396 of the Criminal Code Laws of Oyo State 2000.
West African Pilot_21 April 1956_Iva Death Roll Up By Two.txt	West African Pilot	21 April 1956	1956-04-21	Iva Death Roll Up By Two	/content/West African Pilot_21 April 1956_Iva Death Roll Up By Two.txt	Iva Death Roll Up By Two\n\nENUGU, April 20. Two more people have died and eight others are on the danger list since the Iva Coal Mine incident last Thursday night when a wall collapsed during a storm, killing seven people and injuring 43.\n\nThe first seven who died were Ogbonnaya Agu of Amokwe Udi; Peter Ude (Ihe-Awgu); Benjamin Inwoji (Okedudo Udi); Udoha Ejimelo (Ogba-Udi); Moneme Ilo (Ede-Udi); Ezilo Onyemechi (Owa-Udi); and Michael Oluke (Okpatu-Udi).\n
Nigerian Mining Com_26 September 2024_Corruption Hinders Mining Operations.txt	Nigerian Mining Com	26 September 2024	2024-09-26	Corruption Hinders Mining Operations	/content/Nigerian Mining Com_26 September 2024_Corruption Hinders Mining Operations.txt	Mining News\nCorruption Hinders Mining Operations in Nigeria\n\nCorruption is a pervasive problem in the Nigerian mining sector, hindering its growth and development. Bribery, extortion, and illegal permits are among the common forms of corruption. These practices undermine transparency, erode public trust, and divert resources away from legitimate economic activities. Corruption is a serious problem that hinders governance, investment, and economic progress in Nigeria’s mining industry. Nigeria received a score of 24 out of 100 in the Transparency International 2022 Corruption Perception Index, which placed it 154th out of 180 countries and indicated a high level of perceived corruption in a number of industries, including mining.\n\nThe Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) reported in 2021 that illicit mining operations and corruption in the industry cost the nation an estimated $3.4 billion in lost revenue. According to NEITI estimates, around 80% of mining operations in Nigeria are unlawful, resulting in significant losses for the government and regulatory control. – According to a Nigerian Bureau of Statistics survey conducted in 2020, over 36% of firms in the Bribery and corruption were reported by the mining sector, especially when interacting with government representatives and regulatory agencies.\n\nAccording to a World Bank analysis, Nigeria’s mining industry has the potential to produce up to $50 billion a year if managed well, but corruption has made it extremely difficult to reach this potential.Corruption can discourage investment, distort market prices, and create an unfair playing field for businesses. It can also lead to environmental degradation and human rights abuses.\n\nAlthough regulatory structures were established by the Mining Act of 2007, corruption has hindered their implementation. For example, it is estimated that more than 70% of mining licenses are granted without enough supervision. Combating corruption requires a comprehensive approach involving both government and civil society organizations. Strengthening anti-corruption agencies, promoting transparency, and improving accountability are essential steps in addressing this issue.\n\n
Punch Newspaper_01 March 2006_A We’Ll Explore Gold In Nigeria – Anglogold.txt	Punch Newspaper	01 March 2006	2006-03-01	A We’Ll Explore Gold In Nigeria – Anglogold	/content/Punch Newspaper_01 March 2006_A We’Ll Explore Gold In Nigeria – Anglogold.txt	We’ll explore gold in Nigeria – AngloGold\nThe vast solid minerals potential in Nigeria has attracted international investors who are desirous of making investment in the country. One of such investors is the Chief Operating Officer (Africa), AngloGold Ashanti Limited, Mr. Neville F. Nicolau, who spoke with Atser Godwin, in Cape Town, South Africa, on his company’s interest in the Nigerian environment.\n\nYou have heard from the Minister for Solid Minerals Development, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, the reform programmes in Nigeria and the minerals potential in the country. What is your response to all that you have heard?\nI think the minister is a powerful and convincing person. Our interest is certain and we are going to put up a team together to go to Nigeria and find out what prospects are in Nigeria.\n\nWe have not been following what has been happening in Nigeria from the gold point of view simply because there have been other opportunities in other parts of the African continent where our attention has been attracted.\n\nBut we don’t particularly see Nigeria as a huge risky country that we would not want to do business in.\n\nIf there is a possibility of a gold mine, we would be interested in pursuing that possibility.\n\nSo, what we would do after this meeting is to look at the prospectivity of gold in Nigeria.\n\nWe would try to find out if there is real possibility of a gold mine.\n\nWe will put in place an exploration programme and after the exploration programme, if we find a gold mine, we will develop it.\n\nWhen should we expect you in Nigeria for your investigation?\nWe will certainly put ourselves together in the next three to six months to visit Nigeria.\n\nWe will look at the data as a first step. And depending on the prospectivity, we would move forward.\n\nCan you comment on Nigeria’s fight against corruption?\nThe fight against corruption is something South Africa should be doing.\n\nIt is very encouraging to hear what the Federal Government is doing in terms of fighting and making reforms.\n\nWe, as a company, will not operate in an environment where corruption is the order of the day.\n\nWe don’t encourage it, and we don’t participate in any form of corruption in the way we do business.\n\nWe won’t pay bribes to get work. That is not the way we operate.\n\nBut if Nigeria’s reform programme is based on a plan level field, it is a good thing.\n\nWhere is your company based?\nOur primary place of business is in South Africa, but we are also listed on the New York Stock Exchange and we have operations in many countries.\n\nBut we are a Johannesburg-based company and are listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange as well.\n\nCongo, What is your scope of investment in the DRC in terms of capital investment?\nOur mining programme in the DRC is at over $600 million in form of exploration programme.\n\nIt is purely a green field exploration site.\n\nWe have a lot of concessions in the eastern area of the DRC, which is on the East coast.\n\nHow do you operate amid the crises in the DRC?\nFirstly, we are operating with relatively few people.\n\nWhat we do particularly with the local communities and the governments in the areas we operate is that we keep good communication ties with them.\n\nIn DRC, when it appears there is a dangerous situation in areas where we operate, we withdraw people from the sites from time to time.\n\nWhen things are calmed down, we send them back to site.\n\nWe are honest and transparent in our operations and we don’t pay people bribes to stay away from us.\n\nWe believe bringing economic wealth to any region is helpful in bringing political stability.\n\nHowever, we are not embarrassed by the fact that we are looking for a gold mine there; and we are not ashamed by the fact that we are making money from there.\n\nThe DRC is a country in transition hoping to attain political stability and whatever we can do to promote that stability, we would certainly do.\n\nWhat is the position of AngloGold Ashanti on the new EU legislation on the exportation of African minerals other wise known as Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals?\nI don’t have any comment on that.\n\nI don’t want to speculate.
Punch Newspaper 05 June 2020.txt	Punch Newspaper 05 June 2020		NaT		/content/Punch Newspaper 05 June 2020.txt	Again, two Chinese kidnapped in Ebonyi\n5th June 2020 gunmen\n\nBy \nEdward Nnachi\n\n\nTWO Chinese nationals working at a mining site in Ebonyi State were reportedly kidnapped by gunmen at Ihietutu village in the Ishiagu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.\n\nIt was gathered that the kidnapped Chinese nationals were employees of Greenfield Metals Nigeria Limited, a firm that specialises in lead and zinc mining.\n\nThe incident, it was learnt, happened on Wednesday in a mining pit at Ihietutu near the company’s office.\n\nChairman of the company, Henry Ahanaotu, said the gunmen first shot indiscriminately into the air to scare away workers before proceeding to whisk away the expatriates.\n\nHe said the incident happened at the company’s mining pit at Ajirija mining site, 300 metres from the company’s Life Camp.\n\nAhanaotu, who doubles as the Managing Director of the company, said a formal report on the incident had been lodged with the Ebonyi States Police Command in the state.\n\nHe said the company had not made contact with the kidnappers.\n\n“The unidentified persons bearing sophisticated arms stormed our mining pit at Ajirija and shot several times before whisking their victims away. We are yet to establish the identity of the abductors or where they came from,” he said.\n\nThe Ebonyi Police Public Relations Officer, Mrs Loveth Odah, confirmed the incident and added that the victims were kidnapped on Wednesday at the company’s mining site.\n\n“We got the information yesterday (Wednesday). A detachment of our tactical team was dispatched to the area with a view to unraveling the true situation and also to rescue the victims. The team has yet to return to furnish us with relevant information about the incident.\n\n“But I can confirm to you that we received a distress call from the area yesterday, informing the police of an alleged abduction of two Chinese working in a mining site at Ihietutu in Ishiagu community.\n\n“We are waiting for information from our men before we can make informed comments on the motive behind the alleged kidnapping.\n\n“For now, we cannot say if the abduction was for ransom purposes or not because the abductors have yet to establish contacts with the company,” she said.\n\nOdah, however, urged non-Nigerians working in any part of the state to ensure they move about with armed security guards to prevent attacks and kidnapping by criminals.\n\nThis is the second kidnapping involving the company this year.
West African Pilot_25 November 1939_Nigerian Mines.txt	West African Pilot	25 November 1939	1939-11-25	Nigerian Mines	/content/West African Pilot_25 November 1939_Nigerian Mines.txt	Nigerian Mines\n\nThe average Nigerian knows very little of the metal and the mining industry of Nigeria which, it has often been said, form one of the great economic backstay of the country.\n\nThere were, according to the "Annual Report on the Mines Department" forty-three companies and firms and 100 private owners engaged in mining on December 31 last year.\n\nThe area of land held under mining title and Exclusive Prospecting Licence on December 31 was 41,600,832 acres and there were 109 prospecting rights issued during the year.\n\nThe main metals which Nigeria yields are tin, gold, columbite, wolfram, silver lead, of which there was no production last year, and mica, a small amount of which was produced and ex. ported last year.\n\nAs yet very few Africans have taken any interest in mining, excepting as mere labourers, the main prospecting rights being in the hands of some European firms and individuals.\n\nThis is due, to a large extent, to the very high cost of operating any successful mine.\n\nBut when the possible large gain that may accrue from mining\n\nis considered, it will be seen that it is really worth while for some wealthy Africans to pool their resources and take a share in the tapping of the immense mineral resources of the country.\n\nOn the other hand, by far the largest number of mine workers are Africans: 31,865 Africans as against 207 Africans being engaged in tin mining and 364 Africans as against eight non-Africans being engaged in tin prospecting.\n\nThe same is true of gold: 8,615 Africans with forty-two non-Africans being employed in gold mining and sixty-eight Africans with one non-African, in gold prospecting.\n\nThe proportion of Africans to non-Africans working on other mines are in each case very near the above.\n\nDuring last year, a combination of low metal prices and a low quota caused a rather heavy fall on the mineral revenue as compared with the preceding year.\n\nThe total revenue from min-operating showed a decrease of £135,211 of which ₤131,634 was accounted for by only one item, "Royalty on tin."\n
Eastern Guardian_28 February 1949_Minerals At Abakaliki.txt	Eastern Guardian	28 February 1949	1949-02-28	Minerals At Abakaliki	/content/Eastern Guardian_28 February 1949_Minerals At Abakaliki.txt	Minerals At Abakaliki\n\nTHE discovery of lead and other minerals at Abakaliki has made this township conspicuous among others in Ogoja Province. The town is now being invadea by European miners. We do not know the agreement between the European miners and the people of Abakalıkı.\n\nWe understand that when the Abakalıki Divisional Council enquired about their rights in connection with these minerals, they were told that it was a matier between the owners of the land and the miners. It was further stated that the councillors were made to under-stand that the only compensation the owners of the land are entitled to are the rents to be paid by the people dwelling on their land. Anything got from under the ground 18 not their concern. As for the township, the councillors were told that they have no say there, as the land had been acquired by the government,\n\nThe above statements are indeed funny. So, the only share the owners of the soil where these minerals are to be prospected is the rents to be paid by tenants residing on the land. We had thought that something more than this should have been given to land owners as a sort of compensation. It is obvious that if the people had any knowledge of miring, they would not have allowed any foreigner to tamper with these minerals. That the people are not capable of doing this now does not mean that they would continue in their ignorance for ever.\n\nWe ask that the people should be well compensated before their minerals are carried away by the miner. Government should see to it before it is too late.\n
Eastern Guardian_09 January 1945_Colliery Workers Ask For Improve Conditions & Spokesman Is Hushed Up.txt	Eastern Guardian	09 January 1945	1945-01-09	Colliery Workers Ask For Improve Conditions & Spokesman Is Hushed Up	/content/Eastern Guardian_09 January 1945_Colliery Workers Ask For Improve Conditions & Spokesman Is Hushed Up.txt	Colliery Workers Ask For Improve Conditions & Spokesman Is Hushed Up\n\nENUGU. The mines have always been a hotbed of occupational discontent and recurrent trade disputes.\n\nThe root of the eternal struggle between capital and labour may be said to be more firmly embedded in the minefield more than any other labour centre.\n\nWorkers do not agitate off and on as is always the case in the mines field just for the mere fun of it.\n\nThe continued agitation is an un-mistakable sign of the existence of bat service conditions,\n\nThere is bound to be constant upheaval as long as things continue to look as murky for the workers as they are now.\n\nThe earlier the causes of trouble are removed, therefore, the better. A long-standing tension between the Colliery Union, Enugu and the management of the Colliery culminated recently in the declaration of a trade dispute.\n\nThe management got up a proposal which was offered to the men while at the same time extending the time of the expiry of the dispute to give them time to consider the proposal.\n\nA message from the union featured the offer as unfavourable; but the final decision is still awaited.\n\nMeanwhile the spokesman (i.e. the secretary) of the union, Mr Isaiah Ojiyi, has been threatened with a dismissal.\n\nThis naturally, has caused great embarrassment to the union.\n\nThe matter has however been taken up with the Director of Man-Power who has been requested "to withhold sanction from what may be construed as a threatened act of victimization;"\n\n\n
Nigerian Citizens_16 October 1952_Coal Stocks Threatened By Enugu Miners.txt	Nigerian Citizens	16 October 1952	1952-10-16	Coal Stocks Threatened By Enugu Miners	/content/Nigerian Citizens_16 October 1952_Coal Stocks Threatened By Enugu Miners.txt	Coal Stocks Threatened By Enugu Miners Go-Slow\n\nNIGERIAN Railway passenger Limited Services are from to-day cut by 50 per cent, local passenger trains are cancelled and certain goods train services are cut by 50 per cent. This is the second cut in Railway services within three months.\n\nIn the first cut (early in August) as in the present, the action was taken in order to preserve the Railway's stocks of coal. Production of coal in the Enugu mines of the Nigerian Coal Corporation \n\nhas dropped by more than half following a go-slow action of the miners.\n\nOur Enugu Correspondent telegraphed on Tuesday:\n\nColliery production chart shows to-day that coal output on September 29, was 2,392 tons. This was before the miners' go-slow action, On September 30, output was below 1,000 tons and from October 7, production went up to 1,000 tons. From October 10, production fell and yesterday (Monday) it was 951 tons.\n\nLOCAL TRAINS\n\nThe only Limited Services will be the Up-Limited from Iddo and Port Harcourt on Mondays and Thursdays to Kano and Port Harcourt and the Down-Limited from Kano on Tuesdays There will be no restaurant car service between Kafanchan and Jos.\n\nLocal passenger trains are cancelled including the Kafanchan to Jos and Enugu to Jos trains except the Bauchi Light Railway which will run as usual. Skeleton services will be provided for Limited Trains passengers to complete their journeys to Kaura Namoda, Kano, Nguru and to stations between Zaria and Minna.\n
West African Pilot_27 October 1955_Settlement Of 11 Day Strike Not In.txt	West African Pilot	27 October 1955	1955-10-27	Settlement Of 11 Day Strike Not In	/content/West African Pilot_27 October 1955_Settlement Of 11 Day Strike Not In.txt	Settlement Of 11-Day Strike Not In In Sight Sight\n\nJOS, Oct. 26.-The Amalgamated Tin Mines African Workers Union and the Nigerian African Mineworkers Union-the two unions whose 40,000 members are on strike, today voted another sum of £1,000 from their thrift fund as relief for the strikers, bringing the total withdrawal to sustain their members on strike to £2,000.\n\nIn addition, the two unions have paid out over £100 on behalf of strikers who were fined in a local Magistrate Court.\n\nASSURANCES WANTED The President of the All-Nigeria Trade Union Federation, Mr M. A. O. Imoudu, was today due to lead a demonstration of the strikers in protest against what he called "the uncompromising attitude of \nthe Mining Employers' Association." The executives of both unions\n\non strike decided at a joint meeting today that they would not negotiațe with the employers unless they were given an assurance that there would be no victimisation and mass transfer of the strikers in case the strike was called off.\n\nThey also decided that any proposals for wage increases with the employers must first be referred to the workers for their views.\n\nLeaders of the two unions stated today that the strike which is now in its eleventh day will carry on for at least one month.\n\nA correspondent of the West African Pilot in Bukuru reports that with the exception of the Bischi mines, activities in the tin and columbite mines in the Plateau are at a stand-still.\n\nIt will be recalled that the All-Nigeria Trade Union Federation called on the Federal Government last week Wednesday to set up a Commission of Inquiry to investi-gate labour conditions in the Plateau mines.\n\n\n
Nigerian Mining Com_22 December 2024_Nasarawa State Shuts Down Illegal.txt	Nigerian Mining Com	22 December 2024	2024-12-22	Nasarawa State Shuts Down Illegal	/content/Nigerian Mining Com_22 December 2024_Nasarawa State Shuts Down Illegal.txt	Mining News\nNasarawa State Shuts Down Illegal Lithium Mining Firm, Arrests Manager\n\nThe Nasarawa State Government arrested the manager of Trimadix Geomin Consult Limited, a lithium mining company, for operating without authorisation. The arrest took place on Sunday in Amba Kure, Kokona Local Government Area, during a joint operation led by Mr. Yakubu Kwanta, Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, alongside security agencies including the Police, DSS, and NSCDC.\n\nKwanta revealed that the firm, previously shut down in June 2024 for failing to secure community consent and state government approval, had resumed operations in secret.\n\n“We received intelligence that the company resumed mining at night, engaging in blasting operations. We acted swiftly to halt their activities,” Kwanta said, adding that the firm had been relying on the influence of prominent figures to continue its operations.\n\nThe commissioner condemned the illegal actions as economic sabotage, warning that such behaviour would no longer be tolerated. “These activities deny us the revenue we need and pose security risks. We will not allow any company to shortchange our people or threaten our state’s security,” he said.\n\nThe government’s crackdown aligns with Governor Abdullahi Sule’s directive to curb illegal mining and protect local communities. Kwanta stressed the importance of obtaining community consent and state approval for mining operations to ensure benefits are shared equitably.\n\n“Natural resources should serve as a blessing to our people. Mining companies must comply with state regulations and respect the rights of local communities,” Kwanta asserted. The commissioner reaffirmed Nasarawa State’s commitment to eliminating illegal mining activities and urged mining firms to prioritise transparency and adherence to the law.
Eastern Guardian_25 May 1950_The Enugu Blood Bath.txt	Eastern Guardian	25 May 1950	1950-05-25	The Enugu Blood Bath	/content/Eastern Guardian_25 May 1950_The Enugu Blood Bath.txt	THE ENUGU BLOOD BATH\n\nSpeech delivered by Dr. the Honourable Nnamdi Azikiwe at a rally held at Trafalgar Square, London, on Sunday, December 4, 1949, under the auspices of the West African Students Union of Great Britain and Ireland and associated organizations. Other speakers included Messrs A. M. Akinloye, George Padmore and S. L. Akintola.\n\nTHE slaughtering of men, women and children in Nigeria by British-commanded Police utter disregard of the position of Great Britain as a Protecting Power, whose relationship with the part of Nigeria concerned is based on treaty obligations\n\nIt has rightfully elicited appropriate response from responsible circles in the United Nations for closer scrutiny of the methods of British colonial administration,\n\nMASS SHOOTING\n\nWe are met today, because, as part of horror-sinken humanity, we have been stunned. stunned at the strange news of mas shooting which had taken place not in a Nazi-occupied territory but in the territory of one of the foundation members of the United Nations, which recently promulgated to the world a Universal Declaration of Human Rights\n\nWas this series of unparalleled shooting perpetrated because the slaughtered martyrs are a primitive people who have no conception of human rights but for their association with Britain, as a laddle-headed and ignorant section of the British press has assumed\n\nWas this shameful atrocity caused by the clamour of the agitator" and "certain elements who have set out to lobby the world, as contain fosslised Colonel Blimps would make us believe?\n\nDEFINITE CAUSES\n\nOr was this challenge to the manhood of our country due to dfinite causes which could have been averted had there been scientific and objective analysis of the forces at work in post-war Nigeria?\n\nMy reply, is that having placed premiam on mediocrity they British Colonial Office must be forced sooner or later to appre chain that the Enugu shooting could have been spotted earlier and checked.\n\nI submit that due to official ineptitude the workers of Enugu, in concert with their comrades, throughout the country, were disillusioned and frustrated, because they had been made to feel seas of economic insecurity, social inferiority, and political servitude, from which there can be no escape, escaping by means of organised resistance \n\nThe Labour Department was established "to provide assistance and advice to workers and employers impartially, to promote good relations between employers and employed, and to provide accurate information reuniting industrial matters."\n\nIn spite of the above, it has not been been possible for this department to fulfil the lofty hopes of its founders.\n\nAssistance and advice give, in certain cases have intensified mis understanding among Nigerian workers; note the disintegration of the Trades Union Congress in Nigeria; relations between employers and employed have not been cordial in all cases; up till today, statutics are not available available to facilitate a fair comparison of wages and eps-of-ining indents in Nigeria, since a former attempt discredited to Government case in connection with General Strike of 1945.\n\nECONOMIC FACTORS \n\nAdded to this this evidence of inefficiency are the following economic realities:\n\n(1) Land shortage in the Eastern Provinces, where the density of the population per square mile is very high, together with such natural causes as drought and soil erosion, not to mention the exodus from rural to urban areas, have affected production of food stuff adversely, leading almost to famine; the result is limited supply of food, increased demand in the urban communities, and spiraling of prices.\n\n(2) Housing accommodation is very limited making it imperative for most of the workers in the mines to pay high rents to avaricious and unchecked land lords the colliery housing scheme, desirable though it in, has failed to offer accommodation to all the mions.\n\n(3) Clothing is more of a luxury because the prices of textiles along with other imported goods are beyond the purchasing power of the miners NINE MILES TREK\n\n(4) Transport facilities an not available to some of the miners, especially those who live in the villages and who are than obliged to k as much as sine miles to their place of work, which is very inconveniencing and unhealthy.\n\n(3) Miners with family find it exceedingly difficult to feed, clothe, and house their wives and children, or to educate the latter in view of increased fees and cost of books and school materials because their wages, whilst fair, on a comparative basis with other industrial workers, yet cannot be said to be commensurate with the dangerous risk which under ground work, such as coal mining under primitive conditions, entails, (6) Mins workers have no health or old age or employment benefits and their future in very precarious indeed.\n\nMASS DISMISSALS (7) A systematic victimization of workers since the General Strike, intensified by the dismissal of 200 miners because they had asked for increased wages, following the dismisal of 600 soldiers and the strike of 25,000 railway workers, in the last three months for the same reason, did not hold out any prospects of optimism for the workers.\n\nIn view of these economic factors, no well-informed well-informed and responsible student of Nigerian labour problems would fail to appreciate the inevitable stand of the coal minors of Enugu,\n\n
The Nigerian Citizen_17 May 1965_Miners Call Off Strike.txt	The Nigerian Citizen	17 May 1965	1965-05-17	Miners Call Off Strike	/content/The Nigerian Citizen_17 May 1965_Miners Call Off Strike.txt	MINERS CALL OFF STRIKE\n\nThe threatened strike by 23,000 members of the Northern Mine Workers Union of Nigeria on the Plateau on Monday night has been called off.\n\nThis followed the intervention of the Plateau Provincial Commissioner, Alhaji Ibrahim Waziri Gumel, after he had held meetings with both sides on the dispute.\n\nThe general President of the Union, Alhaji Isa Haruna, represented the Union while the General Manager of the ATMN, Mr. E. Whitfield, represented the employers at the reconciliation meeting which was held at the Commissioner's Office.\n\nAfter the meeting, the Union announced that the strike notice of seven days, given to the Management of the ATMN and the UTAN mining companies, had been withdrawn.\n\nEarlier, the Union had called for the removal of Mr. Daniel Iloh, Personnel Manager of ATMN, and the Area Manager of UTAN, Mr. Whitford.\n\nThe Union had accused both managers of nepotism, discrimination, and a backdoor method of recruiting labor.\n\nAfter the reconciliation meeting, the Commissioner announced that with the departure of these strike actions had been “reduced to zero degrees.”\n\n
Daily Post_25 September 2024_Ebonyi Govt Seals 4 Mining Companies Over Neglect Of Host Communities.txt	Daily Post	25 September 2024	2024-09-25	Ebonyi Govt Seals 4 Mining Companies Over Neglect Of Host Communities	/content/Daily Post_25 September 2024_Ebonyi Govt Seals 4 Mining Companies Over Neglect Of Host Communities.txt	Ebonyi Govt seals 4 mining companies over neglect of host communitiesPublished on September 25, 2024By Casmir Nwankwo\n\nThe Ebonyi State government on Wednesday sealed four mining companies over noncompliance to the dictates of Community Development Agreement in the state.\n\nFindings revealed that the CDA is meant to ensure mining companies develop communities where they operate.\n\nThe Commissioner for Solid Minerals and Natural Resources, Chidi Onyia, who led a joint taskforce operation to seal the companies, said the miners were given ample time to get their acts together and comply to the agreement, but failed.\n\n“The companies were given enough time, since July last year, to meet the CDA requirements but choose to ignore the rules,” he said.\n\nThe closed companies are Anli Mining and Investment Ltd; China Solid Rock 1 and 2 located on Ngodo Amachi, in the Afikpo Local Government Area; and the Shenglong Mining, at Eziulo, in the Ishielu Council of the state.\n\nIt was further learnt that no fewer than ten local workers were laid off at the China Solid Rock 2 operated by the Chinese in the Afikpo area. The development negates the principles of the Agreement and mining regulations.\n\nAccording to the commissioner, the sites would remain shut until the companies comply with the state government’s directives.\n\nHe said, “Ebonyi people are being treated like they have no value. The Mining Act clearly states that every miner must prepare a CDA to benefits and uplift the community wherein they operate. But most mining companies in Ebonyi State have ignored this. This is against the dictates of the state and we won’t take it anymore.\n\n“The land belongs to the people. And even though these companies have leased from the Federal Government, they must ensure the communities benefits from their operations.”\n\nHe lashed out at the Shenglong Mining site operators and described its CDA as fraudulent.\n\n“The agreement Shenglong provided is fraudulent. There are clear procedures and templates for developing a CDA. How can a company of this size justify that the community’s only benefit is one million naira annually?\n\n“We have companies here in Ebonyi that are constructing tarred roads for their host communities. Why is Shenglong different?” he queried.\n\nThe commissioner assured that the state government will continue to monitor mining activities to ensure all companies follow the law, warning that any company found breaking the rules will be shutdown.\n\nReacting, the General Manager of Anli Mining and Investment Ltd, Mr George Li, said he would work with the state government to resolve the issue.
West African Pilot_27 June 1966_Coalminers Union Calls For Inquiry.txt	West African Pilot	27 June 1966	1966-06-27	Coalminers Union Calls For Inquiry	/content/West African Pilot_27 June 1966_Coalminers Union Calls For Inquiry.txt	COALMINERS' UNION CALLS FOR INQUIRY\n\n'Save The Corporation'\n\nENUGU, June 26-The Coalminers Union of the Eastern Group of Provinces has called on the Military Government to institute a high-powered commission of inquiry into the general administration of the Coal Enugu Corporation In\n\nThe call was made at a meeting of the union held here\n\nSuch commission said the union should probed land deals within her period. \n1939 and 1965 finances of the corporation in respect of its disbursement; General administration of the corporation, scholarship awards (in and outside of Nigeria) with special references to qualifications, seniority efficiency and merit and general fairness with no regard to nepotism award of contracts.\n\nThe union also called the governtment to save the coal corporation from economic strangulations.\n\n\n
Eastern Guardian_04 July 1950_Bells Of Heaven Toll Today For Twenty-One Dead Miners.txt	Eastern Guardian	04 July 1950	1950-07-04	Bells Of Heaven Toll Today For Twenty-One Dead Miners	/content/Eastern Guardian_04 July 1950_Bells Of Heaven Toll Today For Twenty-One Dead Miners.txt	Bells Of Heaven Toll Today For Twenty-One Dead Miners \n\nP. H. Has Big Events Planned\n\nThe bells of heaven toll today for the twenty-one dead miners of Iva Valley and in commemoration of their death, today, Tuesday, July 4, the whole of Nigeria from the coast to the desert will mourn\n\nHehemin Port Harcourt the for programme begins at 1) a.m., when a national service will be held in the Recreation Stadium.\n\nDoctor A. A. Nwafor Orizu will preach, Mr Ozuomba Mba-diwe conducting the service.\n\nFrom 11 a.m. to 11.05 a.m. silence will be observed, during which workers are expected to respond.\n\nAt 4 p.m., a mass meeting will be held in the Roxy Hall with Reverend Babington J hnson as chairman.\n\nProgramme includes, sing songs and Negro Spirituals especially.\n\nThere will be short speeches by Messrs Mbadiwe, J. T. Ogunlan M. C. K. Ajuluchuku, Doctor Orizu and Chief N.O. Alozie.\n\n
The Nigerian Citizen_17 February 1965_Coal Mines Union Wants Inquiry Instituted.txt	The Nigerian Citizen	17 February 1965	1965-02-17	Coal Mines Union Wants Inquiry Instituted	/content/The Nigerian Citizen_17 February 1965_Coal Mines Union Wants Inquiry Instituted.txt	Coal Mines Union wants inquiry instituted\n\nThe Nigerian Coal Mines Union has associated itself with the call made by Mr. N. Chukwura, President of the Nigerian Workers Council, that government inquiry be set into Federal Statutory corporations.\n\nIn a statement issued in Enugu, the Coal Mines General Secretary, Mr. J. J. Madu, said such an inquiry should include the Nigerian Coal Corporation and should be set up speedily to arrest what he called "mass squandermania of public revenue."\n\nHe charged the Coal Corporation with the malady of creating redundant posts for the relations of the Coal Board Chairman, Mr. C. C. Onoh, thereby pilfering away coal revenue.\n\nThe Coal Mines Union has promised to expose the coal corporation on the Colliery Secondary School built at Ngwo, hometown of the Coal Chairman.\n\nMr. Madu accused Mr. Onoh of a diabolical approach to industrial harmony by flagrantly promoting only men who have blood relations with him in the industry and who are not better qualified or more efficient than others.\n\nHe said that about 3,000 miners are ready in what he described as a "pre-fixed witness box" to expose the ills of the fast-dwindling NCC.\n\nHe thanked the Minister of Mines and Powers, Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule, in anticipation of swift institution of the demanded inquiry and the immediate suspension of the Coal Board to enable "us expose them without fear or favour."
The Guardian Feb12 2024_Report Suspicious Mining Activities_In.txt	The Guardian Feb12 2024	Report Suspicious Mining Activities	NaT	In	/content/The Guardian Feb12 2024_Report Suspicious Mining Activities_In.txt	Report suspicious mining activities in your area, Oyo govt tells hunters, farmers, others\nBy Rotimi Agboluaje, Ibadan\n12 February 2024 \n\nOyo State Government has called on village heads, hunters, farmers and other residents of the state to report any suspicious mining activity in their localities to its agency.\n\nDirector-General of the Oyo State Mineral Development Agency (OYSMDA), Abiodun Oni, gave the charge when he conducted an on-the-spot assessment visit to the controversial illegal mining site at Odo-Ogun Village in Ido Local Council of the state.\n\n\nOni, who restated the determination of the state government to sanitise the solid minerals sector, said that it would be a continuous exercise “because the governor is very passionate about expanding the state’s economy through the abundant opportunities in the sector.”\n\nAccording to him, the agency has been collaborating with security agencies on the investigation of some mining firms colluding with some traditional rulers to shortchange the people in mineral-holding communities and the state government.\n\nThe director-general maintained that prior to this time, the state government, through the agency, had cautioned all stakeholders to stop the act of conspiring with illegal miners.\n\nHe noted that there are two baales and one king, as well as two mining companies, involved in the ongoing investigation, adding that once the ongoing investigation is concluded, the government will either prosecute or let go of the suspected individuals.\n\n“It’s time to put an end to the pilfering of our commonwealth, no matter the class of person or persons found guilty of the illegal mining act. They will face the wrath of the law.\n\n“You would have noticed the determination of Governor SeyiMakinde towards growing Oyo State’s economy through solid minerals development. This commitment was also recently demonstrated when he signed the Executive Order on the security of mining communities.\n\n“We will stop at nothing to rid this state of illegal mining activities, but the government needs the people to achieve this objective and that is why we always say that if you see something, say something.\n\n“Hunters, village heads, farmers and every other citizen that suspect any act of mining in their community/village should do well to inform the agency and on our part, we will protect the identity of all informants.”
Wikitimes_11 July 2024_Bauchi Govt Bans Illegal Mining In The.txt	Wikitimes	11 July 2024	2024-07-11	Bauchi Govt Bans Illegal Mining In The	/content/Wikitimes_11 July 2024_Bauchi Govt Bans Illegal Mining In The.txt	Bauchi Govt Bans Illegal Mining in the State\nJuly 11, 2024\n \nSadam Mato Burra\n\nThe Bauchi State Government has banned all illegal mining activities of mineral resources in the state.\n\nThe State Commissioner of Internal Security and Home Affairs, Abubakar Bununu disclosed this during a ministerial briefing at the State Secretariat on Wednesday in Bauchi.\n\nBununu said his ministry is working alongside the Ministry of Natural Resources to address the issue of illegal mining in the state, aiming to prevent scenarios similar to those in Zamfara and Katsina.\n\nHe stated that through joint efforts of the ministries all illegal mining sites in the state have been shut down to maintain security.\n“We have banned and closed all illegal mining sites in Alkaleri local government and throughout the state. As of now, no illegal mining sites are operating,” Bununu said.\n\nRegarding allegations of jungle justice involving the Vigilante group known as ‘Ba Beli’ in some parts of the state, Bununu said he was unaware of such incidents but pledged to investigate the matter thoroughly.\n\nBabeli, a self-help group fighting crimes in the state is accused of human rights abuses of suspects across the state.\n\nHe emphasized the ministry’s commitment to ensuring that Vigilante groups operate within the bounds of human rights and legal standards, noting that registers have been provided and several workshops organized to educate members on their roles as quasi-security personnel.\n\nThe Commissioner highlighted successful joint operations between security agencies and Vigilante groups in Ningi, Tafawa Balewa, Alkaleri, and Toro LGAs.\n\nHe also reported significant progress in combating the Sara Suka gang, phone snatching, and other crimes, with over 100 suspects arrested and currently facing legal action.\n\nBununu urged the public to report security concerns to the ministry and nearby security agencies to help eliminate criminal activities.\nHowever, he decried that the ministry faces challenges, including a lack of operational vehicles and manpower.\n\nHe mentioned that the ministry’s operational funding is limited to an inconsistent monthly allocation of N500,000, which is grossly inadequate.
Wikitimes_16 September 2023_Inside Secret Details Of How Chinese Allied.txt	Wikitimes	16 September 2023	2023-09-16	Inside Secret Details Of How Chinese Allied	/content/Wikitimes_16 September 2023_Inside Secret Details Of How Chinese Allied.txt	INVESTIGATION: Inside Secret Details of How Chinese-allied Miners Bribed Dogo Gide Terror Group to Access Mining Sites in Niger State\nSeptember 16, 2023\n\nYakubu Mohammed\n\nChinese-affiliated miners operating under the licences of Eso Terra Investment Limited and Majelo Global Resources Limited, plundered the country’s natural resources at Kurebe and other surrounding villages while bribing armed bandits faction of Dogo Gide. For WikkiTimes, YAKUBU MOHAMMED unearthed the dark world of terrorism funding fueling insecurity in Niger State.\n\nDespite the presence of terror groups — Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) and the bandits’ faction of Dogo Gide — illegal mining activities continued in Kurebe and other surrounding villages, even after many residents deserted the axis following double-edged attacks from the military and terrorists.\n\nClaiming to have acted upon intelligence, the Nigerian Air Force killed at least 14 villagers in Kurebe including minor girls and a woman. The operations in April and August last year mistargeted the unharmed locals, leaving the terrorists unhurt.\n\nThe survivors of the military attacks fled to Udawa, a neighbouring community in Kaduna, and other places in Niger State. But the terrorists stayed back, making money from the illegal mining activities and demanding little from farmers who fell prey to them at times.\n\nA local miner, *Yeri, believes the terrorists demanded less from their victims because they get more money from the mining activities. Two other local miners corroborated him but were afraid of speaking [in detail] about it. \n\nINTO THE DARK WORLD OF TERRORISM FUNDING\n\nLocal miners who worked with the companies explained that there are three mining sites in the axis — one at Maikanwa, another at Santali and the other at Dagbace. One of the mined stones, Konzites, would be packaged in cement sacks and transported to Udawa, later to Lagos and finally, to China. The transportation chain was confirmed in a video obtained by our reporter.\n\nOn many occasions, the terrorists had seized the mined stones and stalled operations until they were bribed with millions of naira and motorcycles, the local miners revealed. \n\n“When we finished excavating, the terrorists would not allow us to take the stones out until they were given money amounting to N5 million or more,” *Yeri disclosed.\n\n“The owners of the companies would be notified and the money would be gathered for the terrorists,” he added. “It’s a recurring event; even motorcycles were taken to them. That’s the truth but they don’t want it to be exposed and they don’t want it to end.”\n\nMINERS DIALOGUED WITH DOGO GIDE’S MOTHER\n\nYeri revealed how delegates were sent to dialogue with Dogo Gide’s mother at Palalli, a village where she gave birth to the kingpin about thirty years ago, WikkiTimes gathered.\n\n“They visited Dogo Gide’s mother and they discussed with her to talk to her son to allow people to do their work…,” he recalled. “At first, we were afraid of them but now it has become part of us, we are no longer afraid of them. As I am talking to you now, I swear to God even if it’s a hundred of them on the road, I will go.”\n\nThis was not the first time the terror kingpin’s mother would intercede between civilians and her terror son. She had done that many times, locals including community leaders said. For instance, she took part in the negotiation for the release of students kidnapped from Federal Government College, Yauri in Kebbi State. \n\nIn an audio clip exclusively obtained by WikkiTimes, Ibrahim Usman Adam, one of the leading actors involved in coordinating illegal mining in the axis, confessed the dialogue with the terror kingpin’s mother before operations could begin at the sites.\n\nIbrahim, according to local miners, doubles as site manager for Eso Terra.\n\nThe mining company, trying to exonerate itself, stopped paying from its pocket; forcing local miners into hard labour to extract stones that would be sold to grease the terrorists’ palms.\n\n“So the bandits were paid N3 million every week,” one of the local miners said.\n\nWhen confronted with our findings on September 9, Ibrahim declined to comment. Initially, he denied affiliation with Eso Terra and Kurebe community. He would later open up when our reporter told him about the hard evidence at our disposal.\n\n“I am not working with Eso Terra now. It was then,” he said, briskly, advising that further questions be channelled to government authorities.\n\n“You can go to Shiroro and meet the chairman to ask questions about the communities. Even though my company works in Kurebe, you can not ask me,” Ibrahim yelled.\n\nAlso, Metteden Abba Abdulrahman, a director at the company, denied ever operating at Kurebe. Although the director did not deny knowing Ibrahim, he said he had never worked with him.\n\n“I know Ibrahim as a normal person. He’s not my site manager,” Abdulrahman said over the phone.\n\nHe explained that the “self-acclaimed” site manager came to him, about three years ago, alongside one Ali Arzuka and “their Chinese” investors \n\n“They wanted us to partner with them but I realised their style of mining was not up to standard,” he told WikkiTimes. “So Eso Terra has no business with bandits or the community.”\n\nHe claimed Ibrahim and the “his Chinese” used his title to gain access to the community.\n\n“At the time, my title was about to expire and we could not go ahead with the partnership,” he clarified.\n\nAbdulrahman noted that there are laws guiding mining activities and his company would not do anything at the expense of any community.\n\nResearch conducted by SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based analytical group revealed how Chinese companies bribed terrorist groups in some parts of the country to access mining sites.\n\nSMB Intelligence shared its findings with The Times, a British newspaper, revealing videos of militant leaders boasting how powerful they had become that Chinese miners working in their strongholds had to pay “rent”.\n\n“These guys are perfectly willing to pay off whoever needs to be paid off and have no qualms about it…,” Ikemesit Effiong, SBM’s head of research, had said.\n\nA FORMER COMMISSIONER AMONG THE SYNDICATE?\n\nSamaila Ibrahim Kuta, a former commissioner of youths and sports in Niger State, has been into local mining for a while, some local miners who had worked with him said.\n\nThe former commissioner, popularly known as Datti Majelo, owns Majelo Global Resources Limited, WikkiTimes can report. He had some time, last year, partnered with the other company to further plunder the resources in the community.\n\n\nUnlike Eso Terra, Kuta, the local miners said, doesn’t have an excavator. “His company used dynamite to blast the rock,” said a local miner. “And that is why he joined hands with them [Eso Terra].\n\nThe partnership, according to our source, had fetched him N125 million between last year to now.\n\nKuta also feigned innocence when contacted. “I don’t have a licence or mining operation in Kurebe area,” he said via WhatsApp on September 10. “I can grant you interview on this.”\n\nWhen contacted a day after, he said “there is no evidence” concerning his operation in the area “because I am not working in that area and there is no evidence.”\nThe former commissioner admitted he had once operated in the area. “The last time we went there was before this insecurity — that was like 10 years ago,” he claimed.\n\nDatti told WikkiTimes Eso Terra’s Ibrahim and Arzuka “were the ones operating in the area.”\n\nAsked about his partnership with the duo, he said there was nothing like such.\n\n“We don’t have partnership per se. What happened was that they encroached into my licence before it expired,” claimed Datti. “So I got information that they were working in my area under my licence.”\n\nHe continued: “I reported the matter to the Federal Mines Officer last year and that was the first time I saw Ibrahim and Aruka. We met with Mine Officers in Minna and the district head of Allawa.\n\n“The mine officer said there was no way he could confirm my claim that they were working under my license until he visited the area and he said the area is not accessible. I said it is not a place I can also go, but I remembered vividly, Ibrahim said they can visit the place.”\n\nKuta, however, declined to comment when further grilled about how the allegedly fetched him millions of naira within a year.\n\nCOMPANIES DEFIED GOVT ORDER\n\nLast year, the immediate past administration of Abubakar Sani Bello suspended mining activities in three local councils — Shiroro, Munya and Kagara — prone to bandits’ attacks. But mining continues unchecked in the unsafe sites.\n\nThe suspension was in reaction to an attack on a mining site at Ajata Aboki, Gurmana ward, Shiroro LGA, where scores [including security operatives] were killed. The primed terrorists also kidnapped four Chinese workers and some civilians.\n\nThe incumbent government of Mohammed Umaru Bago reiterated the suspension, vowing to end illegal mining activities exacerbating insecurity in the state.\n\nHowever, the governor and some of his cabinet members had a meeting with some of the actors including Ibrahim, Arzuka and some Chinese investors on Tuesday, September 5. While pictures from the meeting were exclusively obtained, WikkiTimes could not gather details of what was discussed.\n\nArzuka also denied working with Eso Terra and in Kurebe. “We have a licence to go the place but it is not safe for us,” he claimed. But he confirmed his affiliation with a Chinese mining company: Ming Xin Mineral Separation Nigeria Ltd incorporated in Jos South LGA, Plateau State.\n\nBut his words were not true, WikkiTimes understands. Sometime in July last year, Arzuka represented Eso Terra in a meeting attended by youths and community leaders from Kurebe village.\n\nThe meeting, according to youth and community leaders, was held at Aske Hotel along Neteco Road, Tunga in Minna, Niger State. At the meeting, issues of signing a community development agreement were discussed. But the things agreed upon — construction of school, road and borehole — were frustrated by worsening insecurity, Shehu Yahaya, a Kurebe monarch whose jurisdiction covers the mining sites, said.\n\nSTATE MINISTRY WORRIED\n\nEngineer Adamu Garba Musa, Director of Mining in the Niger State Ministry of Solid and Mineral Resources, said the ministry is baffled by the fact that mining activities thrive in such an unsafe setting. \n\n“We heard of Eso Terra through the chairman of Kurebe youth association,” he told WikkiTimes by phone. He believes the company seemed to have obtained a title from the federal government and refused to show its presence to the state ministry.\n\n“We forwarded the petition [written by the youth association] to the Federal Mining office in Minna [Niger State capital] to give us information about those companies. Up to now, they haven’t told us anything,” he explained.\n\nThe director said his ministry had invited the mining companies three weeks ago, but they “refused to show up.”\n\n“We don’t even know they have an agreement with bandits,” Musa said in reaction to our findings. “We also ask that question: If bandits are disturbing people, how come the company is working successfully?”\n\nAsked what action the ministry will take regarding what we unearthed, Musa said: “We will just make a recommendation to the necessary authority… to tell them this is what is happening. That the mining company they gave a title is working hand in hand with bandits.”\n\nFurther checks show that Eso Terra and Majelo Global Resources Limited Global Services were accredited by the federal government, data pulled from the Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office (NMCO), revealed. \n\nThe data confirmed the presence of the companies in Shiroro LGA. NMCO is a body responsible for the administration and management of mineral titles under the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development.\n\nDaniel Garba Gadzama, the Federal Mines Officer (FMO) at the Federal Ministry of Mineral Resources in Niger State explained he knows the companies but did not know they were operating.\n\n“They came to me about two years ago with a licence and I gave them a commencement letter, but I don’t know the way they were operating as you told me now,” Gadzama explained, adding the area the miners were operating is “not secure.”\n\nThe FMO said he would share our findings with his director in Abuja.\n\nA staffer at the Federal Ministry of Mineral Resources who spoke to WikkiTimes in confidence said Eso Terra did not have even a file in the office.\n\nYahaya, the monarch, said he was not aware the mining company was bribing terrorists. Yet, he confirmed its presence in the banditry-torn community.\n\nThe monarch begged the government to end the insecurity ravaging his community.\n\nUmar Ango, the Chairman of Kurebe Youth Development Association (KUYUDA) corroborated the monarch. “I don’t know whether the company bribes the terrorists, but we know they are illegally operating in our community and we are not benefitting anything,” he said, noting the youth association has reported and petitioned the companies.\n\nIn a WhatsApp chat with WikkiTimes, the governor said his administration would investigate our findings.\n\n“Thank you very much, we’ll investigate this report accordingly,” he wrote. “We’re already ahead in combating all mining activities in the state. In a short time from now, you’ll feel our impact, Insha Allah.”\n\nWe altered and concealed our sources’ names for security reasons.\n\n\n\n\n
Punch Newspaper_06 March 2006_Nigeria’S New Minerals And Mining Bill 2006.txt	Punch Newspaper	06 March 2006	2006-03-06	Nigeria’S New Minerals And Mining Bill 2006	/content/Punch Newspaper_06 March 2006_Nigeria’S New Minerals And Mining Bill 2006.txt	Nigeria’s new Minerals and Mining Bill, 2006\nBy Peter Leon\n\nIn a post-Scout world, influenced as always by the World Bank, a shift in natural resource regulation is underway.\n\nBotswana has paved the frontier, as has Australia, in ensuring that there is a well-guarded legal structure in a bid to draw long-term direct investment into the mining sector.\n\nIn previous sub-Saharan mining cycles, the major revenue African mining jurisdictions have sustained was only applicable only if the mining country could reach stability and attract conducive investment.\n\nSouth Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Mali, and Mozambique have led the region in well-guarded decisions on non-exploitative mineral extraction, which does not easily translate to immediate disorder.\n\nThat is why the 2004/2005 Fraser Institute regulation, the producers of the industry’s 64 major mining jurisdictions, charted mineral extraction at 3rd and 37 (respectively), while South Africa placed 18th in the world.\n\nIt became a major concern for Nigeria, whose position, some research have found, outside platinum, largely sat in the last 60 in that jurisdictional ranking.\n\nThe 2006 Mining and Minerals Bill aims to push out uncoordinated legal defects, but probably amount as a fast-track model of previous mining shortcomings.\n\nDeclaration among President Olusegun Obasanjo in Nigeria has taken consideration, the rising need to structure out a clarity-based minerals framework, to match on with the private sector model, with the small-scale side of Nigeria’s revenue sector seeing a vast need for a universal structure in mining policies.\n\nThe new Minerals and Mining Bill, as advanced beyond several workshops under Solid Minerals Development, has been modeled to fast-track the mining sector, with Nigerian-based regulations applied on a long-term concern.\n\nThe bill has taken a South African-based outlook.\n\nIn collaboration with the major legal bodies in Australia, the dual beneficiation structure of tax allowances, community capital, and resource stability, is what has been framed in the legal model.\n\nThe outlook is simple: Attract and redefine Nigeria’s mining regulation in a structure that will match past holes.\n\nUnder this bill, the mineral cadastre is a clear-cut mining regulator’s issue.\n\nThe first grant in the tender of leases - a reconnaissance license, gives a 1-year permission on a small-scale mining law, initiating large mineral approvals to 250 sq/km land approvals.\n\nThe approval runs on a 50-year lease term of license on application on a “first-come-first-serve” basis.\n\nWith the leases outlined, the holder is to benefit from work rights, security of tenure, and production.\n\nThis is subject to approval within 18 months and production within 36 months.\n\nThis bill is subject to the approval of a national mining and investment act, an outward programmed interest, which is a counter-look-down on short-term projects of minerals to attract export prospects.\n\nThe whole strategy seeks a full sustainable development structure for mines.\n\nWhether in the form of subsistence for banks, infrastructure support to community holdings, tax holidays, or an extensive revenue model, the result is what is to be reached.\n\nRecently, the minister must have mentioned agreement with international best practice, but the framework regulation has increased the tide through the different phases of mining cycle.\n\nBy granting long-term feasibility, tax-based influence has been streamlined in mine law.\n\nIt is feasibility in total, a relief from the early abandonments in the structured cycle of mining.\n\nWhat this means is that major investment protection is given to any holder of mining property, in the well-folded mineral sector, with a scope that is projected to stretch to agricultural and development schemes.\n\nApplication to 250 sq/km of a lease runs with exploration, while 50 sq/km is given to mining operations.\n\nTo eliminate downtime, the premise of mineral sector would see community agreements across small-to-large scale miners.\n\nAll investment across titles, led to general administrative doors, designed to advance the full sector through international treaties and ties under the World Bank-Common International Trade Network.\n\nChina has been identified as one of the recent hotbeds for Nigeria’s mining export, with trade centers standing up to attract the Chinese gold, coal, uranium firms and others from capital retention and dumps.\n\nWith long-term solutions set for local development, a set of lease approvals has been structured to run with production support, tax allowances, and all structured provisions available to industrial taxes.\n\nThese areas will introduce the guarantee of lease approvals and short-term incentives.\n\nAlthough the minister has not signed the tax provisions and the overall sections, the idea of investment in the mining sector is about to take the major shift.\n\nThe objective of the bill is to ensure that operators and owners of Nigeria’s mineral sector see direct government relations to tax-based allowances.\n\nThis means that every holder of a mining cadastre must sustain a partnership obligation across mutual investors, partnerships, while prioritizing local investors.\n\nWhile Nigeria’s potential as a sustainable producer for West Africa’s mining sector has been marked, the country’s legal bill is what is to be at the anchor of a legal shift in this area.\n\nWhat is unclear yet is how the final form of the investment policy, and the broad international phase in the West Africa mining engagement, would fold with Nigeria’s future exports.\n\nGiven all the challenges in stake, Nigeria should hold mining on a watchlist with world-class management in cue.
The Guardian_22 February 2025_Plateau Govt Suspends Mining Activities.txt	The Guardian	22 February 2025	2025-02-22	Plateau Govt Suspends Mining Activities	/content/The Guardian_22 February 2025_Plateau Govt Suspends Mining Activities.txt	Plateau govt suspends mining activities\nBy NAN\n22 February 2025\n\nGovernor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State has suspended all mining activities as a measure to address security challenges in the state.\n\nThis is contained in Executive Order 001 of 2025, made available to journalists on Saturday in Jos.\n\nThe governor stated that the decision was necessary following growing security concerns in mining communities across the state.\n\n“This decision is in response to the escalating illegal mining activities, increased insecurity, and the influx of unregulated foreign miners into Plateau’s mining areas.\n\n“This has contributed to the rise in criminal activities such as banditry, kidnapping, drug trafficking, and the possession of illegal firearms.\n\n“As the Chief Security Officer of the state, this suspension becomes necessary in order to protect both the security and well-being of citizens.\n\n“The suspension is targeted at limiting access to mining sites to only licensed operators and preventing further criminal activities in these areas,” he said.\n\nThe governor further disclosed that the executive order had taken effect from Friday, 21st February.\n\nHe explained that the state government would collaborate with the Federal and Local Governments to establish a monitoring framework, working alongside host communities and mineral rights holders to strengthen the mining industry.\n\n“A comprehensive review of the security situation in mining areas will be conducted, alongside the establishment of appropriate Community Development Agreements (CDA) to ensure socio-economic benefits for host communities.\n\n“This is a critical step towards addressing the threats posed by illegal activities in mining areas and ensuring that Plateau’s resources are managed responsibly for the benefit of our people,” Mutfwang added.\n\nThe governor also inaugurated a Technical Committee on Mining Reform, chaired by Mr Philemon Dafi, the state’s Commissioner for Justice to ensure the successful implementation of this reform.\n\nOther members of the committee include the Commissioners for Environment, Women Affairs and Social Development, as well as the Chairperson of the state’s Gender Commission.\n\nRepresentatives from the Miners Association of Nigeria, Plateau Investment and Property Corporation (PIPC), and other stakeholders in the mining sector are also part of the committee.\n\nThe technical committee has been tasked with overseeing the reform of the mining industry, with specific terms of reference.
The Guardian_14 December 2021_Masade Olowola Recognised For Contributions.txt	The Guardian	14 December 2021	2021-12-14	Masade Olowola Recognised For Contributions	/content/The Guardian_14 December 2021_Masade Olowola Recognised For Contributions.txt	Masade-Olowola recognised for contributions to mining, geosciences\nBy Editor\n14 December 2021 \n\nCommunications entrepreneur and Chief Executive of CSR-in-Action Group, Bekeme Masade-Olowola, has won the award of ‘Women’s Role Model in Mining and Geosciences’.\n \nThe award was in recognition of the most exceptional, inspirational women with significant contributions to the mining and geoscience industry. \n \n\nSimilarly, her non-profit organisation, CSR-in-Action Advocacy, received the award of the ‘Best Performing NGO in Mining and Geosciences’, which honours any non-governmental organisation (NGO) that has committed its activities to solicit for, educate, and create awareness for solutions to challenges within the industry.\n \nThe awards emerged from the Nigerian Institute of Mining and Geosciences (NIMG) at this year’s public lecture, investiture and awards, in Abuja with the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, as chief host.\n \nIn his lecture, themed ‘Peace and Security: A Catalyst to Mineral Exploration and Investment in Nigeria’, keynote speaker, Prof. Olugbenga Okunola, encouraged the mining and geosciences sector to contribute towards reducing poverty by harnessing all her resources and opening job opportunities to the skilled youth in the country.\nAccording to him, the industry currently accounts for about 0.33 per cent of national employment, 0.02 per cent of exports and about N400b of Nigeria’s GDP (about 0.3 per cent), a significant decline from the early 1980s. \n \nHe said the figure was relatively low, given the comparative contribution of minerals and mining to the economies of other African countries.
Eastern Guardian_14 June 1950_The Butcher Of Enugu.txt	Eastern Guardian	14 June 1950	1950-06-14	The Butcher Of Enugu	/content/Eastern Guardian_14 June 1950_The Butcher Of Enugu.txt	The Butcher Of Enugu\n\nIT IS all very well for someone to decide that the Butcher of the Enugu Blood Orgy should not return to our troubled heaven on earth. It is all very well to admit that it was careless of him to have ordered gun play when a situation which called for bullets had not arisen. It is all very well to say it was negligence on his part as a police official who should have known better. But if all is to be well that ends well, we are constrained to ask: Does the punishment it the crime?\n\nBecause of his premature and unnecessary decision, twenty-one people had to bid a grim fare-well to life, without a chance in the world, not even the ethical gesture of hands up" if they were armed. Even American gangsters get that chance. Yet, the what you-may callsit commission admitted that these men were unarmed.\n\nFor a Britain which once prided itself on prestige to allow 125 armed police-soldiers to let loose a volley of death on harmless and "armless" people at Iva Valley and let the situation merely be explained away with a lot of rubbish about politics and trade unionism does not say much for those who claim to be British.\n\nButcher Ph lip and his ilk must stand trial for man slaughter. for unless this is done without further prevarication, there will come time when Nigerians will say, "just as the last war was won on the playing fields of Eton and Harrow, British prestige in Nigeria was lost on the bloody fields of Iva Valley.\n\nThe Public Relations Office\n\nWHEN SIR William Fitzgerald and his band said that the ambiguous phraselogy of a P. R. O. release was also a factor to be reckoned with in the Enugu sadism, we are not surprised. When again they pointed out that the department is wont to be one-sided in its reports affecting the Government and the people, they were only stating the obvious.\n\nThe P. R.O. to us has been and always will be a British bureau of propaganda. What with the officers being the servants of the very Government under which the people are kept. Who would ever respect the P.R. O. to be impartial when it is controlled by an "all-wise" Nigerian Secretariat But it were better the word "relations" be effaced from its name as that gives the ignorant of affairs in the colonies a deceptive picture of things.\n\nThe role played by that department during the N.C.N.C. delegation tour to the provinces, and finally to Britain, is still green in our memory. Its attempts to bedevil every honest attempt of the people towards nationhood are common place features. And yet it is maintained with the money and sacrifice of the Nigerian people. The role of the office can be a menace to good relationship in the colonies and the sooner its policy is overhauled or it folded up, the better.\n\nby the If a British Office of Propaganda is set up none will be deceived its role. But to maintain a Public Relations Office which strains relationship of the of the people and the state by clever half-truths voting and resenting.\n\nBut History Shall Be Fair\n\nTHE FITZGERALD Commission was appointed to probe the disturbances in the Iva Valley mines and the events that followed. The report is out and it is left to history and the times to judge whether or not the commission has done its duty creditably or otherwise.\n\nThe premier object of the enquiry was not to make things worse but to make them better. If the commissioners realised this as we have no doubt they must, they have deliberately refused to reckon wish one very important point. They were two idealistic to be realistic in so many of their findings and they have not that assuage to allot blame where it is due without prevarications and evasions.\n\nThus, it is that instead of telling officialdom that it has com mitted blunders which led to the massacre of twenty one and bringing the officials concerned to bear the consequences of their acts. Africans who were too patriotic to be neutral during the disturbances are branded as hooligans, rascals, agitators and such like derisive and derogatory epithets\n\nWe do not want to create any ill feelings. But we say that it is most humiliating that the African whose brother's blood irrigated the hard soil of Ogu should have bens the object of so much abuse by a commission appointed to make things better. Of course we are not surprised. For after all, the commissioners themselves are Indirectly the people of our party to the dispute. But history shall be fair\n\n
The Guardian_22 February 2023_Fg Conducts Mineral Clinics To Boost Economy.txt	The Guardian	22 February 2023	2023-02-22	Fg Conducts Mineral Clinics To Boost Economy	/content/The Guardian_22 February 2023_Fg Conducts Mineral Clinics To Boost Economy.txt	Mining: FG conducts mineral clinics to boost economy\nBy Ernest Nzor, Abuja\n22 February 2023 \n\nThe Federal government, through the Geological Survey Agency (NGSA), has conducted a mineral clinic across the country to boost the mining sectors for economic diversification.\n\nIt also noted that the mineral clinic is to diagnose and treat pertinent issues that affect the minerals and metals sector in Nigeria such as the dearth of geosciences data, and high-cost exploration activities among others.\n\nThe Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Mines, Dr Oluwatoyin Akinlade, while addressing journalists in Abuja, at the unveiling of the “Mineral Promotion, Sensitization and Dissemination Mineral Clinic.” said that the mineral clinic will contribute to the economic development of the country.\n\nAkinlade who was represented by the ministry’s Director Special Duty, Comfort Kabirwa, said, “I am indeed highly delighted to be part of NGSA’s mineral clinic designed to provide a veritable opportunity for stakeholders to interact and be better informed on minerals in Nigeria.\n\n“I believe it is aimed to diagnose and treat pertinent issues that affect the minerals and metal sector in Nigeria such as the dearth of geosciences data, and high-cost exploration activities among others.\n\n“I am therefore very optimistic that at the end of this event, we will all be better informed about Minerals in Nigeria and this should lead to better economic decisions for the mutual benefit of all. The Sector is faced with many challenges especially funding, but this hasn’t deterred this Agency from making appreciable progress on many fronts.”\n\nShe commends the Director-General of the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA), Dr Abdulrazak Garba and its Management for aq successful mineral exploration projects.\n\nIn his remarks, the Director-General, of NGSA, Dr Abdulrazak Garba, said the NGSA trains its staff across the board both locally and internationally to enhance the input and output of the Mineral clinic.\n\nHe said: “The data generated by NGSA prompted the Agency to re-organized the mineral clinics in the six geopolitical zones which was a huge success. In the zones, over 400 hundred potential investors attended the mineral clinics and over 100 samples of rocks and minerals were tested with Hand-Held XRF free of charge.\n\n“We are also making plans to extend such gestures to all the States of the Federation. This we believe will spur the desired goal of creating awareness, sensitization and dissemination of geoscientific data to the lowest level.\n\n“Mineral clinic is to ensure that the goals scored in the area of geosciences data generation is effectively exposed and digested by the investors, academia, students and stakeholders through sensitization and dissemination of geoscientific information on various solid mineral deposits in the country as well as responding to inquiries from the public.\n\n“NGSA will go the extra mile to ensure that geoscience information on Nigeria’s mineral resources is disseminated to the public.”\n\nAlso speaking, the Acting President, of the Miners Association of Nigeria, (Man), Alhaji Musa Mohammed, said that the association would continue to work with the agency to achieve its objectives.\n\nHe said: “The association is undertaking the project of establishing of mineral processing and buying hubs across the six geopolitical zones of the country begin from Kogi State where arrangements are being finalized to set up gold and lithium processing plants, hence the need have good knowledge of bankable geoscience data to be able to make informed investments.”
Daily Time_01 February 1971_Our Minerals Are Not Adequately Tapped – Says Dikko.txt	Daily Time	01 February 1971	1971-02-01	Our Minerals Are Not Adequately Tapped – Says Dikko	/content/Daily Time_01 February 1971_Our Minerals Are Not Adequately Tapped – Says Dikko.txt	OUR MINERALS ARE NOT ADEQUATELY TAPPED – Says Dikko\n\nTHE Commissioner for Mines and Power, Dr R. A. B. Dikko, has said that the map of geology and mineral deposits of Nigeria depicts a great variety of minerals that exist all over the federation.\nHe said that although a number of these minerals are currently mined, many more are still unexploited either because they do not occur in economic quantities or, perhaps more likely because they have not been adequately examined.\nDr. Dikko made this observation while addressing the opening session of a two-day annual conference of the Nigerian Mining, Geological and Metallurgical Society in Lagos at the week-end.\nDr. Dikko appealed to the society and the various arms of government to have greater attention drawn to these mineral poten tials with a view to develop-ing and extracting them for local industries or for export for valuable foreign ex-change.\nChief M. O. Feyide, in his outlined the history and activities of the society
Eastern Guardian_17 November 1951_Massacre Of Twenty One Coal Miners.txt	Eastern Guardian	17 November 1951	1951-11-17	Massacre Of Twenty One Coal Miners	/content/Eastern Guardian_17 November 1951_Massacre Of Twenty One Coal Miners.txt	Massacre Of Twenty-One Coal Miners At Enugu Recalled\n\nTomorrow Marks Two Years\n\nBY OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT\n\nTomorrow, Sunday, November 18, reminds us and the entire world of the unprovoked and, unjustfied shooting of twenty-one unarmed African miners in cold blood at Iva Valley coal pit on Friday, November 18, 1949, in the struggle of man to live by the honest sweat of his brow, and a black chapter in the history of Nigeria under British "protection."\n\nThe time was a little after noon and the Police under Mr F. S. Philip, Senior Superintendent of Police, known now in current history as "The Trigger Police Officer" shot down twenty one miners without the slightest pro-vocation.\n\nAt once indignation spread all over Nigeria and the world at what became known as "The Enugu Massacre." By an instrument dated De-\n\nDecember 3, 1949, and issued as Government Notice NO. 1702, the Governor, Sir John Stuart Macpherson appointed a fourman commission of enquiry "to en-quire into and report on the recent disorders in Nigeria with special reference to the recent labour troubles at Enugu Colliery and the events which followed."\n\nT Its composition was W. J. Fitzgerald, Chairman, S. O. Quashie-Idun, A. A. Ademola and R A. Williams.\n\nThe Commission found that the shooting was unjustified.\n\nIt censured the Chief Commis-sioner for treating an industrial dispute as a political agitation which resulted in his rejecting an offer of conciliation by a labour expert and the sending of armed force to effect removal of explo-sives "at all costs," and also fixed\n\n\nthe responsibility on Mr F. S. Philip who ordered the shooting.\n\nMr Philip has now been invalided from the service and every effort by nationalists to cause Government to return him for judicial trial was unavailing.\n\nShootings also occurred at Aba Onitsha and Port Harcourt among Africans who had demonstrated, following the Enugu massacre.\n\nThe NEC was formed immediately after, which afforded Nigerians a platform for unity.\n\nThis could not endure because the Nigerian Youth Movement under Dr Akinola Maja sabotaged all efforts to unite by the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons.\n\nThe NEC comments and re-commendations on the Fitzgerald Report signed by eight men demanded among other things that every European on the Colliery Management connected with the shooting tragedy should be dismissed; that the Chief Commissioner, Eastern Provinces, be dismissed; that Mr F. S. Philip, who ordered the shooting should be dismissed, his retirement and pension rights forefeited and that he should be tried of murder at once in Nigerian courts; that both His Excellency, Sir John Macpherson and H. M. Foot, Chief Secretary, under whose regime the blood flowed should resign forthwith. None of these was granted.\n\nThe Nigerian Labour Congress will lead workers throughout the. country to commemorate the fateful day tomorrow, Sunday, November 18.\n\n
Punch Newspaper_17 February 2006_Miners Fault Ezekwesili Threaten Legal Action.txt	Punch Newspaper	17 February 2006	2006-02-17	Miners Fault Ezekwesili Threaten Legal Action	/content/Punch Newspaper_17 February 2006_Miners Fault Ezekwesili Threaten Legal Action.txt	Miners fault Ezekwesili, threaten legal action\nJude Owuamanam, Jos\n\nThe Miners Association of Nigeria has faulted the Minister of Solid Mineral Development, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, on the recent revalidation of mining licences, describing it as baseless.\n\nThey threatened to sue the minister if the exercise was not rescinded.\n\nAddressing a press conference in Jos on Thursday, the miners said that the exercise carried out by the ministry did not seek their input; neither did it conform to the Minerals Mining Act of 1964.\n\nIn the text of the briefing read by the 1st Vice-Chairman, Mr. Khalid Yusuf, the association said that the minister took all of them for granted by not replying to all the letters written to her in respect of the revalidation.\n\nRather than listen, they claimed that she went ahead to approve some mining licences, without taking into cognizance their input.\n\nThe miners stated that when a similar exercise was contemplated by a former minister, Mrs. Modupe Adelaja, she made it a point of duty to nominate some of their members to the committee.\n\nThey deplored what they regarded as the impudence and arrogance of Ezekwesili for not acknowledging the two letters they wrote to her on the development.\n\nDeploring the arbitrariness and unpredictable power of the minister, the miners claimed that the revalidation had robbed some of them of the patronage they would have got from foreign investors.\n\nThe Miners Association of Nigeria (MAN) said that due process was not followed in the exercise and called on the minister to stop it forthwith and refund the ₦10,000.00 collected from each member immediately.\n\nRequesting Ezekwesili to rescind any negative action she might have taken on their members and their titles regarding the revalidation, they threatened legal action in order to protect their members’ huge investments and continued survival in the industry.\n\n
Punch Newspaper_18 December 2024_Ebonyi Commissioner Demands Mining Priority To Boost Growth.txt	Punch Newspaper	18 December 2024	2024-12-18	Ebonyi Commissioner Demands Mining Priority To Boost Growth	/content/Punch Newspaper_18 December 2024_Ebonyi Commissioner Demands Mining Priority To Boost Growth.txt	Ebonyi commissioner demands mining priority to boost growth\n18th December 2024\n\nBy \nEdward Nnachi\n\n\nEbonyi State Commissioner for Solid Minerals and Natural Resources, Hon. Chidi Onyia has said Nigeria cannot develop if it does not take concrete steps to harness the potential of its mining sector.\n\nOniya averred that as the world grapples with the challenges of dwindling oil assets and prepares to shift focus to renewable energy, stakeholders should pay adequate attention to efforts geared towards strengthening the sector.\n\nThe commissioner stated this at Amaopara community, in Onicha Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, on Tuesday, while commissioning some bungalows of three-bedroom flats and other projects constructed for natives in the area by a mining firm, Dolf Global Resources.\n\nHe lauded the mining firm for the gesture and thanked the people of Amaopara for providing a peaceful and cordial atmosphere for investors in the area.\n\nHe said, “Not just Ebonyi State, the country cannot fully develop until we start looking towards the solid minerals sector. This is because oil is already phasing out and since we are moving towards renewal energy, it’s obvious the greater percentage of what we would need to power the green energy phase of our life would come from the solid minerals sector.”\n\nHe noted that the proactive stance of the state government in the mining sector has created a win-win situation for both miners and the host communities.\n\nHe added, “We are here today to perform some of the known ‘rituals’ of the Ministry of Solid Minerals and Natural Resources under the present administration in Ebonyi State, led by His Excellency, Bldr. Francis Nwifuru, which is in line with his ‘People’s Charter of Needs.’\n\n“We all know before now, there have been miners in Ebonyi State. But it was obvious that the rights and privileges of our people as they concern mining were being denied. However, since this administration came on board, we took it upon ourselves to work with the provisions of the Mining Act, which simply stipulates that natives within mining areas should be relocated to safer grounds or places.\n\n“So I want to commend the CEO of Dolf Global Resources, Mr Donald Nnadi, for this wonderful milestone. This is the second time we are coming here and I’m convinced we will come back. He has done us proud, but I’m not yet satisfied – yes, he has scored 40 per cent; I would be giving him the ‘necessary handshake when he scores 50 per cent and I know he would surpass that mark.”\n\nIn his response, Mr Nnadi, the MD of Dolf Global Resources, said his company was determined to fulfil all the agreements reached with the host community, adding that he was duly following the provisions of the Mining Act.\n\nThanking the state government for providing the enabling environment for businesses to thrive, he said, “We are here today to commission some of the projects that I carried out here in our host community. Part of what we have done is the relocation of residents who were close to the mining sites. This is in line with the Mining Act, which mandates miners to do so. Initially, I relocated two and you have another two here, today making it four; this is also an ancestral gathering home I built for the people of Amaopara village as contained in my agreement with them.\n\n“My relationship with the host community has been very cordial because I have tried as much as I can to fulfil the agreement I entered into with them. I have touched and done all the projects contained in the CDA and even more-scholarships, sinking of boreholes, relocation of residents, the building of the hospital, etc.”\n\nOne of the beneficiaries, Mr Ebere Awgu, expressed his satisfaction over the gesture and thanked Governor Nwifuru for providing the leadership for miners to act accordingly, in the state.\n\n
The Guardian_26 January 2023_Women Decry Inequality In Mining Sector.txt	The Guardian	26 January 2023	2023-01-26	Women Decry Inequality In Mining Sector	/content/The Guardian_26 January 2023_Women Decry Inequality In Mining Sector.txt	Women decry inequality in mining sector\nBy Rauf Oyewole, Bauchi\n26 January 2023 \n\nPresident and founder of Women In Mining in Nigeria (WIMIN), Janet Adeyemi, has lamented gender inequality in the mining sector, noting that other developed nations have broken the barrier.\n\nIn her opening remarks at the Research Validation and Policy Dialogue in Bauchi State, yesterday, the engineer said many countries had ensured that their policies reflect gender, as nobody wants to be reckoned with a society that has no respect or concern for its women and children.\n\nShe said: “As we discuss policy matters with stakeholders, we want to challenge the Bauchi State government, especially the Ministry of Natural Resources, which has just been approved to function as an independent ministry away from the Ministry of Agriculture, to direct its attention on gender-based issues in the mining sector in Bauchi and I believe this is one of their mandates as a Ministry.”\n\nThe Research Validation and Policy Dialogue is part of WIMIN’s programme to Safeguard the Rights of Women and Children in the Mining Sector in Nigeria, supported by Open Society Foundation (OSF), in partnership with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).\n\nPointing out that WIMIN has mapped out three states for the programme and Bauchi, on its merit, made it to the list, she assured that WIMIN would continue to promote the inclusion of all, even in the emerging transformational developments such as energy, digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The Guardian_14 April 2024_The Silence Of The Ministry Of Solid.txt	The Guardian	14 April 2024	2024-04-14	The Silence Of The Ministry Of Solid	/content/The Guardian_14 April 2024_The Silence Of The Ministry Of Solid.txt	The silence of the ministry of solid minerals\nBy Kazeem Olalekan Israel\n14 April 2024\n\nSIR: It is quite pathetic that despite the fact that it has been some weeks since the issue of unregulated mining in OAU gained public attention, the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals has not found it worthy to react not to talk of mandating security agencies to go after everyone involved in this reckless act. The deafening silence of the Minister of Solid Minerals suggests complacency. It suggests that there was a conspiracy between these miners and the Minister to endanger the lives of both staff and students of OAU through unregulated mining.\n\nAs it stands today, there are complaints of gold contamination of the University dam which provides water for members of the University as a result of unregulated mining. How callous can these people and their enablers be? Yet, no single reaction so far has been made by the Minister of Solid Minerals. The invasion of the University land for mining purpose is a serious issue which must not be swept under the carpet. Though, the artisans have left the mining sites after the public outcry, butexamples must be made of everyone involved in this unregulated mining. It is simply a crime against humanity.\n\nWhether the 11 companies that are said to have been licensed to mine on OAU campus have been paying revenue to the federal government is another issue on its own in entirety. But, the issue is that, as claimed by the University management, some sections of the University land was invaded by these miners without the consent of the management. What audacity!\n\nThe Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act, 2007 stipulates that “where any land within the area is subject to a right of occupancy, he or she must give prior notice to the lawful occupier and the local government chair of the area where the land is located and must pay compensation for damage caused”.\n\nThe management must indeed pressure the Ministry of Solid Minerals to provide the details of those companies licensed by the Mining Cadastral Office to mine in the University without the consent of the management. And, it must not stop at that, everyone involved in the illegal mining must be identified, arrested and prosecuted.\n\nThe Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act, 2007 also provides for environmental considerations which encompasses prevention of pollution, host community rights, establishment of the environmental protection and rehabilitation programmes and environmental protection and rehabilitation fund.\n\nUnfortunately, the mining activities of these reckless dregs has resulted in different forms of land degradation which ranges in sizes and depths because there was the absence of monitoring which made them mine without recourse to international best practices.\n\nIn fact, I expect the management to insist that everyone involved in the reckless and unregulated mining be arrested and prosecuted not just for invasion but also for endangering lives of staff and students of the University. The Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act, 2007 requires holders of mining titles to minimise and manage any environmental impact resulting from their activities and to rehabilitate or reclaim all disturbed land and pay rent and royalties that may become due.\n\nUnfortunately, none of these has so far been adhered to by these reckless miners. The degraded land has been abandoned after the public outcry without being reclaimed/rehabilitated which will definitely have a mass negative impact on the members of the University community sooner. \n•Kazeem Olalekan Israel writes from OAU, Ile-Ife\n\n
Daily Times_11 October 1952_Miners Go Slow Union Not Recognised.txt	Daily Times	11 October 1952	1952-10-11	Miners Go Slow Union Not Recognised	/content/Daily Times_11 October 1952_Miners Go Slow Union Not Recognised.txt	MINERS' “GO SLOW" Union not recognized\n\nENUGU FRIDAY.\nTHE Nigerian Coal Corporation has given formal notice to the Secretary-General of the Nigerian Coal Miners' Union that as from Monday, this week, the Corporation ceased to recognize the union as representing the Colliery workers.\nThis action followed a further seven days "go-slow" in the Enugu Collieries during which time the executive of the union, led by Mr. Diewait, the President, and Mr. J. Maduka the Secretary-General, had not secured acceptance by the workers of advice of the Minister of Mines and Power, Hon. E. Njoku, to end the "go slow" and resolve the differences between the workers and their employers by conciliation under the Trades Disputes Ordinance.\nThe Corporation states that these "go-slows" have caused losses in out-put in recent months estimated at no less than 18,000 tons of coal. The expenses of the Colliery go on all the time and if the Corporation loses revenue at this rate it is clear that it cannot hope to operate without a very serious loss of public funds.\nThe present "go-slow" which is the third in the last three months, started on September 25, The Corporation told them early in August of proposals for revising their wages and other payments. and it was expected that a settlement could be reached in a friendly manner.
Eastern Guardian_10 June 1950_Fitzgerald Commission Says The Enugu Massacre Is Unnecessary.txt	Eastern Guardian	10 June 1950	1950-06-10	Fitzgerald Commission Says The Enugu Massacre Is Unnecessary	/content/Eastern Guardian_10 June 1950_Fitzgerald Commission Says The Enugu Massacre Is Unnecessary.txt	Fitzgerald Commission Says The Enugu Massacre Is Unnecessary\n\n The fifteen-page report of the Fitzgerald Commission has been released. Concerning the shooting incident at Iva Valley, the report comments on the "grave lack of foresight" on the part of the colliery management in not having ascertained accurately the quantity of explosives in the store and in not having made arrangements for a labour force to be available to move them.\n\nIt finds that the only weapons possessed by the miners were "sticks which they always carry\n\nfor walking on that sloping ground" and normal mining implements, but it rejects entirely the evidence given as to the peaceful attitude of the crowd by two members of the police stationed at Iva Valley, whose story was obviously concocted.\n\nIt is the view of the commission that the miners would have resisted the removal of the explosives but not the re deployment of the police for the purpose of protecting the magazine.\n\nMr Philip could have completed this action without taking the strong action which he did and should have waited until there was a definite act of obstruction to the police.\n\nHe also did not appear to have complete control over his men. He intended that only three should fire, yet firing took place\n\nall along the line. "In a word, our decision is that he made an error of judgement.\n\nHe acted in all honesty, but he did not measure up to that standard that might be expected from one of his rank and seniority."\n\nThe report states that there was not a vestige of evidence to support the "infamous suggestion" that the shooting was pre-arranged.\n\n\n
Punch Newspaper_19 October 2006_Tally Ventures To Invest $50M In Barite Mining Processing.txt	Punch Newspaper	19 October 2006	2006-10-19	Tally Ventures To Invest $50M In Barite Mining Processing	/content/Punch Newspaper_19 October 2006_Tally Ventures To Invest $50M In Barite Mining Processing.txt	Tally Ventures to invest $50m in barite mining, processing\nBy Abner Godwin\n\nTally Ventures will be investing $50m in the exploration, mining, and processing of barites in Ikom, the Managing Director, TVL, Mr. Gbermi Arueyingho, has said.\n\nThe barite field marked ASEPL 204 is located in Cross River State, the south-southern part of Nigeria, and is estimated to hold over a hundred million metric tonnes of high-set quality (4.5 SG, API Standard) barite.\n\n“We shall commence our operations with an investment of $20m in the first instance and this will more than double to $50m in four years,” he added in an interview with our correspondent in Lagos on Tuesday.\n\nBesides, the company said it would provide permanent employment for 400 people in the community apart from some 1,000 temporary workers to be employed as the need arises.\n\nIn addition, the company plans capital outlays in providing access roads to all the mining sites and numerous spin-off employments that would be generated from construction contractors that would handle community development projects, Arueyingho noted.\n\nAccording to him, the company will not only engage in decent mining activities, but will also kick-start socio-economic development for the host communities in line with the Federal Government’s policy of poverty alleviation, wealth creation, and peaceful co-existence.\n\nIn order to develop the barites sector, the government placed a complete ban on barite importation into the country.\n\nThe mid-sized Nigerian company, which today is pioneering the enormously lucrative mechanized large-scale production and processing of barite for supply to the oil and gas industry in Nigeria, said the ban on the importation of barite had made investment in the sector a worth while.\n\nArueyingho said the company would deploy its managerial acumen it had acquired in the oil and gas industry to the sector.\n\n“With a vision and a will to excel, we are building on our strength which foundation was solidly laid since the company began operation in 1999, as a major drilling resources and facilities contractor to the Nigerian oil majors, the consumers of barite in the country,” he added.\n\nHe said the seven years of stable operations, and consistent positive earnings, asset, and reserve building coupled with a four-year cumulative reserve of N5.2bn average earnings before tax of N0.827bn and a 2005 peak total assets of N1bn were indices of the company’s strong performance in the sector.\n\n
Daily Times_18 October 1955_30 000 Mineworkers Down Tools.txt	Daily Times	18 October 1955	1955-10-18	30 000 Mineworkers Down Tools	/content/Daily Times_18 October 1955_30 000 Mineworkers Down Tools.txt	30,000 mineworkers down tools\n\nWORK IN MOST of the major mine-fields in Plateau Division, in Northern Nigeria, came to a standstill when 30,000 minefield employees struck yesterday for increased wages.\nThe strikers are members of the Amalgamated African Mines Workers' Union and the Nigeria African Mines Workers' Union.\nThe third major union, the Northern Mine Workers' Union, did not strike.\nThe men had asked for wage increases of 20 to 30 per cent follow-ing the Gorsuch recommendations, but their request was turned down by the Mines Employers' Association, an organisation representing eighteen mining companies\nA "Daily Times" correspondent writes: A long strike will affect tin production and export. The total production of the combined mining companies last about 12,725 tons. Simultaneously, members of the Public Utility and Technical Workers' Union began a go-slow strike\nyesterday at Kaduna. Earlier, Abba Habib, Minister for Northern Cameroons Affairs, and an official met the delegates of the workers and announced the in-creases granted to artisans.\nMalam Habib said that the ques-tion of new rates for labourers would have to wait for about three weeks before any action could be taken on it by the Government. \nThe delegates felt that both the new rates for artisans and labourers should be released at the same time and that by withholding one, the Government was attempting to n cause a split in the union.\nOn this score, they refused to stay off the strike action.\n
Punch Newspaper_22 March 2006_-C Local Miners Fret Over Sluggish Demand For Barites.txt	Punch Newspaper	22 March 2006	2006-03-22	-C Local Miners Fret Over Sluggish Demand For Barites	/content/Punch Newspaper_22 March 2006_-C Local Miners Fret Over Sluggish Demand For Barites.txt	Local miners fret over sluggish demand for barites\nStories: Abner Godwin\n\nLocal miners in the country have expressed worry over the sluggish demand for barites in spite of the increased drilling activities in the nation’s oil sector.\n\nBarites is an industrial mineral that is mainly used in oil drilling, with commercial deposits discovered in Nassarawa, Plateau, Benue, Cross Rivers, Taraba, Zamfara, and Gombe states.\n\nThe miners, in separate interviews with our correspondent, accused the oil servicing companies of deliberately refusing to patronize locally mined barites.\n\n“The Federal Government will have to monitor the oil servicing companies because it seems they are still importing the commodity. The demand is still not there,” a director with Indumine Nigeria Limited, Mr. Aboyoua Ikami, said on Monday in Lagos.\n\nIndustry watchers forecast that demand for local barites would rise appreciably as a result of increased drilling activities in the oil and gas sector, if oil servicing companies patronize locally mined product.\n\nTally Ventures Nigeria Limited, a mining and energy concern, said it might shelve its plan to foray into barites exploitation if the demand remained low.\n\nThe company said its planned multi-million naira project, expected to be located in Cross River State, would provide jobs to thousands of unemployed youths and contribute significantly to the growth of the economy.\n\n“Our involvement in mining is part of our contribution to the development of the solid minerals sector of the economy,” the Chief Executive Officer, TVNL, Mr. Gbenri Arueyingbo, said in an exclusive interview with our correspondent.\n\nHe called on the Federal Government to sustain the ban on the importation of barites in order to create the environment for local miners to thrive and develop the sector.\n\n"A strategic policy and monitoring of the ban on importation of barites is important to give the solid minerals sector a boost," he said.\n\nHe noted that waivers granted in the past to oil servicing companies were responsible for the low level activity in the industry, and called on the government to avoid such pitfalls.\n\nMeanwhile, the Federal Government has said that it was planning a mineral buying centre and the development of a pilot barite mining project in order to meet the demand by oil service companies.\n\nThe Minister for Solid Minerals Development, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, said the ministry plans to provide extension services to Artisanal and small-scale miners in order to meet the specifications of oil service companies.\n\nAlthough local miners have insisted that they have the capacity to meet demand, oil service companies have continued to request for import waivers, a move observers said was an attempt to discourage local production because the oil service companies own mines outside Nigeria.\n\n
Eastern Guardian_16 March 1950_[1] Docx Colliery Seeking A Loan.txt	Eastern Guardian	16 March 1950	1950-03-16	[1] Docx Colliery Seeking A Loan	/content/Eastern Guardian_16 March 1950_[1] Docx Colliery Seeking A Loan.txt	Colliery Seeking A Loan\n\nSO THE Enugu Colliery is seeking a loan of £125,000 to help it "carry on." Carry on implies just what it implies to remain in business. It also implies that if this money is not forthcoming the business will break up, after all the heartbreaks and heart aches suffered by miners to keep the mines going, after all the sacrifices mane already by the Nigerian taxpayer.\n\nWe are not surprised that an honourable member should have suggested in his speech: "Is this not a clear case for handing over our colliery to private enterprise in order to enhance efficiency?" What else could it mean but inefficiency on the part of the management? What else could it mean but lack of business initiative in high quarters?\n\nIn England today, nationalisation is well taking its roots. But the near defeat of Labour at the last elections cannot be realised fully unless one reckons with some of the inefficiently Government operated enterprises. That we believe, was why the Conservatives through their "private enterprise to promote efficiency" line of action nearly toppled the Labour castle over and for ever. As it is, it is only perhaps a question of time.\n\nThe Colliery seeking a loan to merely "carry on" does not suggest in the least bit, better prospects for the future. Even by the recent appointment of some men without the slightest idea of the business to the Coal Board, the Government shows its further inability to cope with a tough problem.\n
The Cable_31 March 2023_How Abandoned Mines Endanger Commun.txt	The Cable	31 March 2023	2023-03-31	How Abandoned Mines Endanger Commun	/content/The Cable_31 March 2023_How Abandoned Mines Endanger Commun.txt	How abandoned mines endanger communities across Nigeria\nby\nGuest Writer\nMarch 31, 2023 8:30 am\n\nBY OLAJIDE ADELANA\n\nCoal was first discovered in Nigeria in 1909 at Udi in Enugu, south-eastern Nigeria. The country’s first coal mine, the Ogbete mine, opened six years later. The Nigerian Coal Corporation (NCC) was formed in 1950, taking on operations of Ogbete and other major coal mines across the country. Coal was one of Nigeria’s primary exports for much of the 20th century. However, significant changes in the Nigerian energy market increased the utilization of petroleum as a fuel source. Further disruption to the coal industry due to the outbreak of the Nigerian Civil War in 1967 and the Nigerian Enterprise Promotion Decree in 1972, which sought to transfer business ownership to Nigerians, contributed to significant declines in foreign investment and many foreign mining companies left the country.\n\nThe Nigerian Coal Corporation eventually went bankrupt in 2002, leaving many of its mines abandoned without proper closure. The country has considerable remaining coal reserves. Production has dwindled over the past 20 years, hitting a record low of 40,000 metric tonnes in 2012.\n\nAbandoned coal mines: Enugu’s charred past hurting its present\nA once-forested valley sits silent as a graveyard. The scars left by heavy machinery on the swaths of forest are still evident, with chunks of coal waste littering the ground. Once seething like a beehive, the now abandoned Onyeama coal mine in south-eastern Nigerian city of Enugu, has become a shadow of itself. The coal mine is one of Nigeria’s derelict coal fields which was closed in 2002 when the Nigerian Coal Corporation went bankrupt. Now the area is mostly farmland.\n\nSunday Okeke, a farmer, walks along one of the narrow paths into the mine looking very upset. The maize he planted sprouted into healthy green stalks, and there was hope for a moment –until the stalks started wilting. Unemployed and with dim prospects of getting a job, Okeke and some residents of Onyeama, who once worked in the mine resorted to farming to feed their families. This decision was their own undoing as they rarely make profit.\n\n“The land is not very fertile. I only plant vegetables and some crops that are not deep-rooted, because they do not require as much nutrients and fertilizers,” he says. “I tried planting maize and I am disappointed at the outcome.”\n\nAdvertisement\nMany farmers in the areas are unaware that mining activities in their community years ago removed the topsoil, which contains much of the moisture and nutrients that crops need. They end up spending money on fertilizers, which reduces their profit. The Onyeama mine also polluted the water used for farming and household use. Bright-orange runoff from tunnels at the abandoned mine drains into local water sources.\n\nCommunities across Nigeria face danger, pollution from abandoned mines\nAs of 2017, Nigeria had an estimated 1,200 identified abandoned mining sites—sites where mining activities ceased without proper closure or reclamation and continue to degrade the environment and pose physical dangers in the form of weakened and collapsing mine shafts, sinkholes, and water-filled pits.\n\nThe 2007 Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act requires “progressive reclamation” – reclamation activities carried out simultaneously with mining operations – in newly approved industrial mining projects. The act also calls for mining companies to establish a reserve fund for environmental protection, mine rehabilitation, reclamation, and closure costs. Although most of the now-abandoned mines in Nigeria, including in Enugu, predate the 2007 legislation, there have been few material changes in practice since the act was passed.\n\nSection 30 of the Act stressed that “a tax deductible reserve for environmental protection, mine rehabilitation, reclamation and mine closure costs shall be established by companies engaged in the exploitation of mineral resources”.\n\nReclamation includes filling depressions or hollows with soil or rock removed during excavation and planting trees to stabilize and restore mined area. Best practices also include repairing wildlife habitats; removing office buildings, processing facilities, and transportation equipment; and sealing mine shafts and other openings.\n\nIn Akwuke community, Enugu South LGA, Enugu state, close to Okpara Mine, there is a complete collapse of mining infrastructure years after mining activities had taken place. The mining site was abandoned by the operators without efforts to address impacts on the community, residents alleged.\n\n“With the exception of those who were employed when the coal mine was still active, there is no tangible benefit our community has gained from mining,” says youth community leader Sunday Nsude, pointing to an untarred road that has deteriorated due to flooding and poor maintenance.\n\nSimon Ude, a resident, who worked as a security guard at the mine from 1996 and 2006, says he was laid off after the mine closed and given no severance pay.\n\n“I was not compensated and I am not the only one. I have a friend whose years of service was just 9 years and 9 months and he was also laid off without pay.” Nigerian labour laws require compensation for laid-off employees based on the length of their employment.\n\n“I had to restart my life from scratch. I started firewood business, but the income is not sufficient to take care of my family’s needs,” Ude says with a tinge of regret in his voice.\n\nSince the Onyeama, Iva Valley, Ribadu, Okpara and Ogbete Mines (all located in Enugu) were abandoned, locals have had to contend with varying degrees of environmental and physical hazards.\n\nMike Achio, who once worked in the Onyeama Coal Mine and now heads a community-led security team, says that the abandoned mine is now a hideout for criminals.\n\n“We regularly contend with criminal elements who have mastered the art of coming into the community to inflict pain on residents and escape through the abandoned mine,” he says. “Recently, we arrested some people at night peddling hard drugs, including cocaine and heroin, in the community.”\n\nAchio pointed out that respiratory diseases—including coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, commonly known as black lung disease—are also common among miners, due to long-term exposure to airborne coal dust.\n\n“Although I am lucky and have no issues with my health, many of my colleagues are not,” says Achio. “They are battling with different health problems such as chest pains and breathing problems. The majority of them were left to bear the consequences of long years of working at the mine without any help.”\n\nOnwubere Basden Jones, a medical expert specialising in cardiovascular and congestive heart diseases, says that elderly people in mining communities are likely to have co-morbidities associated with mining.\n\n“Years back when mining was still actively going on in these communities, there was an upsurge in the number of patients seeking medical attention for different diseases, including respiratory diseases,” he says.\n\nA city on the verge of collapse\nCommunities along the mining corridors in Enugu are also facing a range of environmental challenges, including flooding and landslides and significant erosion. Residents ofEnugu-Ngwo, Amuzam, Agbaja Ngwo, and Nsude said that houses and properties have been washed away by gully erosion caused by heavy rains and landslides.\n\nDespite these challenges, little research has been conducted on the impact of these abandoned mines on the environment.\n\n“A lot of people do not really know the extent of the damage mining did to Enugu,” says Chinedu Nwafor, executive director of Africa for Africa Initiative. He adds a warning about the state’s capital city of Enugu: The city is sitting on a ticking time bomb. If nothing is done, Enugu might collapse. “I don’t know why the government is yet to see this as an emergency.”\n\nIn particular, the network of underground mining tunnels in Enugu is poorly mapped so no one knows their full extent or how it may be exacerbating flooding and erosion issues. The local media have reported that the area is at risk of cave-ins. “Sometimes in the city, you will notice a lot of earth movements and the land will collapse inward. This shows that that place is empty below,” says Nwafor.\n\nLocal sources including former miners estimate that the underground tunnels from Onyeama and Ribadu mines lead to Nsude (18 miles) and Abor (12 miles) respectively.\n\nLack of government action\nState and federal officials have paid some lip service to the impacts of abandoned mines on human health and the environment but have made little effort to address them. Ayodeji Adeyemi, a special adviser to the minister of mines and steel development, did not respond to requests for comment, despite promising on several occasions to forward queries to the appropriate desk and provide a response.\n\nSenator Ike Ekweremadu, the chairman of the senate committee on environment and one of the three senators representing Enugu state in the national assembly did not respond to multiple emails. His personal assistant, Uche Anuchukwu, acknowledged receipt of the inquiries made but did not reply.\n\nEnugu state’s environment and mineral resources commissioner, Chijioke Edeoga, denied knowledge of any challenges posed by abandoned mines in his state. He maintains that his office has never received an official complaint about the matter.\n\n“I am not aware. There is no official complaint from these communities to my office. The state government cannot be blamed, as the mining sector is under the federal government. They (federal government) should be the one to put things in order,” he said.\n\nThe federal government is undertaking some interventions to mitigate the impacts of abandoned mines in Enugu state as part of the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP), but experts say that an expansive and thorough environmental audit needs to be conducted across the entire mining corridor in Enugu to inform strategies for long-term, sustainable solutions.\n\n“Any palliative or reclamation done without a comprehensive environmental audit to ascertain the level of devastation and the funding required to remedy it is unlikely to be a sustainable solution,” says Nwafor. “It is superficial and amounts to poor utilisation of funds.”\n\nResidents consider the government’s efforts to be merely cosmetic. A resident of Enugu- Ngwo, who identified himself as Chineduacknowledged the efforts but said more funding and commitment are needed given the number of affected sites.\n\nSmall-scale mines leave legacy of ruin in Ebonyi, Enugu, Plateau, Nasarawa\nNigeria also has many artisanal and small-scale mines that provide a livelihood for thousands of people, most of them mining gold, gemstones, and cassiterite (a tin oxide mineral). This segment of the extractives industry employs an estimated 400,000 and 500,000 people and currently accounts for more than 90% of solid mineral extraction in the country.\n\nHowever, this activity is poorly regulated by the government. Most of these miners operate outside the formal regulatory regime, without licenses or permits. As a result, communities suffer from environmental degradation and negative health consequences. These mining sites are rarely properly closed or remediated, creating hazards for communities long after miners have moved on.\n\nIn Ebonyi state, the landscape is punctuated with pockets of abandoned mining pits. Two kids while away time in one of them near the town of Ihotor-Ameka, singing as they run in circles and then collapse on a heap on the muddy soil, giggling.\n\nOkeh Gloria, a resident, recalls the day in 2019 when her third child, two-year-old Sylvanus, was in pain and fighting for his life. His eyes had rolled back in his head, and his mouth closed. His muscles tightened and he struggled to breathe. Gloria and her husband were distraught.\n\nJittery, Gloria squeezed his jaws open and poured palm oil down his throat. She had seen many others in the community use this remedy and thought it might help. But Sylvanus’s condition only worsened.\n\n“I cried and prayed when I saw him convulsing. I could not believe what I was seeing,” says Gloria. Sylvanus was later rushed to hospital, where he stayed for six days before he regained consciousness and began his journey to recovery. The family had to pay N50,000 for his treatment.\n\nThe couple suspected heavy metal poisoning as the cause of their child’s sickness. Ihotor-Amekahas huge deposits of minerals, notably lead and zinc, and is littered with mining pits from both abandoned and active artisanal and small-scale mines.\n\nWhen the pits are flooded after heavy rains, the miners pump the water into the surrounding environment, including rivers and streams. The risk of water and soil pollution with heavy metals is high.\n\n“Although we could not explain it, we knew the reason for his ailment cannot be dissociated from our environment,” Gloria said. Several weeks after her son became sick, other residents began to show similar symptoms.\n\n“My neighbour’s son was sick and convulsing,” she said. “Two days later, he died. He was only three years old.”\n\nWater samples collected from the area and tested at the Institute for Agricultural Research, Zaria and the National Research Institute for Chemical Technology (NARICT) had a lead (Pb) concentration of nearly 408 parts per million (ppm); for reference, a U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule requires systems to monitor drinking water if lead concentrations exceed 0.015ppm.\n\nHeavy metals can harm the body even in small doses. Lead exposure can be especially dangerous for children, causing damage to the brain and nervous system, stunted growth and development, behavioural and learning challenges, and hearing and speech problems. Seizures and convulsions are among the more severe neurological symptoms associated with lead overexposure.\n\nDiagnostic capacity is a challenge in Nigeria, including testing for heavy metal poisoning. People come down with strange illnesses that often are left undiagnosed, even after evaluations by experienced physicians.\n\nBut this is not news. In 2010, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported a high incidence of convulsions and death in young children due to lead poisoning in five mining villages in Zamfara state. The number of children affected continues to grow.\n\nMany blame the informal and unregulated activities of artisanal and small-scale miners (ASM) who make up 85 percent of miners in Nigeria’s extractive industry according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Artisanal and small-scale mining differs from medium and large-scale mining. There is the limited available information on production, revenues, operations, and location of their activities.\n\n“The havoc that these artisanal and small-scale miners cause is often overlooked because they don’t necessarily carry heavy machinery to the site,” says David Bade, a farmer whose land is threatened by abandoned mining pits in Yelwa community, Kokona LGA, Nasarawa state.\n\n“They came in droves, took over our farmlands and started digging for tourmaline, a gemstone,” he adds. “Several months later, they vacated the site and moved elsewhere.”\n\nBade says he has noticed a sharp decrease in his harvest because his farmland is no longer fertile. As lead deposits are common in the area, it is also possible that the miners may have kicked up lead-contaminated soil and dust in their search for gemstones.\n\n“Before, I used to harvest up to 300 bags of maize; now I rarely get up to half of that. I have also been attacked by snakes and other reptiles that hide in the holes. I have lost two of my dogs to snake attacks.”\n\nThis is not unexpected, says Ibrahim Yahaya, an official of the Nasarawa state ministry of environment and natural resources. “Mining can severely alter the soil and reduce its fertility. When miners dig into the earth for these minerals, they inadvertently dump the excavated materials on the topsoil. This is called over-burden and it makes it more difficult for crops to access nutrients,” he said.\n\nSoil samples collected from Bade’s farmland and tested at the Institute for Agricultural Research and the National Research Institute for Chemical Technology showed levels of metals that are poisonous to plants, including 1,350 ppm of copper. According to the US EPA, normal soil has a copper content of 1 to 200 ppm. The concentration of zinc in the soil was 2,090 ppm, also much higher than normal levels. The concentration of lead was 1,560 ppm; the EPA recommends avoiding growing vegetables in soil with lead concentrations of more than 400 ppm.\n\nHow large companies enable informal mining\nArtisanal and small-scale miners operate as part of a broader mining ecosystem in Nigeria. With limited access to capital, they are often financed by sponsoring companies that take a large cut of their profits. The sponsors have mastered the art of profiteering from Nigeria’s weak mining regulations and enforcement. In the states visited, the number of artisanal and small-scale miners continues to grow due to the availability of a ready buyer.\n\nSome larger mining companies have reportedly given artisanal miners access to concessions that they are not actively mining. A Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) audit report covering activities in the extractive sector from 2007 to 2010 found that only 30 per cent of the companies holding mining titles were engaged in active quarrying, mining, and exploration.\n\nIn Ebonyi State, most big mining companies with or without licenses grant access to their mining site to artisanal miners, often members of the local community. The company pays a negotiated fee to the landowner and local authorities but retains exclusive rights to the mined commodity. One source noted that many of these companies are Chinese.\n\n“They send scouts to the community to negotiate with individual landowners who believe they have mineral resources underneath their properties. Afterwards, they agree on fees to be paid to the landowner and local authorities in the area, often the traditional heads,” says Chikezie, a miner in Ameka.\n\nThe government has signalled intentions to formalize the sector, improve revenue collection, and increase the contribution of solid minerals to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). But progress has been slow and uneven, complicated by a lack of geological information and limited government capacity. Mine closure and remediation do not appear to have featured heavily in discussions about formalization.\n\nOne small-scale granite miner in Umuogharu, Ezza North LGA of Ebonyi state, who declined to give her name for security reasons, said the state government is aware of their informal mining activities.\n\n“We pay the necessary levies and go about our activities,” she said, adding that discussions on abandoned mines and proper mining site closure were rare in their interactions with the state government.\n\nIn Wamba community, Nasarawa state, large mining corporations and the locals agreed on a sharing formula for the proceeds from mining activities.\n\nOne of the locals, Kasim Usman said: “When they (mining company) came in 2019, we agreed that a certain percentage of the mineral resources mined would be given to the community. One-third is paid to the local government as royalty, one-third is paid to the owner of the land owner where the resources were mined, and one-third is paid to the community.”\n\nNeither the mining companies nor the artisanal miners take responsibility for the proper closure and reclamation of mining sites. They simply move on to another location. The exploitative behaviour of these large-scale companies is often the root cause of community corruption and violence, and it results in a huge loss of revenue to the government. In turn, poor revenue from the sector makes budgetary allocations and funding for the reclamation of abandoned mines difficult for the government.\n\nLives lost, livelihoods affected in Plateau, Nasarawa\nIn Plateau state, years of complaints by mining communities about the wreckage caused by abandoned mining pits have fallen on deaf ears. Belied by its beautiful scenery, abandoned mining pits in Jos city are now potential death traps for residents of the area.\n\nTin was discovered in the Jos plateau at the turn of the 20th century and colonial mining began soon thereafter. These tin mines were largely abandoned following the 1972 nationalization policy, which broke the monopoly of foreign interests, particularly of British firms. Decades later, tin mining communities are still struggling with the negative effects of mining on human health and the environment.\n\nToday, informal artisanal and small-scale miners operating on meagre profit margins work in these abandoned mines. This carries a unique set of risks and dangers.\n\nIn December 2019, an inactive mining pit in Zawan community, Jos South LGA, collapsed, killing six people who were illegally prospecting for tin and other minerals. Eyewitnesses said that more than 50 people were in the pit before it collapsed.\n\n\nAbandoned mining pits on farmland near a stream in the Sabon Barki area of Plateau State\nIn Sabon-Barki, Jos South LGA, residents are fearful when it rains because of how abandoned mining sites channel floodwaters. In April 2021, a four-year-old girl was swept away after a heavy downpour.\n\n“She was returning from school alongside her brother when the flood carried her from Dadin Kowa to Muchogopyeng,” says Belinda Yusuf, a resident of the area.\n\nIn Keffi, Nasarawa state, the Five-Star Mining Company allegedly vacated its mining project without reclamation after an outcry by residents of the area over the incessant blasting of rocks. The abandoned site sits behind Keffi Secondary School.\n\n“Each time they blasted the rocks, strong vibrations reverberated throughout the entire area,” says local resident, Garakuwa Zubairu.“Our buildings began to crack from the foundation.”\n\nHe said residents complained to the company and asked them to reduce the blasting activity but to no avail. The company maintained that it was licensed by the federal government to carry out its activities. They brought their complaints to state government authorities, who inspected the site and directed the company to stop work. The company then vacated the site without doing reclamation work.\n\nChecks at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) showed that the company is inactive and was incorporated on January 6, 1993. The company is headquartered in Calabar with Janet Okok, Effiong Effiong, George Effiong, and Nkoyo Effiong on the board of directors.\n\nSlow progress on reclamation\n\nGovernment remediation efforts date back to 1955 when the federal government reclaimed abandoned mining sites managed by northern regional government at the time. The reclamation of several other abandoned sites followed in 1980.\n\nIn 2017, the ministry of mines and steel development (MMSD), which oversees the solid minerals subsector in Nigeria, said it would spend N1.67trn to reclaim more than 1,600 abandoned mine sites across the country.\n\nA total of 32 mining sites were reclaimed between 2007 and 2019 at a cost of N2.39 billion naira or about N75 million per mine – less than the amount originally projected. (In 2014, a ministry official named Salim Adebgoyega, had put the reclamation cost per abandoned mine at N80m to N100m, depending on the size of the site.\n\nProgress has been much slower than expected. The ministry initially projected that 100 sites would be reclaimed annually between 2007 and 2020. An inventory of abandoned mines and quarries commissioned by the ministry in 2017 to evaluate the environmental and social risks associated with past mining activities is yet to be released officially. The Environmental Protection and Rehabilitation Fund (EPRF) called for in the 2007 Nigeria Mining Act is not fully operational.\n\nThe ministry did not respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request submitted on September 29, 2021, asking for specific details about progress on mine remediation and closure – including a list of all abandoned mining sites identified by the ministry, reclaimed abandoned mining sites, the cost of the reclamation of the sites, and the status of the EPRF. The ministry acknowledged receipt of the request and asked for ample time to compile the required information, adding that the process of revalidating abandoned mines and quarries was ongoing.\n\nThe federal government has allocated significant funds to the reclamation of abandoned mines but has achieved little in terms of value for money. Analysis of the ministry’s budget showed that at least N2.43bn was spent on activities related to reclamation between 2015 and 2020. A further breakdown revealed that N1.90bn was budgeted for the actual reclamation of an unspecified number of abandoned mines during the same period. In 2018 and 2019, the government spent N78.3m on validating abandoned mining sites nationwide and a whooping N463m on logistics support for a special mines surveillance task force in 2020.\n\nOne of the reclaimed sites in Barkin Ladi area of Plateau state, is still prone to flooding and ecological problems years after the purported reclamation in 2017. Residents who spoke with this newspaper were critical of the work done.\n\n“We cannot farm on these sites. The land is not fertile. No bioremediation was carried out,” says Dafum Chung, a resident.“They just came to sand-fill the site and went away. Although the gully erosion subsided, the problem of flooding is still persistent.”\n\nHe adds: “I used to farm close to my house until flooding and erosion caused by mining destroyed my farmland. Although I have relocated to another area to continue my farming, my friends who still farm there are always complaining of poor harvest.”\n\nThe ministry of mines and steel development acknowledged receipt of a FOIA request for procurement records, including budgetary allocations and lists of contractors engaged but the request was not fulfilled by publication time.\n\nCan communities sue?\nNigeria has a federal system of governance but state have limited power. Mining is on the exclusive legislation list – a list of issues over which the federal government has exclusive legislative powers. This means states cannot advance their own legislation governing mining-related issues, including mine closure. State governments cannot enforce federal legislation.\n\n“You really cannot blame the state governments,” says Abiodun Baiyewu, Nigeria country director at Global Rights. “The federal government is quick to remind you that the benefits of the minerals primarily belong to the commonwealth at the federal level. It was not until 2017 that benefits started to trickle down to the local communities. Even so, the benefits have been negligible because the government still earns so little from solid minerals due to massive hemorrhages in revenue.”\n\n\nAn abandoned mining site in the Barkin Ladi area of Plateau State\nHowever, one potential avenue for states to regulate their mining sectors remains unexplored. Section 19 of the Mineral and Mining Act of 2007 provides for a state-level governance apparatus for mining, known as Mineral Resources and Environmental Committee (MIREMCO). To date, this apparatus is yet to be fully explored.\n\nCommunities that have been negatively impacted by abandoned mines have limited avenues for recourse, including through national legal systems. Chinedu Bassey, a program manager at the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, argues that several international human rights instruments to which Nigeria is a signatory are yet to be properly legislated in the country. These include the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). Ten years after endorsing them, Nigeria is yet to develop a national action plan to implement the principles, which allow aggrieved communities to seek redress in court.\n\nHamzat Lawal, chief executive of Connected Development (CODE), a non-governmental organisation that works to empower marginalized communities in Nigeria, says the real question is whether the Nigerian justice system is reliable. “If we’re being realistic, these communities do not have the resources to pursue a case against the government, and while that reflects the weakness of our judicial institution, it also shows the extent of failure of leadership in the country,” he said.\n\nRegardless of the challenges, human rights lawyer and activist Inibehe Effiong believes that mining communities can sue the government or businesses if they can provide evidence and proof beyond a reasonable doubt of their culpability.\n\nEffiong is right. There are quite a few justiciable clauses to rely upon. Beyond the Mineral and Mining Act of 2007, Section 17 (2d) of Nigeria’s constitution states that a community’s natural resources must not be exploited except for the good of the community.\n\nSome international avenues are also available, particularly if a multinational mining company has violated the rights of communities through inadequate mine closure. For instance, communities could file a grievance with the National Contact Points (NCPs) that are responsible for business conduct in the company’s home country or they could request a UN special rapporteur investigation.\n\n\nAbandoned silver mining pits in the Keffi area of Nasarawa state\nThese avenues are rarely explored, however, due to a lack of information and low literacy levels among residents of these communities. Communities can only seek redress if they are aware of their rights and are empowered with the information, they need to demand justice, accountability and transparency from government entities and other stakeholders in the extractive industries.\n\nFor this to happen, knowledge and participatory dialogue platforms are important, says Baiyewu.\n\n“Let’s start with providing a basic knowledge of what mining entails, the likely impacts, and the rights of mining host communities,” she says. “Mining host communities need to access information on how to air their grievances, and ensure ease of access to the relevant agencies of government.”\n\nLawal has a similar view. Rather than sue the government, he says, leaders of mining communities would do better to learn how to engage the government as partners.\n\n“It’s the first step in the right direction, and it disarms a government that is quick to defend itself against its own citizens.”
Daily Times_23 January 1953_Lead-Zinc Operations In Abakaliki Suspended.txt	Daily Times	23 January 1953	1953-01-23	Lead-Zinc Operations In Abakaliki Suspended	/content/Daily Times_23 January 1953_Lead-Zinc Operations In Abakaliki Suspended.txt	Lead-Zinc operations in Abakaliki suspended\n\nTHE Mines Development Syndicate which had been drilling for lead-zinc minerals in Abakaliki Division, Ogoja Province, Eastern Nigeria, has stood-off both its European and African employees. The company has twenty-five Europeans, three Americans and four hundred and fifty Africans in its employment, and is spending £30,000 monthly for the payment of wages and salaries.\nAt one point in Ameka, the company drilled eighty-five deeps but could not get any substantial quantity of minerals. That point was then abandoned and at another point in Ameri, the company also drilled for about two hundred and fifty feet without success.\nAccording to Mr. J. K. Cush, ap American and the Chief Engineer of the company, the Syndicate has been exploring nine square miles at 20s. per acre as rent alone.\nThe cause of the sudden suspen-sion of operation and the standing-off of the entire people working under the company has not been officially explained.
Vanguard Newspaper_08 August 2006_Minister Rejects Oby’S Mining Assets Bid Evaluation.txt	Vanguard Newspaper	08 August 2006	2006-08-08	Minister Rejects Oby’S Mining Assets Bid Evaluation	/content/Vanguard Newspaper_08 August 2006_Minister Rejects Oby’S Mining Assets Bid Evaluation.txt	Minister rejects Oby’s mining assets bid evaluation\nBy Luka Binniyat\n\nABUJA – The sales of state-owned government assets at the mining assets evaluation and award stage has been called back as the new Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Prof. Leslye Obiora, last week observed that the bid evaluation carried out by the former Minister, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, was not in full compliance with due process.\n\nShe has thus cancelled the first evaluation done on technical bids submitted and constituted a new committee to re-evaluate the bids in what appears to be a strong measure that would delay the bidding session.\n\nThe public bid session, initially scheduled to hold in London and Nigeria, had by many views been tagged as a move that would have handed local mining with government officials saying some "World Class" mining companies showing interest in the auction bid took part in the Pre-qualification Exercise.\n\nObiora, in a statement from the office of the Minister, said that a committee was now "reviewing independent reports" to make the mining bid evaluation more transparent.\n\nThe minister said that her ministry is interested in full transparency and progress in the privatization of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) coordination.\n\n“We have to ensure that the exercise does not continue to face the strong battle of external resistance in terms of irregularities," the Minister said.\n\nThe sales of mining properties belonging to the Nigerian Mining Corporation (NMC) were some of the assets put up for privatization in August 2006.\n\nShe further stated that the committee she named would oversee the new bid assessment.\n\nMembers of the new bid review panel included high-profile individuals such as:\n\nChairman: Prof. Ibrahim Haruna\nMembers: Engr. Frank Udoh, Dr. Edwin Okwuosa, Engr. Omowunmbe Ojolowo, Bisiaka Olatunde Akorowa, Ezekiel, and a BPE-appointed member.\nThe Evaluation Committee Members are representatives of Nigerian Geological Survey Agency, National Mining Corporation, Geology Consultants, Engr. Chidi Okafor, National Investments Bureau, and BPE appointees.\n\nOthers are independent observers such as:\n\nCountry Director, World Bank\nCyril Chukwukwa, MD, Capital Partners\nTunde Alosisi, Wendy Browen, Rajai Masri, Bola Fajemirokun, and Lois Boguie.\nThe move by the Minister of Solid Minerals Development and the BPE would mean that the sale of the Nigerian Mining Corporation and its subsidiaries is yet to reach a final evaluation stage.\n\nThe Bid Opening for National Mining Corporation sales is scheduled for the third week of October 2006, at which point bidders are scheduled for the process.\n\nHowever, with the arrival of Obiora, the first public outing of the bid which was a stakeholders' forum was cancelled.
West African Pilot 21 May 1949.txt	West African Pilot 21 May 1949		NaT		/content/West African Pilot 21 May 1949.txt	\nImperial "Management"\n\nBELGIAN CONGO, an independent State of the Congo founded in 1885, became a Belgian colony in 1908. Covering a ground surface of 919,654 square miles, this territory nurses a population of over 10,000,000 Africans, and some 30,000 European parasites.\n\nIts products include oil palm produce, cotton, cocoa, gum. copal, rubber, ivory, copper, gold, tin, wolfram, jute, diamonds, and, above all, radium the destiny element of twentieth century existence.\n\nThis is the jewel-colony that fate has been pleased to bless Belgium with, especially at a time when, outside of the scanty eggs and cereals which form her chief stock-in-trade, she must depend upon this African colony to ward off the crippling aftermath of the European Recovery Programme.\n\nBut what gratitude does Belgium offer to her African bene-factors? We hear of nothing but oppression, exploitation, and a discrimination! "Nigerians," they say, "are hot-headed," because c the British can't "manage" them. But as for the natives of Congo, the Belgians can "manage" them. And surely, it is but manage-ment towards eternal servitude!\n\nKnowing Our Mineral Worth\n\nIN RECENT years, the Departmen) of Geological Survey, has had some field-men touring the land to look into the mineral potentialities of this country. We are very much concerned with this aspect of our economics and we support the stand of the N.C.N.C. as made clear in its representations to the Colonial Office in 1947.\n\nWe have criticised the Minerals Ordinance and offered some amendments, but so far, the Government has not met the difficulties of the average citizen whose circumstances do not permit him to read either the Nigeria Gazette or some other Government annual report.\n\nOf late, there have been protests from Nigerian communities against some mining corporations operating on their lands withou: their consent. The recent incident at Ikeduru in Owerri Province is an example of strained relations that Nigerian citizens must suffer, not to speak of the unwarranted exploitation of their wealth. We hope that the theory that where African and foreign interests clash, Africans will always have preference, would be reduced to practice in our mineral problems.\n\nOnce again, we are urging our Government to issue detailed and simplified information on minerals in this country, making it available to the ordinary man and pointing out clearly where various minerals are obtainable so that the average citizen may know our bearing in the way towards industrialization of this country. It is also requested that gradual developments in either the amendment, alteration or application of any important ordinance as that of the minerals, should be given the widest publicity in order to offset communal misunderstanding \n
Eastern Guardian_21 November 1949_Miners Surround Police & Are Fired.txt	Eastern Guardian	21 November 1949	1949-11-21	Miners Surround Police & Are Fired	/content/Eastern Guardian_21 November 1949_Miners Surround Police & Are Fired.txt	Miners Surround Police & Are Fired\n\nAn official hand out from the Senior Superintendent of Police Port Harcourt received on Nov. 19, announces that the istuation in the Colliery rendered it necessary to evacuate explosives from the mines in the interest of public safety.\n\nThe Police were detailed to carry out this precautionary operation.\n\nAbout noon on Friday, November 18, the evacuation of dangerous explosives from the Iva Valley and Obwetti Mines commenced.\n\nThree lifts were made without interference, but in continuing the evacuation at Iva Valley Mine, the Police were surrounded by a large number of miners armed with crowbars, picks, matchets and spears, who rushed on the Police and attempted to disarm them and obtain possession of the explosive store..\n\nThe Officer in charge of the Police endeavoured to reason with the miners without success.\n\nIn spite of repeated warnings, the situation became so dangerous that the Police were compelled to open fire in self-defence, result-ing in casualties totalling four men killed and six being wounded among the miners and some \n
Punch Newspaper_05 July 2006_Miners Give New Minister Shopping List.txt	Punch Newspaper	05 July 2006	2006-07-05	Miners Give New Minister Shopping List	/content/Punch Newspaper_05 July 2006_Miners Give New Minister Shopping List.txt	Miners give new minister shopping list\nStories: Abner Godwin\n\nAfter recovering from the shock created by the movement of the former Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, the new cabinet minister, has now called on her successor, Prof. Leslye Obiora, which has now taken over where Ezekwesili left off in the sector.\n\nSpecifically, the miners listed their expectations for greater assistance and reforms in small-scale mining, provision of geological data, and enhanced partnerships with miners.\n\nThe push for deployment in technical support has now aligned with at least 11 crucial areas.\n\nThe call has highlighted crucial negotiations on how best to implement the new solid minerals policy.\n\nThe mining sector has asked for extended support to attract greater "artisanal" groups into structured regulations.\n\nThe broad goal of the meeting was to illustrate the main demand that miners have sought over time.\n\n"We need the investment structure improved in the sector," said the President, Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society, Prof. T. J. Badejoko, who in a formal speech had now consolidated the push on how the NMGS expects the new minister to develop sustainable mining policies.\n\nAccording to him, the sector must be fully strengthened for Nigeria to gain from mining, and ensure long-term reform integration.\n\nThe Nigerian Geological Survey Agency and artisanal mining reforms are among the core themes being redefined.\n\nHe highlighted critical recommendations to ensure government participation in structured policy.\n\nThe Miners Association of Nigeria, Chief Dele Ayanwale, and the Executive Council of the group have also cited the need for the minister to address the rising challenge of weak mining structure.\n\n"We need a value-driven structure that helps all miners with stronger incentives and reforms in broad support," he stated.\n\n"Mining is all about cost; getting your products across at the cheapest possible cost of value can only be achieved with viable infrastructure in place," he said.\n\nObiora, who has promised to study the next steps, made available her commitment to a review of the structure and highlight new reforms.\n\nShe rolled out a basic timeline of substantial negotiations on how to place reforms at the level of discussion.\n\nAnalysts said Obiora’s meeting with industry heads was timely and also needed proper follow-up to align small-scale mining into a wider framework.\n\nAmong the major highlights was the call to improve policies on coal mining, especially on the Nigerian Coal Corporation’s new vision of coal exports, subsector re-development, and buildup to new industrial mining reforms.\n\nWhile it is believed that the bulk of internal mining restructuring could take months to work out, the government has stepped up engagement support.\n\nThe first phase of mining growth had been expanding, but Nigeria is currently looking at increasing mining in the medium-to-long term, Dr. Badejoko said.\n\n"The scope for Nigeria’s mining future is immense," he stated, citing important considerations in the country.\n\n"Our mining culture has had to re-position in many aspects," he added.\n\nAmong the various functional areas of focus, the ministry is now working towards phased implementations.\n\nThe broad discussions involve how to re-align small-scale mining improvements.\n\n
Eastern Guardian_07 July 1943_Nigerian Tin Miners Will Benefit From London Tax Concessions.txt	Eastern Guardian	07 July 1943	1943-07-07	Nigerian Tin Miners Will Benefit From London Tax Concessions	/content/Eastern Guardian_07 July 1943_Nigerian Tin Miners Will Benefit From London Tax Concessions.txt	Nigerian Tin Miners Will Benefit From London Tax Concessions\n\nLONDON. -The Nigerian tin came for discussion in a recent issue of the Financial News hero\n\nThe article reads as follows\n\nOwing to the shut down on production for security reasons it is difficult to point the particular mining companies which will benefit from the excess profit tax Concession in the Finance Bill\n\nIt is known, however, that Nigerian tin mining companies have, at the request of the Ministry of Supply increased production to maximum capacity\n\nThis has meant the reduction of costs per ton of tin won but after the war owing to the lowered average ore reserves costs will rise because of this uneconomic mining \n\nTo achieve higher production Amalgamated Tin Mines of Nigeria for instance has moved its plant on to the company's richer deposits\n\nEx-Lands Nigeria reduced in Coats in 1942 owing to the necessity of producing the maximum tonnage possible and the consequential working of a larger production of the higher-grade ore reserves\n\nMr Harbart T Skipp chairman of Naragura Tin Mines another Nigerian producer pointed out lest November that the intensified pro duction required by the Government primarily connoted and involved the selective and accelerated working of the richer sections\n\nThis company has made largely \nincreased abipmonra to meet the Government's request\n\nMr Skipp pointed out that future working cost must increase unless new FOLGTVCR Ase brough in equivalent to those worked our in the emergency\n\nIt is safe to assume that all Nigerian zin mining companies will benefit from the latest EPT concession\n\nThe position of the Northern Rhodesian copper mines is rather obscure\n\nIt has not been claimed on their behalf that they have engaged in un-economic mining in order to achieve maximum output\n\nTheir position is rather different from those of the Nigerian Tin-mining companies, in that the Northern Rhodesian mines are Working huge deposits of relatively stable ore of low copper content and selective mining on the scale necessary to feed the big treatment and refining paints is probably not feasible\n\nOn the other hand the treatment of larger tonnages for war purposes may lower costs now, and post war costs may be higher by reason of the capital outlay on plants which may be useless in an era in which de. mand for copper may be lower\n\nAlmost the only company concerned in the asbestos concession is Turner and Newalls which took over from Rhodesian and General Asbestos three asbestos mines in Southern Rhodesia including the Sitabanic mine regarded as one of the richest in the world\n\nMica is also found in Southern Rhodesia\n
West African Pilot_20 April 1956_Seven Die In Iva Mine Mishap.txt	West African Pilot	20 April 1956	1956-04-20	Seven Die In Iva Mine Mishap	/content/West African Pilot_20 April 1956_Seven Die In Iva Mine Mishap.txt	Seven Die In Iva Mine Mishap\n\nENUGU, April 19.- Seven peo-ple were killed and 43 injured when a wall collapsed during a storm last night at the Iva Coal Mine.\n\nAbout 50 people sought shelter near the wall which suddenly caved in and fell on them.\n\nThe police are investigating.\n
The Guardian_25 June 2023_Youths In Plateau Abandon Education.txt	The Guardian	25 June 2023	2023-06-25	Youths In Plateau Abandon Education	/content/The Guardian_25 June 2023_Youths In Plateau Abandon Education.txt	Youths in Plateau abandon education, farming, pursue artisanal mining\nBy NAN\n25 June 2023\n\nFollowing the rising spate of mining activities in some parts of Plateau, young people have abandoned their academic pursuits and have ventured into artisanal mining.\n\nThe booming artisanal mining in Barkin Ladi, Riyom, Bassa and Jos South local government areas (LGAs), have also made the largely under aged children to leave agricultural activities, which they were combining with their academics.\n\nSome community leaders from the localities, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in separate interviews, described the situation as worrisome and called for urgent action to curb the looming dangerous trend.\nThey raised this alarm on the sidelines of a training, recently organised by the Centre for Advocacy of Justice and Rights (CAJR) in Jos.\n\n\nMr Gyang Gerre, the community leader of Jol, in Riyom, accused some parents of influencing their children’s decision to drop out of school and go into mining.\n\nGerre, who decried the rising number of school drop outs in Riyom, said that the ugly situation was posing serious danger to the growth and development of society.\n\n“Children in both primary and secondary schools no longer go to school; the number of school drop outs in Riyom is alarming.\n“This is not a good omen for us, it has adverse effects on the future of the children and the society in general.\n\n“Most children in Riyom don’t go to school or farm again; majority of them have delved into mining.\n\n“The unfortunate aspect is that most of these kids are being encouraged by their parents because they are making quick and easy money,’ ‘he said.\n\nGerre also decried the looming hunger in most of these communities, and by extension, the state and country at large, because the mining activities were slowly crippling agricultural production.\n\n“We commenced farming activities in April, but not much progress has been made because for the past three years, our people have not been consistent with farming as a result of artisanal mining.\n\n“As we speak serious hunger looms in our communities; parents now prefer to buy food instead of producing the food to feed their families and also sell.\n“Our people have abandoned both the wet season and irrigation farming that they are known for, and have all gone into mining,” he stated.\n\nOn his part, Mr Jonathan Dangyang, from Gyel Community, Jos South, decried the growing trend of sexual immorality and drug abuse among young people at mining sites.\n\nDangwang particularly decried the rate of unwanted pregnancies among teenage girls, adding that miners were the ones taking advantage of these young girls and impregnating them without taking responsibility.\n\n“Socially, mining activities has massive devastating effects on our communities.\n\n“Young girls of school age get impregnated at mining sites by people who are not ready to take responsibility.\n\n“There is also an unchecked trend of drug abuse among young people; they consume all kinds of illicit substances.\n“Worst still is the increasing rate of adultery among married men and women at the mining sites,” he said.\n\nMeanwhile, Ms Sarah Johnson, the Programme Manager of CAJR, said that the training was part of its project tagged;\n\n“Effects of Tin Mining on Ancestral Lands, Land Productivity and the Future of the Next Generation in Plateau”.\nJohnson said that the project was being supported by Global Greengrants Fund, an international organisation.\n\n“This project aims at checking how mining activities are affecting the preservation of ancestral lands, agricultural activities and the social lives of the people.\n\n“Because the ongoing mining activities in Plateau are huge, this project also seeks to find out the economic importance of abandoned mining ponds scattered all over the state.\n\n“The project also wants to find out the social and health implications, due to increasing mining activities in communities across Plateau.\n\n“So, this meeting is to sensitise these stakeholders and find out possible ways we can collectively address the challenges that come with mining activities on our lands,” Johnson said.\n\nShe, however, explained that the project was not aimed at discouraging artisanal mining in the state, but to ensure that it was done with minimal negative impacts on the land.\n\n“All we are after is to ensure that mining activities improves the health and social lives of the people.\n\n“We want to ensure that mining doesn’t affect farming, tourism, among other activities due to land degradation, as result of exploration of the commodities,’ she added.
Nigerian Mining Com_03 December 2024_Miners Urge Edo State Governor.txt	Nigerian Mining Com	03 December 2024	2024-12-03	Miners Urge Edo State Governor	/content/Nigerian Mining Com_03 December 2024_Miners Urge Edo State Governor.txt	Mining News\nMiners Urge Edo State Governor Monday Okpebholo to Address Double Taxation and Insecurity in Mining Sector\n\nThe Edo State chapter of the Miners Association of Nigeria (MAN) has congratulated Monday Okpebholo on his victory in the September 21, 2024, governorship election and his inauguration as Governor of Edo State on November 12.\n\nAccording to a report by Independent the association urged Governor Okpebholo to address double taxation and insecurity in the mining sector, which they described as significant obstacles to business growth in Edo State.\n\nIn a statement, Chairman Mike Okhumode and Secretary Engr Fatai Jimoh called on the Governor to run an inclusive government focused on the state’s development. They highlighted his reputation as a capable leader, citing his track record in public service.\n\n“We recognise your achievements in public and private sectors and trust you will fulfil your campaign promises to the people of Edo State,” the statement read.\n\nThe miners encouraged residents to support the new administration and collaborate on efforts to build a better Edo State.\n\n
West African Pilot_09 December 1955_Progress In Jos Mines.txt	West African Pilot	09 December 1955	1955-12-09	Progress In Jos Mines	/content/West African Pilot_09 December 1955_Progress In Jos Mines.txt	Progress In Jos Mines\n\nJOS, Dec. 8.— Agreement has been reached on a number of points in the resumed negotiations between the Plateau Mining Employers Association and the two unions whose 40,000 members went on 18-day strike last October, it was announced here today.\n\nBoth sides reached agreement on corn subsidies, trade tests and a measure of agreement was also reached on wages.\n\nCases of alleged victimisation of workers who joined in the strike
The Nigerian Citizen_12 May 1950_Miner Killed At Enugu.txt	The Nigerian Citizen	12 May 1950	1950-05-12	Miner Killed At Enugu	/content/The Nigerian Citizen_12 May 1950_Miner Killed At Enugu.txt	MINER KILLED AT ENUGU\n\nGabriel, a miner, was killed and a man named Nwachuku was seriously injured in an early morning incident at the Iva Valley Mines, Enugu.\n\nThe men were entering the mines when they were run down by tubs which had got out of control.\n
Punch Newspaper_08 March 2006_Local Miners Seek Involvement In Solid Minerals Reforms.txt	Punch Newspaper	08 March 2006	2006-03-08	Local Miners Seek Involvement In Solid Minerals Reforms	/content/Punch Newspaper_08 March 2006_Local Miners Seek Involvement In Solid Minerals Reforms.txt	Local miners seek involvement in solid minerals reforms\nStories: Atser Godwin\n\nStakeholders in the solid minerals sector and the economy have called on the Ministry for Solid Minerals Development to foster greater partnership between local miners and foreign investors.\n\nThe Managing Director, Tally Ventures Limited, Mr. Gbenri Arueyingbo, in an interview with our correspondent in Lagos on Friday, said the need for partnership between local miners in the country and foreign investors could not be overemphasized.\n\n"Government should not only look at direct job creation for Nigerians and the development of the communities but also it should begin to look at how to promote partnership between the local investors and the foreign counterparts," he said.\n\nWhile lauding the efforts of the Minister for Solid Minerals Development, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, in projecting the sector in good light, he expressed fears that the new legislation that guarantees 100 per cent ownership and a 100 per cent repatriation of profits to foreigners would in the long run work against local miners.\n\nAccording to him, such a relationship between the local miners and the foreign partners in the sector would engender local participation in the solid minerals sector.\n\nAlso, a Senior Official with Malibu Energy Resources, Mr. Obinna Agboti, advised that government should begin to create ways by which the local private sector operators in the country could partner with their foreign counterparts so that the clamour for local content would not arise in the solid minerals sector as in the oil and gas sector.\n\nHe noted that the interest in the solid minerals sector was being heightened as a result of the demand and rising prices in the world market.\n\nEzekwesili said recently that the government was not unmindful of the existence of artisanal and small-scale miners.\n\n"Our intention is to facilitate better organisation, through cooperatives, as they transit into the formal realm of operation in the sector.\n\n"Three pilot programmes are already under way to ensure that challenges facing this group of operators are identified and tackled," she added.\n\nWith the Federal Government’s agenda to divest from the solid minerals sector, Ezekwesili said government had partitioned the coal properties in preparation for their privatisation.\n\nAccording to her, the move is a clear demonstration of government’s commitment to playing the role of an "administrator-regulator," rather than the former role of an "owner-operator."\n\nShe added that the bitumen belt had been delineated into blocks as the basis for a bidding round scheduled for the first quarter of 2006.\n\nShe stressed, "As hundreds of mineral titles for diverse kinds of mineral commodities, hitherto held by government monopoly mining corporation, will be put for public auction to private investors in 2006," she said.\n\nEstablishment of mineral buying centres under way – MSMD\nThe Ministry of Solid Minerals Development said on Monday that it would begin the establishment of mineral buying centres across the country in pursuance of its mining sector reform.\n\nThe Director, Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining, Mr. Olusaga Okalagbo, said at the 42nd annual conference of the Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society in Kaduna that the establishment of small-scale mining centres by the middlemen.\n\n"This is one way government feels it will create a market for minerals mined under small-scale operations," he said.\n\nAlthough details on the work done so far were not given, he said the centres would show case the mineral potential of the country to international investors.\n\nHe added that the MSMD was working with the states in this regard.
Premium_Times_6 April 2024 Nigeria Identifies 1 200 Abandoned Mining.txt	Premium	Times	NaT	6 April 2024 Nigeria Identifies 1 200 Abandoned Mining	/content/Premium_Times_6 April 2024 Nigeria Identifies 1 200 Abandoned Mining.txt	Nigeria identifies 1,200 abandoned mining sites\nbyPremium Times April 6, 2014\n\nMore sites will be identified as field surveys are ongoing\n\nThe Federal Government on Sunday said that it had identified 1,200 abandoned mining sites across the country.\n\nSalim Adegboyega, the Acting Director of Mines Environmental and Compliance Department in the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Abuja.\n\nHe said that more abandoned mining sites would be identified as the field surveys were still ongoing.\n\nMr. Adegboyega recalled that the Federal Government reclaimed many abandoned mining sites which were managed by the Northern Regional Government in 1955.\n\n“The Federal Government gave some grants to the Northern Regional Government and about 1,000 mines were said to have been reclaimed through biological and other means then,’’ he said.\n\nMr. Adegboyega said the Federal Government also reclaimed several abandoned mining sites in 1980.\n\nHe said that the ministry had reclaimed 17 abandoned mining sites out of the 1,200 identified sites.\n\nThe acting director said that the reclaimed sites were in Ebonyi, Plateau, Kano, Borno, Abia, Kaduna and Cross River states, among others.\n\nMr. Adegboyega said that on the average, the ministry spent between N80 and N100 million to reclaim a mining site, but said that the expenditure could be less depending on the size of mining site.\n\nHe said that mines’ reclamation was an expensive venture as the cost depended on size of a site and the distance where materials would be brought to fill the mines and other factors.\n\nHe said that the rating of sites was based on the potential degree of their environmental hazard, adding that the ministry selected the first 40 mining sites out of the 1,200 identified sites for the reclamation.\n\nMr. Adegboyega said that the ministry had fully reclaimed 17 out of the 40 mining sites it selected from the 1,200 identified sites.\n\nHe said that the ministry planned to reclaim 100 sites annually between 2007 and 2020.\n\nThe officer, however, conceded that due to paucity of funds, the ministry was only able to reclaim either one or two sites at a time.\n\nHe said that this was the reason for low figure of the sites so far reclaimed.\n\n“We estimated about N6 billion for 100 sites in 2007, but only N1.1 billion has been released,’’ he said.\n\nHe said the ministry would reclaim three mining sites in the country this year, but the management had yet to decide on the locations of these sites.\n\nHe said that it was virtually impossible to reclaim all the abandoned mining sites because some of the ponds at the sites were now being used for irrigation farming, fishing and water supply for domestic and industrial purposes.\n\nThe acting director said in some communities, the mining ponds was serving as veritable sources of job and wealth creation, adding that most of the tomatoes and potatoes grown in Jos were from those ponds.\n\n“The water is also used as source of industrial and domestic water supply to various homes. Jos International Breweries is one of the plants using this kind of water for industrial purposes.\n\n“In Barkin Ladi, the pond water is distributed to various homes for domestic use, although the water is not good for drinking as it is untreated, but then it solves a lot of problems,’’ he said.\n\nMr. Adegboyega said that where research had shown that a mining pond contained mercury and heavy matters, the site would be reclaimed or the communities would be advised not to use the water for any purpose.\n\nHe said that mining sites were abandoned in the past because there were no laws stipulating that those sites should be either be reclaimed or rehabilitated whenever they were no longer active.\n\nThe acting director said that the first law came up in 1946, but it had no detailed provisions about reclamation, adding that the Mining Act 2007 prescribed certain standards for mining sites’ reclamation efforts.\n\nHe said that one of the current obligations of the mineral title holders was to reclaim the site before they vacated a mining site.\n\nMr. Adegboyega said that the miner was obliged to set aside some money, in form of collateral, at the ministry and in the event of any failure to reclaim a site, the money would be used for the reclamation.\nHe said that for instance, 20 mining companies in Ondo State had been sanctioned for not complying with extant mining and environmental laws.\n\n\n
The Guardian_06 December 2024_France Not Taking Over Nigeria’S Mining.txt	The Guardian	06 December 2024	2024-12-06	France Not Taking Over Nigeria’S Mining	/content/The Guardian_06 December 2024_France Not Taking Over Nigeria’S Mining.txt	France not taking over Nigeria’s mining industry — Presidency\nBy Oluyemi Ogunseyin\n06 December 2024\n\nThe Presidency has clarified that France is not taking over Nigeria’s mining sector, solid minerals, or security rights, contrary to speculations circulating on social media.\n\nThe Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Public Communication, Sunday Dare, addressed the rumours in a statement on his official X account on Thursday night.\nRecently, the governments of Nigeria and\n\nFrance signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop joint projects aimed at promoting and diversifying the critical minerals value chain in the solid minerals sectors of both countries.\n\nThe MoU, signed during President Tinubu’s official visit to France, focuses on collaboration in research, training, and student exchange programmes between Franco-Nigerian institutions to facilitate knowledge and skills transfer.\n\nThe agreement, however, led to speculations on social media that France was strategizing to take over Nigeria’s mining and solid minerals industry.\n\nReacting to these claims, Dare explained that nowhere in the document was it agreed or suggested that Nigeria had signed away mining rights to France. He said that the MoU does not connote anything detrimental to Nigeria’s economic and security interests, as has been maliciously circulated.\n\nHe clarified that MoUs are not legally binding, allowing either party to exit the agreement or fail to meet the outlined requirements without consequences.\n\nAccording to him, the MoU adheres to international global standards, with which Nigeria is compliant, and all procedures will be followed.\n\nDare, in a post titled “The Facts: Nigeria-France MOU on Critical Minerals,” provided further explanation:\n\n“Nigeria and France have agreed to develop joint projects to promote and diversify the critical minerals value chain in the solid minerals sector of both countries,” he said.\n\n“Critical minerals such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, and rare earth elements are essential to clean energy technologies.\n\n“In the Memorandum of Understanding signed by both countries on the sidelines of the official visit to France by President Tinubu recently, both countries agreed to collaborate on research, training, and Franco-Nigerian student exchanges for knowledge and skills transfer.\n\n“A key component of the Memorandum of Understanding is the promotion of sustainable mining activities by executing projects and programs that reduce the environmental impact of mining on carbon emissions, water consumption, and climate change.”\n\nDare added that the MoU includes the establishment of joint extractive and processing projects through co-financing by public and private entities to diversify and secure the supply of critical minerals and decarbonise energy projects critical to the value chain.\n\nHe explained that both parties agreed to adopt international best practices in executing programs and projects to improve the conditions of local communities affected by mining and to ensure transparency.\n\nThe MoU is also expected to open opportunities for remediating over 2,000 abandoned mining pits in Nigeria through its plans for environmental rehabilitation and post-mining projects.\n\nThrough regular bilateral and multilateral training, seminars, and events, Dare noted that administrators in the critical metals sector are expected to enhance their capacity to manage the sector’s value chain effectively.\n\nRegarding the nature of MoUs, Dare, a former Minister of Sports and Youth Development, explained that they allow for the establishment of mutual intentions, ensuring clarity in each party’s goals and objectives.\n\n“The finalisation of an MOU allows for having a paper trail or records of the terms negotiated toward finalisation,” he said.\n\n“MOUs reduce levels of uncertainty between the involved parties because the document highlights the expectations and objectives, preventing possible future disagreements.”\n\nHe added that an MOU provides ease of exit, allowing any party that finds the objectives and goals unmet to end the agreement easily. Additionally, the document serves as a foundation for a possible future contract.
West African Pilot_31 August 1956_Tin Exports From Nigeria Rise.txt	West African Pilot	31 August 1956	1956-08-31	Tin Exports From Nigeria Rise	/content/West African Pilot_31 August 1956_Tin Exports From Nigeria Rise.txt	Tin Exports From Nigeria Rise\n\nLONDON, Aug. 30.-UK tin from Nigeria, and iron from Sierra Leone continue to increase the Board of Trade Accounts show.\n\nDuring the first seven months of this year, metal ores received by UK from Nigeria, totalled 9,953 tons (£4,480,000) compared with 9,108 tons in the same period last year, and 8,107 tons in the first seven months of 1954.\n\nThese shipments included 7,398 tons tins ore and concentrates (£3,958,000) against 6,683 tons in the first seven months of 1955 and 5,474 tons in these previous year.\n\n
Punch Newspaper_22 February 2006_-A Stakeholders Endorse Mining Law.txt	Punch Newspaper	22 February 2006	2006-02-22	-A Stakeholders Endorse Mining Law	/content/Punch Newspaper_22 February 2006_-A Stakeholders Endorse Mining Law.txt	Stakeholders endorse mining law\nStories: Atser Godwin\n\nStakeholders in the mining industry have expressed optimism that the proposed new mining law would transform the solid minerals sector in the country.\n\nApart from granting security of title to investors, analysts said, it would boost investments in the solid minerals sub-sector.\n\nThe new mining law, which is expected to be passed into law in the first quarter of 2006, is an overhaul of the 1999 Mining Act.\n\nOne significant position on the proposed act is the security of tenures on mining and greater transparency in licensing programmes, according to Partner with Hamers Borries and Solicitors, Mr. Ben Obidegwu, in an interview with our Correspondent on Thursday.\n\nThe security arrangement in the sector was key, noting that it is the launch pad for any economic development.\n\nAccording to him, the investor-friendly banking index on account best practices in the industry would be visible.\n\n"I have had time to go through the new mining law and all other features that I can tell you that Nigeria’s law compares favourably with the laws from other major mining jurisdictions," he added.\n\nHe stressed that if passed into law, it would be a landmark achievement in the transformation of solid minerals, offering a "new paradigm in the industry that would open a new history in how mining relations should be managed."\n\nThe Chief Executive Officer, Oua Osagie & Company, Mr. Osagie Owa Osagie, said the proposed mining legislation and other reforms in the sector would help the industry.\n\nHe said when put to scrutiny, it shows transparency and subsidiarities to develop the sector.\n\nHe said that how it happens should not thwart a sustainable development based on oil and gas resources, alongside what the new legislation, prospects of the country attracting private investments would heighten.\n\nWhile calling on the Federal Government to step up enlightenment programmes that would educate stakeholders on the benefits in the new law, Osagie noted that this legislation has provisions that were not only transparent but also innovative for the sector.\n\nHe said the privatisation of the mining industry in Nigeria would advance the development of the sector, adding that it would allow government to play only a regulatory role.\n\nThe Director-General of the Geological Survey of Nigeria, Dr. Siyan Malomo, said the objective of the new legislation was a commitment to the involvement of the private sector with the mining sub-sector.\n\nHe said with the solid minerals sector would be a major front for investors as it would now invite more capital formation.\n\n"As it stands now, it will create a competitive business environment and a unique role for private sector corporations and owner of Nigeria’s mineral resources.\n\nMinister for Solid Minerals Development, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, said the key concepts of the new legislation were based on "no license, no interest" principle for competitive process.\n\n"Applications for mining leases and licenses are received on a first-come-first-served basis, and may be stayed in an open format, based on rating, lot or evaluation as served by the government," he added.\n\nAccording to her, the legislation would provide for security of tenure of mining titles to investors with minimum work obligations for explorations.\n\n"However, the discretionary power of ministers in the allocation of mining titles to investors," she said.\n\nEzekwesili noted that one of the aims of the MSMD was to develop the solid minerals sector in such a manner that it would bring about peace and wealth to the country.\n\nTo achieve peace and create wealth to the communities in which solid minerals would be exploited, the minister said a provision had been made in the legislation for the establishment of a Safe Mineral Resources and Environmental Management Committee.\n\nNew York, London exchanges to assist Nigeria\nNigeria has again concluded a breakthrough in its quest to develop the local mining industry, as the New York Stock Exchange changes its commitment in international financiers.\n\nBarclays Capital and JP Morgan are being prepared to invest in financing mining operations in Nigeria.\n\nShe said investors would be given tax holidays that would enable them recoup their investments, adding, "There are also tax concessions for training of plant personnel and the provision of basic infrastructure."\n\n"It will allow local and foreign companies in mining exploitation to raise funds and to float on the market," she added.
The Nigerian Citizen_05 June 1952_Nigeria Uranium.txt	The Nigerian Citizen	05 June 1952	1952-06-05	Nigeria Uranium	/content/The Nigerian Citizen_05 June 1952_Nigeria Uranium.txt	N. NIGERIA'S URANIUM\n\nTHE recent discovery of large uranium deposits in Nigeria. \n\nsaid last Friday's issue of the London Economist, suggests that the Commonwealth may eventually become one of the world's biggest producers of uranium."\n\nCanada, it is pointed out, accounts at present for a considerable proportion of total production. The first of the uranium extraction plants being erce ed at many of the South African gold mines are now in production.\n\n"But it may be some time," the Economist continues, "before the two large deposits recently identified in Australia and Nigeria can be exploited."\n\nWhile the writer regards the preliminary reports on the Nigerian deposits as not holding out "very encouraging figures" so far as extraction rates of uranium and niobium are concerned, he adds:\n\n"But the sheer size of the deposit, as well as the high current prices of the two metals, are expected to justify working ores of such low concentration. It is in any case essential that methods be found of working low-grade ores economically if there are to be sufficient reserves of uranium fuel to justify the building up of an atomic power system."\n
Eastern Guardian_19 May 1950_Enugu Shooting Report.txt	Eastern Guardian	19 May 1950	1950-05-19	Enugu Shooting Report	/content/Eastern Guardian_19 May 1950_Enugu Shooting Report.txt	Enugu Shooting Report\n\nSIX MONTHS ago today it was that there fell in the Iva Valley Mines nineteen Nigerians through the bullets of the State Police. This historic sadism is commonly known in local circles as the Enugu Shooting Incident. In order to probe the causes that led to the tragedy and the events that followed, a commission headed by Sir Fitzgerald was appointed which sat from December 12 last year to January 7 this year.\n\nDuring the last sitting of the legislature, Governor Macpherson stated that the report would be published "within a few weeks" and proceeded to warn all who may use that opportunity to stir up troubles in the national front. This statement was made on March 2, and till date the report is still not out.\n\nSpeculation is rife in political and semi-political circles as to the reason for the delay and when current events are noted such as the banning of the Zikist Movement, the imposition of stringent measures, the furlough of the Chief Secretary to the United King-dom and the flight of the Governor to London to obtain "medical advice" none can be blamed for speculating and feeling suspicious.\n\nBe that as it may, we feel that the report ought to have been released. For one thing it may help to clear the air of suspicion hovering over this country. It may too enable the Government to know its faults and perhaps repent. Nigerians too may learn here-from. Any further delay is to be sure, very dangerous and highly unauspicious.\n\n
The Guardian_10 April 2019_Don Seeks Protection For Host Communities.txt	The Guardian	10 April 2019	2019-04-10	Don Seeks Protection For Host Communities	/content/The Guardian_10 April 2019_Don Seeks Protection For Host Communities.txt	Don seeks protection for host communities of mining firms, others\nBy Femi Adekoya\n10 April 2019 \n\nAn academician and award-winning engineer, Dr. Hilary Owamah, has called for the protection of Nigerian communities against mining companies and other extractive industries.\n\nOwamah, who is the Acting Head of the Department of Civil Engineering, Delta State University, Abraka, Oleh Campus, President, Academic Research and Entrepreneurship Development (A-RED) Initiative, and Chairman, Nigerian Institution of Environmental Engineers (NIEE), Asaba Chapter, made the disclosure at the Inauguration Ceremony of Oil and Solid Mineral Producing Landlords’ Association of Nigeria (OMPALAN), Delta State Chapter.\n\nThe university don , according to a statement, told OMPALAN members and other participants that mining and other extractive industries were among the most destructive activities on the planet, especially for indigenous and farming communities.\n\n\nHe further noted that because the minerals, metals, fuel, and timber that the mining industries seek are very profitable, resisting them requires hard work.\n\nOwamah charged OMPALAN to know, that at stake, is the cultural survival and well-being of their communities, environment, and ability to make a living — now and for years to come.\n\nOwamah told the participants that the three stages of mining operations; prospecting, exploration, and exploitation all cause serious negative environmental, social and health impacts to host communities.\n\nThe guest speaker decried that often times, EIA is seen just as a document to comply with national laws thereby making contractors to sometimes save time and money by copying another EIA.\n\nHe charged OMPALAN to challenge in the law courts, on behalf of their communities, concocted EIAs that are non-implementable.\n\nOwamah reiterated that mining companies are very much aware that they must also get the approval of the local communities before going ahead with projects.\n\nThis the guest speaker referred to as the “social license.”\n\nHe however went further to say that mining companies are often willing to spend millions of dollars and make endless promises to try to obtain the social license.\n\n“They promise to build schools or bridges, provide scholarships, and jobs—whatever they think will appease a community”, said Owamah.\n\nAccording to the guest lecturer, while some promises are kept, many are not.\n\nHe further said that while a company may continue to make gifts to keep the population pacified, they may in the process create social havoc, violence, and deep divisions within communities and families, saying, “It may then take a long time to re-build the social, cultural and spiritual structures and bonds that were the community’s real wealth”.
The Nation_15 October 2012_One Dead Three Injured Illegal Mining.txt	The Nation	15 October 2012	2012-10-15	One Dead Three Injured Illegal Mining	/content/The Nation_15 October 2012_One Dead Three Injured Illegal Mining.txt	One dead, three injured in Ebonyi ‘illegal’ mining\n\nA man, said to be an illegal miner, Anele Nwite, at the weekend died in a mining pit in Ameka, Ezza South Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.\n\nThree others were injured and are receiving treatment in a hospital.\n\nThe pit reportedly caved in when the “illegal miners” were scooping for salt.\n\nIt was learnt that Nwite’s head, hand and leg were severed by a large stone which fell on him.\n\nAnother miner, Ebube Agu, was injured and taken to Ugodinma Hospital Onueke in the same local government area, where he is said to be responding to treatment.\n\nThe other two were taken to an undisclosed hospital for treatment and are said to be in critical condition.\n\nThe deceased was reportedly buried immediately his body was retrieved.\n\nThe Chairman of Ezza South Local Government Area, Lazarus Ogbee, denied knowledge of the incident.\n\nHe said: “I have not received such a report on my table. The Development Centre Coordinator and the councillor representing the ward have not brought it to my notice. I am just hearing it from you.”\n\nThe area where the incident occurred is on lease to Royal Salt Company Limited.\n\nEfforts to get the Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Dr Ifeanyi\n\nIke, and his Cement and Mineral Development counterpart, Sunday\n\nUgwuocha, to react to the incident, were abortive.\n\nThey were said to be attending the State Executive Council (Exco) meeting.
Eastern Guardian_17 December 1949_Sir William Fitzgerald Opens Commission On Enugu Episode.txt	Eastern Guardian	17 December 1949	1949-12-17	Sir William Fitzgerald Opens Commission On Enugu Episode	/content/Eastern Guardian_17 December 1949_Sir William Fitzgerald Opens Commission On Enugu Episode.txt	Sir William Fitzgerald Opens Commission On Enugu Episode\n\nBy Our Own Correspondent\n ENUGU. Flanked on both sides by his Assistant commissioners, Samuel Okai. Esquire, Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of the Gold Coast, Adetokubo Adegboyega Adamola, Esquire, Puisne of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and Ronald W. Williams, Esquire, M. P., with Mr Derek Leslie Pearson, as the Secretary to the Commission, Sir William Fitzgerald, Commissioner, on Monday, December 12, 9. a.m. in the Government Printing Press Building formally opened the sitting of the commission of inquiry appointed to inquire into and report on the recent disorder in Nigeria, with special reference to the labour troubles at the Enugu colliery and the events which followed. \n\nBefore the Commissioner sat an imposing array of prosecuting and defence Councels, Mr. Ridehalgh the Solicitor General, with Mr G. G. Briggs Acting Senior Crown Counsel Eastern Province appearing the Crown; whilst under leadership of Mr. F. R. A William, M. A.; brilliant Nigerian Barristers to wit Messrs H. O. Davies, H. U. Kaine, Jaja Wachukwu, G. C. Nonyelu, G. C. M. Onyiuke, M. O. Ajebgo, G. M. Ikemena and C. D. Onyeama appeared for the matter. \n \n\nLABOUR LEADERS \n\nOn the labour front, gallery of brilliant labour Leaders, Messrs, M. A.O. Imoudu, M. Osindero, Adio Moses, Ibeyioku, H. Adsbola, F. O. Coker, Nduka Eze and other top-ranking trade unionists of the Eastern province held the fort.\n\nThe Chairman and Secretary respectively of the National E vergency Committee, Dr Akinola Maja, Mazi Mbonu Ojike, as well as Executive member Mazi Ozomba Mbadiwa were in attendance.\n\nIn the press gallery were representatives of Fieet Street newspapers, the London Times; Daily Herald; Daily Express and Reuters; the Eeastern Regional Public Relations Officer, with a team of her lady stenographers and more then Twnety representatives of various newspapers establishments in Nigeria and other parts of West Africa and England were at their post ready to go in for action. \nEnough accommodation could not be found for a gargantuan crowd of over 2.000 strong which surrounded the building despite the strong contingent of Police uder the control of a Superintendent of Police, kept to maintain order.\nThroughout Enugu township, police armed with batton were being driven round the town.\n\nDeclearing the sitting of the commission open with a strong appeal for Cooperation, the responsibility now devolved upon us as we are embarking upon taking of evidence. \nWe look up to you to cooperate with us in terms of reference before us to ensure
The Guardian_16 Ja 2024_Fg Seeks Minimal Mining Impact On Environment.txt	The Guardian	16 Ja 2024	NaT	Fg Seeks Minimal Mining Impact On Environment	/content/The Guardian_16 Ja 2024_Fg Seeks Minimal Mining Impact On Environment.txt	FG seeks minimal mining impact on environment\nBy Guardian Nigeria\n16 January 2024 \n\nFederal Ministries of Solid Minerals Development and Environment are strengthening collaboration to ensure that mining operations have minimal adverse impact on the environment, in line with international best practices.\n\nSpeaking while receiving the Minister of Environment, Balarabe Abbas Lawal, in his office, the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake, reiterated Federal Government’s commitment to securing mining areas, removing impediments to seamless operations and ensuring that mining processes conform to global standards of negligible harmful impact on environment.\n\nIn his remarks, Lawal emphasised the need to protect the environment from degradation as a result of mining operations.\n\n“Recently, the minister launched solid minerals roadmap, which, I think, took care of the issue of the environment because whenever there is mining, the environment will be affected one way or the other. So, we are working very closely to see that whatever is being done will be within the limit of tolerable impact on the environment,” the minister added.
Associated Press_11 December 2024_Nigeria Is Emerging As A Critical Mineral Hub The.txt	Associated Press	11 December 2024	2024-12-11	Nigeria Is Emerging As A Critical Mineral Hub The	/content/Associated Press_11 December 2024_Nigeria Is Emerging As A Critical Mineral Hub The.txt	Nigeria is emerging as a critical mineral hub. The government is cracking down on illegal operations\n\n\nBy TAIWO ADEBAYO\nUpdated 3:26 AM GMT+1, May 27, 2024\nABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria’s government is cracking down on illegal mining, making dozens of arrests of unlicensed miners since April for allegedly stealing the country’s lithium, a critical mineral used in batteries for electric vehicles, smartphones and power systems.\n\nThe recent arrests come as Nigeria seeks to regulate its mining operations of critical minerals, curb illegal activity and better benefit from its mineral resources. The clean energy transition, a shift away from coal, oil and gas and toward renewable energy and batteries has spiked global demand for lithium, tin and other minerals. Illegal mines are rife in the country’s fledging industry as corruption among regulatory officials is common and the mineral deposits are located in remote areas with minimal government presence. Officials say profits from illicit mining practices has helped arm militia groups in the north of the county.\n\nIn the most recent arrests in mid-May, a joint team of soldiers and police conducted a raid on a remote market in Kishi, in the country’s southwestern Oyo State. Locals said the market, once known for selling farm produce, has become a center for illicit trade in lithium mined in hard-to-reach areas. The three-day operation resulted in the arrest of 32 individuals, including two Chinese nationals, local workers and mineral traders, according to the state government and locals. Loads of lithium were also seized.\n\nJimoh Bioku, a Kishi community leader, said there had been “clandestine searches” for the mineral at remote sites tucked away in the bush in the past years by Chinese nationals before “they engaged people to dig for them and turned the market into a transit point.” The community was “particularly worried about the insecurity that usually follows illegal mining and that was why we reported to the state government,” he said.\n\nChina is the dominant player in the global EV supply chain, including in Nigeria where China-owned companies employ mostly vulnerable people leaving Nigeria’s far north — ravaged by conflicts and rapid desertification — to work in mining operations throughout the country. China’s nationals and companies are frequently in the spotlight for environmentally damaging practices, exploitative labor and illicit mining. There have been at least three cases of illegal mining arrests involving Chinese nationals in two months.\n\nPresident Bola Tinubu has repeatedly blamed illegal mining for the worsening conflicts in the country’s north and asked the international community for help to stop the problem, which provides armed groups with the proceeds needed to sustain and arm themselves.\n\nThe Chinese embassy in Abuja did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment on the arrests and claims of illegal operations. But in a statement last year following a report by The Times of London alleging Chinese miners were bribing militants for access, the embassy said it “always encouraged and urged the Chinese companies and nationals in Nigeria to abide by the laws and regulations of Nigeria.”\n\nNigeria is emerging as a new source of lithium in Africa as the world’s largest producers, like Australia and Chile, are unable to fulfill the growing demand worldwide. But illegal activities thrive in Nigeria’s extractive sector, denying the government due revenues, said Emeka Okoro, whose Lagos-based SBM Intelligence firm has researched illicit mining and terrorism financing in northern Nigeria.\n\nAnd the combination of conflict and climate change effects, such as once fertile land rapidly turning into useless arid sand in northern Nigeria, has produced a cheap workforce for mining sites.\n\nThe arrests of “both Chinese nationals and young Hausa boys from conflict-affected regions underscore a troubling pattern,” Okoro told the AP. “The socioeconomic strain stemming from conflict and the repercussions of climate change has given rise to a vulnerable demographic desperate for survival.”\n\nTo fight resource theft that causes losses of $9 billion to the government annually, according to the country’s extractive industry transparency watchdog, the West African nation has set up a 2,200-strong “corps of mining marshals” earlier in the year.\n\nWhile existing law enforcement agencies are still combating the problem, the new corps is geared at curbing “the nefarious activities of illegal miners,” said Segun Tomori, spokesperson for the solid minerals ministry.\n\nBefore the Kishi raid, the mining corps arrested two trucks laden with lithium on the outskirts of the capital Abuja in April. Later that month, the corps raided a location in Karu, Nasarawa State, near Abuja, leading to the arrest of four Chinese nationals and the seizure of tons of lithium. Tomori said the cases are now in court.\n\nOn April 22, a federal court in Ilorin, in the north-central region, convicted two Chinese nationals for illegal mining and sentenced them to a one-year jail term, although with an option of a fine.\n\nNigeria has long neglected the solid minerals sector, which allows some communities like the northern-central town of Jos — which is tin-abundant — to depend on subsistence mining for their livelihood.\n\nFor those communities where livelihood is tied to mining, Tomori said the government is encouraging artisanal miners there to form cooperatives and operate legally.\n\n\n
West African Pilot_10 June 1960_Coal Industry.txt	West African Pilot	10 June 1960	1960-06-10	Coal Industry	/content/West African Pilot_10 June 1960_Coal Industry.txt	COAL INDUSTRY\n\nRecently there has been a suggestion that the output of coal should be decreased following the increasing dieseli-sation of our railways. This need not be the case as there are numerous other ways in which coal can be put into effective use. The establishment 1 of industries for synthetic dyes, fertilisers, antiseptics and coaltar etc., all of which can be obtained from coal, is of paramount importance now, It follows naturally that rather a than decrease the output of coal, there should be a tremendous increase in production of coal for these industries.\n\nAll over the country, roads are being macadamised but sad enough to say, the coaltar is imported from abroad when a there is plenty of coal to a establish coaltar industry. If in the past this has been over looked, there is no cause why in this state of affairs should in continue, more so when there are thousands of workers threatened with dismissals because of the decrease in the export of coal and its utilisation in the country. The question of r who is to establish the industries c and where the money is to come I from should not prove a difficcult solution. Nigeria will very soon become independent and any restraining influence which Britain exercised will automatically disappear. Nigeria will 1 then be free to contact any country for the establishment, of such industries, International politics being what it is, with the warring blocs trying to win the favours of newly independent nations, it will not be difficult to receive various offers for help.\n
Eastern Guardian_14 August 1950_Coal Miners Are No Longer Going Slow.txt	Eastern Guardian	14 August 1950	1950-08-14	Coal Miners Are No Longer Going Slow	/content/Eastern Guardian_14 August 1950_Coal Miners Are No Longer Going Slow.txt	COAL MINERS ARE NO LONGER GOING SLOW \n\nENUGU.-The miners who went 'slow' early last week as a protest against the newly introduced system of paying them, have now called off the "Go Slow" order and resumed duty.\n\nCoal production is returning to normalcy, and it is believed that all usual train services may now be restored.
Icir_02 April 2023_Abandoned Mines Small Scale Artisanal Mining.txt	Icir	02 April 2023	2023-04-02	Abandoned Mines Small Scale Artisanal Mining	/content/Icir_02 April 2023_Abandoned Mines Small Scale Artisanal Mining.txt	Abandoned mines: small-scale, artisanal mining leaves legacy of ruin in Ebonyi, Enugu, Plateau, Nasarawa [2]\nApril 2, 2023\n\nBy Olajide Adelana\n\nNigeria also has many artisanal and small-scale mines that provide a livelihood for thousands of people, mostly mining gold, gemstones, and cassiterite (a tin oxide mineral). This segment of the extractives industry employs an estimated 400,000 and 500,000 people in the country. \n\nHowever, this activity is poorly regulated by the government. Most of these miners operate outside the formal regulatory regime without licenses or permits. As a result, communities suffer from environmental degradation and negative health consequences. These mining sites are rarely properly closed or remediated, creating hazards for communities long after miners have moved on. \n\nIn Ebonyi state, the landscape is punctuated with pockets of abandoned mining pits. Two kids while away time in one of them near the town of Ihotor-Ameka, singing as they run in circles and then collapse on a heap on the muddy soil, giggling. \n\nA resident, Okeh Gloria, recalls the day in 2019 when her third child, 2-year-old Sylvanus, was in pain and fighting for his life. His eyes had rolled back in his head, his mouth closed. His muscles tightened, and he struggled to breathe. Gloria and her husband were distraught. \n\nJittery, Gloria squeezed his jaws open and poured palm oil down his throat. She had seen many others in the community use this remedy and thought it might help. But Sylvanus’s conditioned only worsened. \n\n“I cried and prayed when I saw him convulsing. I could not believe what I was seeing,” says Gloria. Sylvanus was later rushed to hospital, where he stayed for six days before he regained consciousness and began his journey to recovery. The family had to pay N50,000 for his treatment. \n\nThe couple suspected heavy metal poisoning as the cause of their child’s sickness. Ihotor-Ameka has huge deposits of minerals, notably lead and zinc, and is littered with mining pits from both abandoned and active artisanal and small-scale mines. \n\nWhen the pits are flooded after heavy rains, the miners pump the water into the surrounding environment, including rivers and streams. The risk of water and soil pollution with heavy metals is high. \n\n“Although we could not explain it, we knew the reason for his ailment cannot be dissociated from our environment,” Gloria says. Several weeks after her son became sick, other residents began to show similar symptoms. \n\n\n“My neighbour’s son was sick and convulsing,” she says. “Two days later, he died. He was only 3 years old.” \n\nWater samples collected from the area and tested at the Institute for Agricultural Research, Zaria and the National Research Institute for Chemical Technology (NARICT) had lead (Pb) concentration of nearly 408 parts per million (ppm); for reference, a U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule requires systems to monitor drinking water if lead concentrations exceed 0.015ppm. \n\nHeavy metals can harm the body even in small doses. Lead exposure can be especially dangerous for children, causing damage to the brain and nervous system, stunted growth and development, behavioral and learning challenges, and hearing and speech problems. Seizures and convulsions are among the more severe neurological symptoms associated with lead overexposure. \n\nDiagnostic capacity is a challenge in Nigeria, including testing for heavy metal poisoning. People come down with strange illnesses that often are left undiagnosed, even after evaluations by experienced physicians. \n\nBut this is not news. In 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported a high incidence of convulsions and death in young children due to lead poisoning in five mining villages in Zamfara State. The number of children affected continues to grow. \n\nMany blame the informal and unregulated activities of artisanal and small-scale miners (ASM), who make up 85 per cent of miners in Nigeria’s extractive industry, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Artisanal and small-scale mining differs from medium and large-scale mining. There is limited available information on production, revenues, operations, and location of their activities. \n\n“The havoc that these artisanal and small-scale miners cause is often overlooked because they don’t necessarily carry heavy machinery to the site,” says David Bade, a farmer whose land is threatened by abandoned mining pits in Yelwa community, Kokona LGA, Nasarawa State. \n\n“They came in droves, took over our farmlands and started digging for tourmaline, a gemstone,” he adds. “Several months later, they vacated the site and moved elsewhere.” \n\nBade says he has noticed a sharp decrease in his harvest because his farmland is no longer fertile. As lead deposits are common in the area, it is also possible that the miners may have kicked up lead-contaminated soil and dust in their search for gemstones. \n\n“Before, I used to harvest up to 300 bags of maize; now I rarely get up to half of that. I have also been attacked by snakes and other reptiles that hide in the holes. I have lost two of my dogs to snake attacks.” \n\nThis is not unexpected, says Ibrahim Yahaya, an official of Nasarawa State Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources. “Mining can severely alter the soil and reduce its fertility. When miners dig into the earth for these minerals, they inadvertently dump the excavated materials on the topsoil. This is called over-burden and it makes it more difficult for crops to access nutrients,” he says. \n\nHow large companies enable informal mining \nArtisanal and small-scale miners operate as part of a broader mining ecosystem in Nigeria. With limited access to capital, they are often financed by sponsoring companies that take a large cut of their profits. The sponsors have mastered the art of profiteering from Nigeria’s weak mining regulations and enforcement. In the states visited, the number of artisanal and small-scale miners continues to grow due to the availability of a ready buyer. \n\nSome larger mining companies have reportedly given artisanal miners access to concessions that they are not actively mining. A Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) audit report covering activities in the extractive sector from 2007 to 2010 found that only 30 per cent of the companies holding mining titles were engaged in active quarrying, mining, and exploration. \n\nIn Ebonyi State, most big mining companies with or without licenses grant access to their mining site to artisanal miners, often members of the local community. The company pays a negotiated fee to the landowner and local authorities but retains exclusive rights to the mined commodity. One source noted that many of these companies are Chinese. \n\n“They send scouts to the community to negotiate with individual landowners who believe they have mineral resources underneath their properties. Afterwards, they agree on fees to be paid to the landowner and local authorities in the area, often the traditional heads,” says Chikezie, a miner in Ameka. \n\nThe government has signalled intentions to formalise the sector, improve revenue collection, and increase the contribution of solid minerals to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). But progress has been slow and uneven, complicated by a lack of geological information and limited government capacity. Mine closure and remediation do not appear to have featured heavily in discussions about formalisation. \n\nOne small-scale granite miner in Umuogharu, Ezza North Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, who declined to give her name for security reasons, said the state government is aware of their informal mining activities. \n\n“We pay the necessary levies and go about our activities,” she says, adding that discussions on abandoned mines and proper mining site closure were rare in their interactions with the state government. \n\nIn Wamba community, Nasarawa State, large mining corporations and the locals agreed on a sharing formula for the proceeds from mining activities. \n\nOne of the locals, Kasim Usman said, “When they (mining company) came in 2019, we agreed that a certain percentage of the mineral resources mined would be given to the community. One-third is paid to the local government as royalty, one-third is paid to the owner of the land owner where the resources were mined, and one-third is paid to the community.” \n\nNeither the mining companies nor the artisanal miners take responsibility for the proper closure and reclamation of mining sites. They simply move on to another location. The exploitative behavior of these large scale companies is often the root cause of community corruption and violence, and it results in a huge loss of revenue to the government. In turn, poor revenue from the sector make budgetary allocations and funding for reclamation of abandoned mines difficult for the government. \n\nLives lost, livelihoods affected in Plateau, Nasarawa, others \nIn Plateau state, years of complaints by mining communities about the wreckage caused by abandoned mining pits have fallen on deaf ears. Belied by its beautiful scenery, abandoned mining pits in Jos city are now potential death traps for residents of the area. \n\nTin was discovered in Jos plateau at the turn of the 20th century, and colonial mining began soon thereafter. These tin mines were largely abandoned following the 1972 nationalization policy, which broke the monopoly of foreign interests, particularly of British firms. Decades later, tin mining communities are still struggling with the negative effects of mining on human health and the environment. \n\nToday, informal artisanal and small-scale miners operating on meagre profit margins work in these abandoned mines. This carries a unique set of risks and dangers. \n\nIn December 2019, an inactive mining pit in Zawan community, Jos South LGA, collapsed, killing six people who were illegally prospecting for tin and other minerals. Eyewitnesses said that more than 50 people were in the pit before it collapsed. \n\nIn Sabon-Barki, Jos South LGA, residents are fearful when it rains because of how abandoned mining sites channel floodwaters. In April 2021, a 4-year-old girl was swept away after a heavy downpour. \n\n“She was returning from school alongside her brother when the flood carried her from Dadin Kowa to Muchogopyeng,” says Belinda Yusuf, a resident of the area. \n\nIn Keffi, Nasarawa state, the Five-Star Mining Company allegedly vacated its mining project without reclamation after an outcry by residents of the area over the incessant blasting of rocks. The abandoned site sits behind Keffi Secondary School. \n\n“Each time they blasted the rocks, strong vibrations reverberated throughout the entire area,” says local resident, Garakuwa Zubairu. “Our buildings began to crack from the foundation.” He said residents complained to the company and asked them to reduce the blasting activity, but to no avail. The company maintained that it was licensed by the federal government to carry out its activities. They brought their complaints to state government authorities, who inspected the site and directed the company to stop work. The company then vacated the site without doing reclamation work. \n\n“We are afraid that our children might tip over into the mining pit,” Zubairu says. \n\n\nChecks at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), showed that the company was incorporated on January 6, 1993. The company is headquartered in Calabar with Janet Okok, Effiong Effiong, George Effiong, and Nkoyo Effiong on the board of directors. \n\nSlow progress on reclamation \nGovernment remediation efforts dates back to 1955, when the federal government reclaimed abandoned mining sites managed by Northern Regional Government at the time. Reclamation of several other abandoned sites followed in 1980. \n\nIn 2017, the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development (MMSD), which oversees the solid minerals subsector in Nigeria, said it would spend N1.67tr to reclaim more than 1,600 abandoned mine sites across the country. \n\n\nA total of 32 mining sites were reclaimed between 2007 and 2019 at a cost of N2.39 billion, or about N75 million per mine – less than the amount originally projected. (In 2014, a ministry official named Salim Adebgoyega, had put the reclamation cost per abandoned mine at N80m to N100m , depending on the size of the site.)\n\nProgress has been much slower than expected. The ministry initially projected that 100 sites would be reclaimed annually between 2007 and 2020. An inventory of abandoned mines and quarries commissioned by the ministry in 2017 to evaluate the environmental and social risks associated with past mining activities is yet to be released officially. The Environmental Protection and Rehabilitation Fund (EPRF) called for in the 2007 Nigeria Mining Act is not fully operational. \n\nThe ministry did not respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request submitted on September 29, 2021, asking for specific details about progress on mine remediation and closure – including a list of all abandoned mining sites identified by the ministry, reclaimed abandoned mining sites, the cost of the reclamation of the sites, and the status of the EPRF. The ministry acknowledged receipt of the request and asked for ample time to compile the required information, adding that the process of revalidating abandoned mines and quarries was ongoing. \n\n\nThe government has allocated significant funds to the reclamation of abandoned mines but has achieved little in terms of value for money.\n\nOne of the reclaimed sites in Barkin Ladi area of Plateau state, is still prone to flooding and ecological problems years after the purported reclamation in 2017. Residents who spoke were critical of the work done. \n\n“We cannot farm on these sites. The land is not fertile. No bioremediation was carried out,” says Dafum Chung, a resident. “They just came to sand-fill the site and went away. Although the gully erosion subsided, the problem of flooding is still persistent.” \n\nHe adds, “I used to farm close to my house until flooding and erosion caused by mining destroyed my farmland. Although I have relocated to another area to continue my farming, my friends who still farm there are always complaining of poor harvest.” \n\nThe Ministry of Mines and Steel Development acknowledged receipt of a FOIA request for procurement records, including budgetary allocations and lists of contractors engaged but request was not fulfilled by publication time. \n\nCan communities sue? \nNigeria has a federal system of governance, but states have limited power. Mining is on the exclusive legislation list – a list of issues over which the federal government has exclusive legislative powers. This means states cannot advance their own legislation governing mining-related issues, including mine closure. State governments cannot enforce federal legislation. \n\n\n“You really cannot blame the state governments,” says Nigeria country director at Global Rights, Abiodun Baiyewu. “The federal government is quick to remind you that the benefits of the minerals primarily belong to the commonwealth at the federal level. It was not until 2017 that benefits started to trickle down to the local communities. Even so, the benefits have been negligible because the government still earns so little from solid minerals due to massive hemorrhages in revenue.” \n\nHowever, one potential avenue for states to regulate their mining sectors remains unexplored. Section 19 of the Mineral and Mining Act of 2007 provides for a state-level governance apparatus for mining, known as Mineral Resources and Environmental Committee (MIREMCO). To date, this apparatus is yet to be fully explored. \n\nCommunities that have been negatively impacted by abandoned mines have limited avenues for recourse, including through national legal systems. A programme manager at the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, Chinedu Bassey, argues that several international human rights instruments to which Nigeria is a signatory are yet to be properly legislated in the country. These include the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). Ten years after endorsing them, Nigeria is yet to develop a national action plan to implement the principles, which allow aggrieved communities to seek redress in court. \n\nThe chief executive of Connected Development (CODE), a nongovernmental organisation that works to empower marginalised communities in Nigeria, Hamzat Lawal, says the real question is whether the Nigerian justice system is reliable. “If we’re being realistic, these communities do not have the resources to pursue a case against the government, and while that reflects the weakness of our judicial institution, it also shows the extent of failure of leadership in the country,” he says. \n\nRegardless of the challenges, human rights lawyer and activist Inibehe Effiong believes that mining communities can sue the government or businesses if they can provide evidence and proof beyond a reasonable doubt of their culpability. \n\nEffiong is right. There are quite a few justiciable clauses to rely upon. Beyond the Mineral and Mining Act of 2007, Section 17 (2d) of Nigeria’s constitution states that a community’s natural resources must not be exploited except for the good of the community. \n\n\nSome international avenues are also available, particularly if a multinational mining company has violated the rights of communities through inadequate mine closure. For instance, communities could file a grievance with the National Contact Points (NCPs) that are responsible business conduct in the company’s home country or they could request a UN Special Rapporteur investigation. \n\nThese avenues are rarely explored, however, due to lack of information and low literacy levels amongst residents of these communities. Communities can only seek redress if they are aware of their rights and are empowered with the information they need to demand justice, accountability and transparency from government entities and other stakeholders in the extractive industries. \n\nFor this to happen, knowledge and participatory dialogue platforms are important, says Baiyewu. \n\n\n “Let’s start with providing a basic knowledge of what mining entails, the likely impacts, and the rights of mining host communities,” she says. “Mining host communities need to access information on how to air their grievances, and ensure ease of access to the relevant agencies of government.” \n\nLawal has a similar view. Rather than sue the government, he says, leaders of mining communities would do better to learn how to engage the government as partners. \n\n“It’s the first step in the right direction, and it disarms a government that is quick to defend itself against its own citizens.” \n\n\n\n
Vanguard Newspaper_20 February 2007_Obasanjo Signed Mining Act 2006 With Unusual Speed.txt	Vanguard Newspaper	20 February 2007	2007-02-20	Obasanjo Signed Mining Act 2006 With Unusual Speed	/content/Vanguard Newspaper_20 February 2007_Obasanjo Signed Mining Act 2006 With Unusual Speed.txt	Obasanjo signed Mining Act 2006 with unusual speed\n—Mantu\n\nBy Luka Binniyat\n\nABUJA – The Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu, has affirmed that President Olusegun Obasanjo has signed the new Mining Act 2006 with unusual speed because of the high hopes that the solid mineral sector holds for Nigeria’s economic growth and development.\n\nSpeaking at the 5th Annual Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Summit in Abuja last week, Mantu said that the new law removes uncertainties in economic opportunities in Nigeria’s mining sector, which he noted was yet to be properly tapped.\n\n“With all the set of good incentives that we now have in 2007, Mining would join the oil sector and the agricultural sector to boost Nigeria’s economy and provide jobs for our people,” he said.\n\nHe said that the President should be commended for responding so quickly to the need to sign the bill into law since it was passed by the National Assembly.\n\nHe said that the provisions of the Mining Act would regulate and bring transparency into the mining sector, making it more attractive to investors, adding that the Senate would ensure that the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development followed to the letter provisions enshrined in the new law in order to make the bill better for further passage.\n\n“I have never been under any illusion that solid mineral mining in Nigeria has not made the impact that it should have made in our economy,” he said. “But with the passage of the Mining Act, which has removed some of the bottlenecks that have been an impediment to this sector, we can now say that we are ready for business.”\n\nHe commended the efforts of the Ministry of Solid Minerals, particularly the Minister, Prof. Lesley Obiora, and her team, saying that the challenge before them was now how to implement the provisions of the Act and ensure that the confidence of investors is restored in the sector.\n\nProf. Obiora, in her remarks, said that the new Mining Act would “open up the Nigerian mining sector for proper management,” adding that government was also putting in place mechanisms to encourage small and medium-scale operators and sustainable mining.\n\nShe said that Nigeria is now one of the most attractive mining destinations in the world, adding that with the legal and institutional frameworks now in place, the government would no longer tolerate illegal mining activities in the country.\n\nShe also said that the provisions of the Act would remove all forms of ambiguity in mineral licensing and permit processing, making the sector, she said, investor-friendly, cost-effective, predictable, and more lucrative.\n\nSome of the salient aspects of the Minerals and Mining Act 2006, which was signed into law, include:\n\n1. Mineral Resources Management is now the exclusive right of the Federal Government.\n2. All mining titles will now be protected on a conveyor title.\n3. The government will now issue licenses for mining only after detailed exploration has been completed.\n4. The establishment of a minerals application committee that will handle applications of mining licenses.\nThe new law is also expected to bring about significant improvements in the sector, ensuring that mining contributes meaningfully to Nigeria’s economy, just like in South Africa, Malaysia, and Indonesia.\n\n
West African Pilot_05 May 1960_[1] Docx Itc Fixes Total Tin Export At 37 500 Tons.txt	West African Pilot	05 May 1960	1960-05-05	[1] Docx Itc Fixes Total Tin Export At 37 500 Tons	/content/West African Pilot_05 May 1960_[1] Docx Itc Fixes Total Tin Export At 37 500 Tons.txt	ITC FIXES TOTAL TIN EXPORT AT 37,500 TONS\n\nLONDON, May 4. The International Tin Council, which includes Nigeria, has fixed the total permissible export amount for the six producing members of the agreement during the 11th control period-July 1 to September 30, 1960-at 37,500 tons\nThe council which met here yesterday, did not renew the authority which has been granted on previous occasions to the Buffer Stock Manager to operate within the Middle Range Bracket 780 to 830 sterling per ton (of the prices in the agreement).\nThe next meeting of the Council will be held in New York in June. The six producing member nations are Nigeria, Bolivia, belgian Congo, Malaya, Thailand, Indonesia -Reuter
Punch Newspaper_12 July 2006_Tin Sites Taken Over By Local Miners.txt	Punch Newspaper	12 July 2006	2006-07-12	Tin Sites Taken Over By Local Miners	/content/Punch Newspaper_12 July 2006_Tin Sites Taken Over By Local Miners.txt	Tin sites taken over by local miners\nBy Abner Godwin\n\nThirty-four years after the indigenization policy that ousted foreign miners from the country, local miners have taken over the last tin mines.\n\nThe vast tin-based hopes for commercial deposits of the mineral, which declined in the mid-80s, still has a vast hilly backdrop, close to an arid mineral-rich plateau in 1,000 hectares of land.\n\nNigerian tin had been widely sought after in the 60s but with insufficient regulatory implementation, the industry suffered from a decline in both government and public sector investments.\n\nThe events have had significant impacts on the economy. Experts say the Nigerian Coal Corporation, the Mining Cadastre Office, and the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency all played a role in shaping policy frameworks for the solid minerals sector, but lacked efficient implementation structures.\n\nIn an assessment of tin reserves in Jos, mining experts stated that "no real investment came after 1978", adding that subsequent policies on solid minerals did not transform the industry.\n\nThe policy breakdown in 1982 saw a drop in export revenues, as tin exports dwindled and government support slowed.\n\nAs at 2004, a report by the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development (MSMD) indicated that local miners had taken over most tin deposits in the region.\n\nAn estimated 50,000 tons of mined tin were still actively flowing into local production, mostly in hidden exploration areas.\n\nThe ASM (Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining) fell into decline and SME-led mining became more viable.\n\n"Tin was where years of mining had its greatest mark," said Miners' Rep. Ojujoma.\n\n"The mining sector was schizophrenic – neither here nor there – it was caught between the roles of a regulator and an administrator. This led to the death of the NMC and NCC. This is why the custodian of these two institutions is apt."\n\nAccording to Mr. G. Onylowo, the influx of informal miners was a natural outcome of poor regulations.\n\nThe Federal Government’s role in issuing mining licenses was reduced to a legal mine sub-sector in 1996, and MSMD had not been able to upgrade the framework to an extensive market orientation.\n\nAs tin deposits collapse, the miners adapted. Abandoned mining sites turned into makeshift excavations, with labor-intensive digging occurring around the region.\n\nOjujoma noted that miners were now working in obscure and degraded pits to access old mine tailings.\n\n“No investment came after the 1980s,” said an independent survey by the Nigerian Geological Agency.\n\nThe Nigerian Tin Development Board was not efficient enough to help small-scale miners.\n\nMining by the under-aged became a tradition, as youth engaged in hand-dug mine pits.\n\nExperts say the ASM regulatory framework must upgrade its mine fields to full operational scales.\n\nThe Federal Government’s failure to fix policy frameworks in past geological models led to a significant fall in tin extraction levels.\n\nMining locations that had high-grade ore saw a decline due to poor infrastructural investment.\n\nA. Onugba – both researchers at the National Warf Advisory Committee and Radium-Steel – said minerals valuation should involve deeper engagement, involving government participation in mine incentives.\n\nThe researchers stated that government must prioritize areas with high tin deposits, in order to create new growth in the sector.\n\nThe absence of regulatory mechanisms in tin operations further slowed the potential of the solid minerals sector.\n\nExperts at the forum urged the Nigerian Mining Corporation (NMC) to re-establish mining investment structures and improve foreign direct investment in the sector.\n\nThe renewed focus on artisanal tin mining was seen as a temporary survival mechanism for the industry.\n\nMiners at the survey stated that the ASM sector must move beyond subsistence mining into a full-scale industrial framework.\n\nPetroleum-related minerals have received more attention than solid minerals, affecting tin policy developments.\n\nWith stronger regulatory backing, tin mining could still be salvaged as a key contributor to Nigeria’s solid minerals economy.
Eastern Guardian_29 May 1945_Writer Shows How Colliery Disputes.txt	Eastern Guardian	29 May 1945	1945-05-29	Writer Shows How Colliery Disputes	/content/Eastern Guardian_29 May 1945_Writer Shows How Colliery Disputes.txt	Writer Shows How Colliery Disputes Are Always Caused By Misunderstanding\n\nENUGU. hings are now be coming normal in the colliery, writes 1 gunwah, but if one thing is more necessary than another it is to take steps at once to ensure that there are no loopholes fr possibilities of misunderstand ing on the part of the miners in the future.\n\nIt would appear that the recent strike which was the biggest and most serious of all previous stri es in the colliery owes its origin to a very large extent to misunderstanding\n\nThe men complained that the Evans award and all existing con ditions of service had been with drawn and that wor was to be done on 'contrast and payment made on the 'average.\n\nIt was not however, until Friday April 5, at a meeting of Owerri miners held in the Owerri Union hall that all present appreciated the true position as explained by Mr E Er nini of the secretariat hereafter he urged the men to return to duty.\n\nAlthough very circumspect in his speech he could understand that if men failed to return to duty early there would be no alternative for govenment than to take steps to get men elsewhere.\n\nMr Eronini was convinced that if the Owerri people gave the lead in returning to duty and explaining the true position which, al though not altogether satisfactory was not as bad as the miners had put it, others would follow suit. mass meeting of all miners would not in his opinion be successful.\nIt was wise to obey first and complain afterwards.\n\nHe was suggesting for the Colliery Manager's consideration of the formation of an advisory body which would comprise representatives from all sections of the Igbo community working in the colliery\n\nThis body would call upon the management for discussions on occasions such as the present in or-der to be au fait which matters and be in position to explain to their people in their various tribal meetings; in the way the management when it thought fit, could summon a meeting of this body to explain any novel procedures contemplated.\n\nIn this way the danger of misunderstanding common to mass meetings would be avoided.\n\nIt may be remarked that since this meeting was held several opinions have been expressed.\n\nme say it should have been a mass meeting of all the workers and not the Owerri people alone; others agree with Mr Kronini's rea son for avoiding a mass meeting.\n\nWhatever the procedure adopted the object in view has been a hieved and the possibility of about 8,000 Igbos being thrown out of employment has been negatived. I support the suggestion for the formation of an advisory body to the colliery management.\n
Eastern Guardian_21 November 1949_Enugu Bloodshed.txt	Eastern Guardian	21 November 1949	1949-11-21	Enugu Bloodshed	/content/Eastern Guardian_21 November 1949_Enugu Bloodshed.txt	Enugu Bloodshed\n\nWE ARE no alarmists, but extenuating circumstances demand that we should be brutally frank in expressing our views. From reports published elsewhere in this paper and others filtering through, the shooting of peaceful strikers, and the application of tear gas on women demonstrators by the Nigeria Police have opened a new page in the relationship of Britain as a protecting power and Nigeria as the protected nation. In all freedom loving and inde-pendent nations the Police have always been known as peace loving officers, those whose job is the preservation and maintenance of peace, law and order. We have heard of and known of Police doing the job of strikers. But we are yet to be told where exactly a most challenging argument could be put up that acting in self defence the Police had to open fire on strikers.\n\nNot even a year ago Nigeria Police had to open fire and shoot dead Burutu U.A.C. strikers, peaceful demonstration by the Railway men in Lagos had to be dispersed by the Police with batons and tear gas; again peaceful procession of Nigerian war veterans, who had sacrificed the dearest thing in life to make the world free for certain people to enjoy all the good things of the earth, but they themselves victims of poverty, and starvation, had to be dispersed by the Nigeria Police with tear gas and baton. Now, Colliery strikers have been shot down by the Police and women demonstrators fought with tear gas and baton. We must ask the Nigeria Government, Has Nigeria become a Police State? And has the use of force on strikers become the logical argument in dealing with labour and industrial disputes? We demand an answer. Is the use of force in a protectorate to suppress labour disputes not an infringement of protectorate right to personal protection of the citizens?\n\nWe speak with anguish. This is neither the time for sentimen-tal nor emotional speeches. It is a time for positive action. The soul of the nation rebels against man's inhumanity to inan, against the sad realisation that after all, might is right. We maintain that once labour disputes have involved the loss of lives and bloodshed, they cease to become mere industrial troubles and leap at once to the plane of grave national issues. National issues could not be divorced from the politics of the country.\n\nShall we fold our arms awaiting for the appointment of a commis-sion of enquiry into Enugu Colliery crisis and sit back to accept our fate as predestined act of the Supreme Being, a fait accompli imutable and irrevocable throughout the ages? Is not the Enugu shooting incident a challenge to our existence as a people? What is happen-ing at Enugu today might repeat itself anywhere in this country unless we the citizens of this mighty country could make the Britons realise that we have a right to life and right to personal\n
Vanguard Newspaper_18 August 2006_44 Firms Bid For Bitumen Blocs Nmc Properties.txt	Vanguard Newspaper	18 August 2006	2006-08-18	44 Firms Bid For Bitumen Blocs Nmc Properties	/content/Vanguard Newspaper_18 August 2006_44 Firms Bid For Bitumen Blocs Nmc Properties.txt	44 firms bid for bitumen blocs, NMC properties\nBy Franklin Alli\n\nFORTY-FOUR mining companies are set to bid for bitumen blocs and properties of the Nigerian Mining Corporation (NMC), as the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development (MSMD), seeks approval of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) to open the bids on August 29, 2006.\n\nVanguard gathered that while 12 pre-qualified companies bid for the seven bitumen blocs, 32 companies already pre-qualified would be bidding for NMC’s idle assets.\n\nAmong the companies selected for the financial bidding are CGC/CCC/Sinopec China, Liaona Hong Kong Ltd, Zhong Mining China, Laida Mining Nigeria, Julius Berger, Gitto, MCC Industries Nigeria, Lake Asphalt of Trinidad and Tobago, Cavendish Petroleum consortium Nigeria/South Africa, Neeljayphaonda, Messrs Medupharmaco Nigeria, Royal Malta, Mukhtar Group Switzerland, BHP Billiton Australia, ZSC, and Stroitransgaz Russia.\n\nSpeaking with Vanguard, the Ministry, in conjunction with the BPE, and Public Enterprises (BPE), said the August 29 programme includes the opening of the bitumen bids and the sale of properties of the Nigerian Mining Corporation.\n\n“The BPE is handling the bitumen bidding process, while the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development is handling the bidding for the properties of NMC,” the Ministry stated.\n\nIt stated that, with the completion of the technical evaluation processes and the imminent opening of the bids, progress is being made in confirming the mandate of President Olusegun Obasanjo to open up the industry for investment and participation.\n\nAugust 29 marks the high point of the privatisation of the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development. On Monday, the ministry will brief the media and relevant agencies of bidders’ identities, packages, and the next step towards the opening of the bids.\n\n“The process has been very thorough and I am quite pleased with the way it is dealing out,” the Minister said. “We have ensured that the procedures for this have been thoroughly set out to take mining investment in the country to the next level.”\n\nMeanwhile, officials of the Ministry say that investors who win bids should be able to sign off for the full Privatisation of the Nigerian Mining Corporation to ensure that the interest of the sector is well taken into consideration.\n\nThey also added that the bid winners would be given full terms to allow them operate effectively in the mining sector.
The Guardian_08 September 2020_Addressing Environmental Impact Of Mining.txt	The Guardian	08 September 2020	2020-09-08	Addressing Environmental Impact Of Mining	/content/The Guardian_08 September 2020_Addressing Environmental Impact Of Mining.txt	Addressing environmental impact of mining on host communities\nBy Kehinde Olatunji\nAs Nigeria focuses more on the Solid Minerals sector for economic growth and diversification, the need to ensure that all protocols guiding the exploitation of the natural resources are observed is paramount.\n \nExperts warned that pursuing economic growth through the minerals sector without paying adequate attention to the environment is most likely to become unsustainable.\n\n\nStudies indicate that mining is one of the most perilous occupations in the world in terms of injuries and fatalities and the long-term health effects associated with it.\n \nAn Associate Professor, Nazil Hossain, and a Research Scientist Epidemiologist, Elizabeth Westerlund Triche, in a joint study, linked failed pregnancy in mining communities to exposure to heavy metals such as lead and mercury.\n \nAgainst this backdrop, bitumen host communities in Irele Local Government of Ondo State, have kicked against the exploitation of the natural resources found in their domain by South-West Bitumen Nigeria Limited (SBNL).\n \nThe host communities, under the aegis of Irele Progressive Union (IPU), insisted that all protocols guiding bitumen exploitation must be observed, while the company must strictly observe the rights of host communities before they would be allowed to commence operation.\n \nThe IPU President, Dr. Olagoke Akinwumi, disclosed that the council hosts over 21.37 billion barrels of the total 42.74 billion barrels spread across the host communities and councils, namely Ese-Odo and Okitipupa.\n \nAkinwumi noted that the recent mobilisation of equipment to the site at Lamudifa community necessitated the urgent protest by the people to stop the commencement of bitumen exploitation in the state.\n \nHe, alongside other community leaders, faulted SBNL for commencing exploitation without any Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), and failure to address the issues raised in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) carried out.\n \nSection 116 of the Mining Act, 2007, states: “Subject to the provisions of this section, the holder of a Mining Lease, Small Scale Mining Lease, or Quarry Lease, shall prior to the commencement of any development activity within the lease area, conclude with the host community where the operations are to be conducted, an agreement referred to as a community development agreement or other such agreement that will ensure the transfer of social and economic benefits to the community.”\n \nSpeaking on, “Environmental Protection in the Solid Mineral Development,” Executive Director, Neighbourhood Environment Watch, Dr. Okezie Kelechukwu, in a webinar organised by Global Rights, charged all hands to be on deck to address the environmental degradation resulting from artisanal mining.\n \nHe noted that those who destroyed their environment never lived to tell the stories, adding that the country is setting a new agenda for the future environmental holocaust.\n \n“Such is the case of the Sahara Desert landscape, and lost civilisations such as the Great Zimbabwe civilization, which flourished between the 11th and 15th centuries, now lost in the archaeological debris.\n \n“Our efforts should be mutually reinforcing and directed at securing a sustainable environment. Therefore, we must regularise artisanal miners and integrate them into aspects of the mining economy. Nigeria must enact laws specific to artisanal mining to regulate their operations and enforce strict compliance to Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and audits.”\nHe noted that EIA should be inclusive, taking into cognisance gender dynamics and vulnerabilities, adding that advocacy and strengthening the voices of host communities to speak out when mining pollutes their environment must be ensured.\n \n“They must ensure the closure of all mine sites on the polluter pays principle, and leave the environment better than before, and empower the communities to weigh the environmental aspect of mining against the environmental benefits and ability to resist any form of mining.\n \n“Strengthen all institutions of government with oversight to the environment and sanction laxity on the part of the staff. Report all issues of environmental degradation to the relevant government agencies and civil society organisations such as Global Rights, and use social media to draw attention to environmental degradation.”\n \nKelechukwu stated, “We all owe it as a duty to the present and future generations to protect our environment. We must weigh the choices we make today against the benefits of the future environment we keep in custody for future generations.”\n\n \nThe General Secretary, Nigerian Mining and Geoscience Society (NMGS), Dr. Akinade Olatunji, told The Guardian that a lot of things are misunderstood about the environmental impact of mining activities.\n \nHe noted that there is no development that does not impact the environment. “As urbanisation impacts, the environment so does mining activities, even farming or agriculture in general impacts the environment. What those of us in the field usually preach is sustainability. That is, the danger posed by such activities as mining must be so minimised to such a level that the resilience of the environment could bear.”\n \nHe added that the EIA is not followed by miners because of the corruption inherent in the entire facet of national life.\n \n“All EIAs require the active participation of the community. The communities are expected to participate in all the dialogue and action plans from the beginning to the end. We cannot reinvent the wheel; the laws are very clear and comprehensive! All that is needed is rigorous implementation.”\n \nAlso, a Fellow of Accountability Lab Nigeria, John Oluwafemi, urged the Federal Government to grant states the power to oversee licensed miners protect the people living in the communities where these mining activities are taking place.\n \nHe said this after the Act Hub Africa rolled out a survey prototyping the Social and Environmental Impact Assessment Audit, being incubated at Accountability Lab Nigeria.\n \nThe Survey, titled: “Understanding the awareness level of the citizens: pivotal for environmental accountability,” advocates to forge a direction towards ensuring EIA compliance in Nigeria.\n \nHe noted that the country is confronted with environmental challenges that require strategic investigation and better integration among the health, ecologic, economic, and social sciences.
Punch Newspaper_28 September 2006_Nigeria’S Barites Production Tumbles.txt	Punch Newspaper	28 September 2006	2006-09-28	Nigeria’S Barites Production Tumbles	/content/Punch Newspaper_28 September 2006_Nigeria’S Barites Production Tumbles.txt	Nigeria’s barites production tumbles – Report\nBy Abner Godwin\n\nApart from the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency, it has revealed that barites production in the country has tumbled from 225.5 metric tonnes per annum in year 2000 to 69m metric tonnes in 2004.\n\nThe country's position among barite-producing nations also dropped from fifth in 2000 to 11th, with production figures for 2005 and 2006 unavailable.\n\nBarites are solid minerals used in the drilling of oil wells.\n\nExperts predict production will rise as a result of increased oil drilling in the Niger Delta, but lack of patronage by oil companies has affected production.\n\nAn exclusive report from the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development on Tuesday traced the woes of the sector to import waivers granted to oil servicing companies.\n\nIt recalled that in 1990, the Federal Government placed a ban on the importation of barites but the oil service companies put enormous pressure on the government for concessions to import 4.2 specific gravity materials to support local shortfall.\n\nThe report said that the service companies continue to request for import waivers mainly due to the following reasons:\n\nCompanies discourage local production because they also own mines outside Nigeria.\nCompanies offer low price for locally produced barites.\nCompanies do not want to go into the mining and processing of barites, nor do they want to support a local mining and processing company.\nCompanies insist on getting specification grade barites "as mined".\nCompanies do not want to engage in beneficiation.\nCompanies order for raw barites during the wet season when most "Miners" have gone back for farming.\nCompanies do not want to stock at the peak of production in the dry season.\nThe report further said that prior to the waiver, barites requirements in the country were largely met from local production by artisanal miners.\n\nBut for the operations of the Nigerian Mining Corporation at Azara, Bauchi State, all the barites produced were hand sorted. The quality of The hand sorted material could not be guaranteed as most of the miners were not trained and/or qualified to know barites grade by visual observation,” the report added.\n\nConsequently, the milling companies rejected large quantities of materials supplied to them due to low specific gravity.\n\nA lot of losses were incurred in this regard, which further discouraged local production, the report said.\n\nA member of the Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society, Dr. M. I. Odan, said prospects of barites reserves in Nigeria were high.\n\nAccording to him, a semi-detailed reserve study of five out of 18 veins of the Azara barite field (ML 18706) by the Nigerian Mining Corporation, indicated a reserve of 730,000 metric tonnes of barite, with an average Specific Gravity of 3.64 down to 30m-depth.\n\n“Vein 17 was found to be the most promising. Only vein 11 was drilled using diamond core drilling, and only to 10.0m depth, giving a reserve of 30,000 metric tons,” he added.\n\nAccording to him, drilling and trenching of only the western part of V17 (ML. 18706) in the Azare field. The SG values ranged from 3.35 to 4.26.\n\nHe further said in 1987, the “Minerals and Industry in Nigeria” yearbook listed the following barite occurrences in Nigeria:\n\nLefin in Cross River State\nAloshi, Akiri, Wuse, Keana, Azara, and Gbande in Plateau State\nIbi and Durngel in the then Gongola State\nOdan recommended that agencies, institutions, organizations, and even individuals involved in geological and geophysical exploration for barite and bentonite should be properly funded and strengthened in order to meet the production challenge.\n\nHe urged the government to set up mining equipment centres at strategic locations, stressing the need for the availability of appropriate mining equipment to miners in order to boost local production.\n“It is in the nation’s best interest that no barite mine should be operated without proper equipment,” he added.\n\nOdan said extension services by experienced, competent technical staff of the Ministry for Solid Minerals Development would guarantee that recommended best practices are upheld in the mines.\n\nAccording to him, all stakeholders should take a keen interest in mine financing, adding: “Miners should be exposed to funding options, like SMEIS, Micro-credit schemes, group saving schemes, forward sales Schemes.”\n\nHe said an Environmental Remediation Account should be set up by MSMD, where all miners should be made to save a token of their sales in the account, and that such contributions should be used in restoring mine sites at the closure of mining activities.\n
West African Pilot_27 June 1966_Coalminers’ Union Calls For Inquiry.txt	West African Pilot	27 June 1966	1966-06-27	Coalminers’ Union Calls For Inquiry	/content/West African Pilot_27 June 1966_Coalminers’ Union Calls For Inquiry.txt	COALMINERS’ UNION CALLS FOR INQUIRY\n\n‘Save The Corporation’\n\nENUGU, June 26—The Coalminers Union of the Eastern Group of Province has called on the Military Government to institute a high-powered commission of inquiry into the general administration of the Coal Corporation in Enugu.\n\nThe call was made at a meeting of the union held here.\n\nSuch commission said the union should probe and deal with the period 1959 and 1965; finance of the corporation in respect of its disbursement; general administration of the corporation, employment promotion, scholarship awards (in and outside of Nigeria) with special reference to qualifications of those involved; merit and general fairness with no regard to nepotism awards of contracts.\n\nThe union also called on the government to save the coal corporation from economic strangulation by establishing
Nigerian Citizens_10 January 1952_Mining Association Denies Union S.txt	Nigerian Citizens	10 January 1952	1952-01-10	Mining Association Denies Union S	/content/Nigerian Citizens_10 January 1952_Mining Association Denies Union S.txt	Mining Association Denies Union's Statement\n\nTHE Nigerian Mining Employers' Association has denied the statement Union by the Mineworkers' Union and recently published in the Citizen. The Union alleged that the cost of living had risen as a result of Government's award of T.A.R.P. to civil servants. And since Government is contemplating the consolidation of the award into salaries for civil servants, the case for a country-wide rise in the cost of living allowance has been established. The Union also alleged that the Association maintained that the cost of living had fallen below the 1949/50 figures.\n\nA statement by the Nigerian Mining Employers' Association's Secretary, says: "The minesfield, in July, 1950, incorporated former additional cost of living allowances within the salaries, which were also revised at the same time, so that employees of lower grades have received an increase of more than twenty per cent and an overall fifteen per cent for all employees since 1949.\n\n"The Association has never contended that the cost of living has fallen below the 1949/50 figures though it has refuted the contention of the Union that the cost of living has risen to the extent that wages should increase by an additional thirty-five per cent as represented by the Union.\n\n"Negotiations between the Union and the Association are still in progress," concludes the statement, "and the minutes of the last meeting held on December 10, last year, state that it was agreed that figures of the cost of living should be checked with the Labour Officer and discussed at the next meeting."\n
The Nigerian Citizen_14 July 1965_Mining Cost Rises In Nigeria.txt	The Nigerian Citizen	14 July 1965	1965-07-14	Mining Cost Rises In Nigeria	/content/The Nigerian Citizen_14 July 1965_Mining Cost Rises In Nigeria.txt	Mining cost rises in Nigeria\n\nA report in the FINANCIAL TIMES in London has noted the steep rise in mining costs in Nigeria. It said that the directors of Forum Extended of Nigeria, the tin and columbite producing mine, have shown how they have split up total revenue in the year of 1964.\n\nThe newspaper said it went approximately as to 36 per cent to African labour, 6 per cent to African and expatriate staff, 25 per cent to the Nigerian Government in royalties and tax, 25 per cent to running costs in Nigeria including depreciation, and one per cent to London expenses. This left 4 per cent available for distribution to shareholders and for retentions for capital spending and development.\n\nThe report said that both labour rates and overhead expenses must again be substantially higher this year, but efforts are being made to contain these heavier costs by improved efficiencies and methods.
Eastern Guardian_11 November 1949_Colliery Board Will Hold Meeting.txt	Eastern Guardian	11 November 1949	1949-11-11	Colliery Board Will Hold Meeting	/content/Eastern Guardian_11 November 1949_Colliery Board Will Hold Meeting.txt	Colliery Board Will Hold Meeting\n\nENUGU. -The Enugu Colliery Board are meeting for the first time in Enugu this week.\n\nWith a majority of experienced Nigerian professional and business men, the Board aims to advise on' the operation and finances of the Nigerian Government Collieries. With Dr C. Raeburn as Chair-man, the Board consists of Mr G. B. G. Chapman, Secretary Finance, Mr L. N. Mbanefo, Mr Obioha, Mr L. P. Ojukwu, Mr I. C.D. Stuart, Mining Engineer of Jos, and Mr G. O Urion re-presenting the General Manager of the Railway.\n\nThe Board has been set up to assist the Management in all matters concerning the Colliery\n\nIt will be in the position to study conditions on the spot.\n\nThe Board will visit Iva and Obwetti mines, the Colliery sing estates and the new Colliery hospital now under construction during the time they are in Enugu\n
Eastern Guardian_29 March 1945_Lucky Owerri Labourer Serving In The Coal Mine Wins £1 000 In Sweep Stake.txt	Eastern Guardian	29 March 1945	1945-03-29	Lucky Owerri Labourer Serving In The Coal Mine Wins £1 000 In Sweep Stake	/content/Eastern Guardian_29 March 1945_Lucky Owerri Labourer Serving In The Coal Mine Wins £1 000 In Sweep Stake.txt	Lucky Owerri Labourer Serving In The Coal Mine Wins £1,000 In Sweep Stake\n\nOWERRI-Electrifying is the news which has reached here of the winning of the sum of £1,000 by a son of Obibi Abinus Ajoku a young Colliery pickman, according to the result of a recent raffle draw taken in England.\n\nThe man born of Ogbeke Ameze Obibi parentage hardly reaching any worthwhile standard of elementary school education, Gabinus had been a practicaliser of the po pular expression money is meant to be spent which consequently found him a young man of unenviable means before this sudden stroke of luck.\n\nHe was a pickman in the Udi Colliery Enugu were finding it financially impossible to make two ends meet he joined the Army.\n\nWhilst serving overseas on the Gold Coat-herried his hand in a competition in a raffle with an entry fee of one shilling and three pence.\n\nLater he was discharged from the Army on medical grounds where upon he returned into the mines the thought of raffle competition having gone into oblivion.\n\nThus the years rolled by till last February when the Golliery Mana ger and the under manager entered the minesin question of Gabinus who being subsequently traced outlook with horrow suspecting that the worst was yet in store for him and marched out from the mines as if on the way to execution Murmuring to his fresh heard this lucky youth was said to have cursed the day in which he was born on finding himself under suspicious circumstance amidst these these high ranking officers.\n\nUnder this state of uneasiness, the joyful news was disclosed to him after rigorous questioning\n\nGabinus was told he was actually due £846 and this sturning revela-tion was confirmed by several documents which he was obliged to sign soon after.\n\nHe was completely unserved by the reality of the procedure and the news received immediate circulation throughout the mines\n\nThere are other interesting stories as to how Abinus should have been deceived by a peace offier.\n\nThere has been great rejoicings among his people in Obibi.\n\nBut in the midst of this the other side of the memorable episode presents itself\n\nGabinus was said to have suddenly become unhappy looking mentally crowded up; and acting upon instructions he has stopped working inside the mines and has lost his usual sense of humour and joviality.\n
The Guardian_27 August 2024_Niger Lifts Ban On Mining As Adamawa Tasks[1].txt	The Guardian	27 August 2024	2024-08-27	Niger Lifts Ban On Mining As Adamawa Tasks[1]	/content/The Guardian_27 August 2024_Niger Lifts Ban On Mining As Adamawa Tasks[1].txt	Niger lifts ban on mining as Adamawa tasks monarchs on menace\n\nBy Guardian Nigeria\n27 August 2024 \n\nThe Niger State government has conditionally lifted the ban on mining.\n\nActing Governor Yakubu Garba made the pronouncement yesterday while inaugurating an 18-man task force on illegal mining to tackle environmental degradation in Minna.\n\nHe noted that since the inception of the administration, the government has been disturbed by the menace of illegal mining in parts of the state.\n\nGarba regretted that despite several efforts to fight the phenomenon, compliance had been very low.\n\nThe Acting governor stressed that the mining industry is crucial for economic growth, but lamented that illegal mining had negatively affected the environment, hence the decision to suspend mining activities some months back.\n\nHe said out of the 880 registered mining firms, consisting of 578 companies and 302 cooperatives in the state, only about 261 reported to the Ministry of Mineral Resources for profiling.\n\nSecretary to the State Government (SSG) and chairman of the task force, Abubakar Usman, on behalf of others, expressed gratitude for the opportunity to serve and pledged to deliver.\n\nThe Commissioner for Mineral Resources, Sabo Yahaya is Co-Chairman, while the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mohammed Yunusa Nahauni, is serving as the secretary.\n\nOther members are the Commissioner for Homeland Security; Commissioner of Police; Director of DSS, Commandant of NSCDC, Commandant of Vigilante, all the 25 council chairmen, secretaries of all the eight Emirate Councils, representatives of State Assembly, Judiciary, among others.\n\nEQUALLY, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State has charged district heads to be vigilant against illegal miners, who pose significant security risks, and announced plans to introduce legislation to curb the nefarious activities.\n\nHe also pledged to enhance the welfare and working conditions of traditional rulers, citing the need for clear role definition and improved support.\n\nDuring a meeting with the district heads at the Government House in Yola, Fintiri emphasised the crucial role of monarchs in maintaining peace and security at the grassroots.\n\nHe acknowledged that their efforts are often hindered by poor pay and undefined job roles.\n\nAs part of his reforms, the governor plans to engage the district heads in workshops to enhance their capacity and address the challenges they face.\n\nLed by Mustafa Mohammad Sanusi, the district heads expressed gratitude for the governor’s commitment to their welfare, and pledged support for his policies.
Associated Press_26 May 2024_Nigeria Is Emerging As A Critical Mineral Hub The Government Is Cracking Down On Illegal Operations.txt	Associated Press	26 May 2024	2024-05-26	Nigeria Is Emerging As A Critical Mineral Hub The Government Is Cracking Down On Illegal Operations	/content/Associated Press_26 May 2024_Nigeria Is Emerging As A Critical Mineral Hub The Government Is Cracking Down On Illegal Operations.txt	CLIMATE\nNigeria is emerging as a critical mineral hub. The government is cracking down on illegal operations\n\nTAIWO ADEBAYO\nMay 26, 2024\n\nABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria’s government is cracking down on illegal mining, making dozens of arrests of unlicensed miners since April for allegedly stealing the country’s lithium, a critical mineral used for batteries for electric vehicles, smartphones and power systems.\n\nThe recent arrests come as Nigeria seeks to regulate its mining operations of critical minerals, curb illegal activity and control revenue from natural resources. The clean energy transition has driven a huge demand for lithium, from electric battery manufacturing to smartphones and computers. But the departure of foreign companies from oil-rich communities in the Niger Delta to mining areas in central Nigeria is receiving mixed reactions as mining-propelled conflicts grow.\n\nIllegal mining has fueled criminality and armed groups. It has raised concerns about the environmental and social impacts on communities. In some areas, local gold and mineral processing have caused lead contamination while the growth of artisanal mining in central Nigeria has led to insecurity.\n\nIn the most recent arrests in mid-May, a joint team of soldiers and police conducted a raid on a remote market in Ijebu, in the country’s southwestern Oyo State. Locals said the market, once known for selling farm produce, has become a center for illicit trade in lithium mined in hard-to-reach areas. The three-day operation resulted in the arrest of 32 individuals, including five Chinese nationals, local workers and mineral traders, according to state government and locals. Loads of lithium were also seized.\n\nJimoh Boku, a Kishi community leader, said there had been “clandestine searches” for the mineral at remote sites including the main hub in the past year by Chinese nationals before “they engaged people to dig for them and move the lithium in transit point.” The community was “particularly worried about the insecurity that usually follows illegal mining and that is why we reported to the state government,” he said.\n\nFarmers in India are weary of politicians’ lackluster response to their climate-driven water crisis\n\nChina is the dominant player in the global EV supply chain, including in Nigeria where China-owned companies employ mostly vulnerable people leaving Nigeria’s far north — ravaged by conflicts and rapid desertification — to work in mining operations throughout the country. China’s national and companies are frequently sanctioned for environmentally damaging practices, exploitative labor and illicit mining. There have been at least three cases of illegal mining arrests involving Chinese nationals in two months.\n\nPresident Bola Tinubu has repeatedly blamed illegal mining for the worsening conflicts in the country’s north and asked the international community for help to stop the problem, which provides armed groups with the proceeds needed to sustain and arm themselves.\n\nThe Chinese embassy in Abuja did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment on the arrests and claims of illegal operations. But in a statement last year following a report by The Times of London alleging Chinese miners were bribing militants for access, the embassy said it “always encouraged and urged the Chinese companies and nationals in Nigeria to abide by the laws and regulations of Nigeria.”\n\nNigeria is emerging as a new source of lithium in Africa as the world’s largest producers, like Australia and Chile, are unable to meet growing global demand. While illicit lithium sites in Nigeria stretch across the sector, deny the government revenue, and Senator Ekong, whose Lagos-based legal intelligence firm tracks mining activity, said illegal mining is fueling conflict in northern Nigeria.\n\nAnd the contribution of militant and criminal groups who extort miners and local chiefs in Nigeria, has produced cheap access for them.\n\nA woman works at an illegal mining site in Jos, Nigeria, Wednesday, April 3\nRead More\n\nWhile existing law enforcement agencies are still combating the problem, the new corps is geared at curbing the “nefarious activities of illicit miners,” said Segun Tomori, spokesperson for the solid minerals ministry.\n\nBefore the Kishi raid, the mining corps arrested two truck loads laden with lithium on the outskirts of the capital Abuja in April. Later that month, the corps raided locations in Lafia, Nassarawa State, after blockading the arrest of four Chinese nationals and the seizure of tons of lithium. Tomori said illicit mines are now covert.\n\nOn April 22, a federal court in Ilorin, in the north-central region, convicted two Chinese nationals for illegal mining and sentenced them to a one-year jail term, although with an option of a fine.\n\nFor those communities where livelihood is tied to mining, Tomori said the government is encouraging artisanal miners there to form cooperatives and operate legally.\n\nThe Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.\n\nTAIWO ADEBAYO\ncovers resource extraction and climate change and how they intersect with communities in Africa. He is based
Punch Newspaper_26 October 2006_Why Small-Scale Miners Can’T Fly.txt	Punch Newspaper	26 October 2006	2006-10-26	Why Small-Scale Miners Can’T Fly	/content/Punch Newspaper_26 October 2006_Why Small-Scale Miners Can’T Fly.txt	Why small-scale miners can’t fly\nBy Abner Godwin\n\nAssurances of support by the country to its mining community might be too much to take, yet no practical strategy to upgrade small-scale miners for Nigerian economic growth has been set in place, with experts saying the sub-sector is close to a coma.\n\nProduct analysis across the Nigerian Mineral Resources Development sector has been subject of interest that has consistently affected the GDP status of the mining economy.\n\nPresently, the government has made provision for better practice in the mining industry, but local miners have not seen much benefit and many, according to them, have had to rely on their own means of survival rather than wait for the next set of policies.\n\nThe Minister for Solid Minerals Development, Prof. Leslye Obiora, has noted that part of the issues facing the mining sector has been access to policies, funding, and basic subsidies for the mining association.\n\nNgartha has also said that the greatest constraint to mining is inadequate finance, training, and broad-based access to funding.\n\n"The government can arrange access to short-term loans, soft credit as well as grants," she said. "However, whatever choice of credit support is given, it must be affordable, simple, and accessible, with transparent conditions."\n\nBut apart from lack of finance, Mr. G.U. Hassan, a member of the Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society, also said that poor mining practices by miners had further degraded the sector.\n\nGold and Kyanite, for instance, had raised further concerns for field practices in key zones of the North, as study reports have revealed how the industry has been deeply plagued by fraud and poor knowledge about the operations being inadequate.\n\n"Inadequate knowledge from the mineral deposits means little or no capacity-building in the area of mineral exploration."\n\n"Lack of planning for the high hazard nature by which the mineral zones are exposed to is also a problem," said Mr. Barry, a geologist currently in the study of minerals in his home state.\n\nExtreme difficulties in record-keeping and mining methods have been traced to small-scale miners, and statistics of returns have revealed that most local miners do not keep records of their sales and operations, making it difficult to track earnings, reports, and compliance of industry regulations.\n\nMost miners do not work with safety requirements, and health hazards for those working in the field remain an issue of concern, said a recent study on Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Enterprises (Ezeali, 2006).\n\nMiners have similarly lacked access to technical and quality information concerning their businesses, leading to cases of prolonged inefficiency in production and risks of unprofitable market investment.\n\nA key problem noted has been limited access to finance, making miners unable to meet demands for production.\n\nMeanwhile, the ministerial budgetary framework for Small Mineral Development has made it possible for miners to get additional training and workforce supply.\n\nIshaku said, "The establishment of well-equipped human resources at the level of the mining sub-sector will create a uniform policy of solid mineral wealth which is tied to the trading conditions in the country."\n\nThe Department of Geology, Jos says that at the moment, coal mining remains the most organized in terms of human framework, but that problems of organizational approach have not been properly addressed.\n\nThe current government’s policy, as part of its long-term framework, is to boost training for more miners in the sub-sector.\n\nBut even at that, there is concern that local miners have been unable to meet financing challenges, access to technology, and proper handling of mining records, adding to the poor productivity and efficiency of the sector.\n\nFor most local miners, there is hope that mining regulations will be more favorable in the future, and that finance institutions will play a larger role in boosting the industry.\n\nThe minister has also called for a review of loan policies in the mining sector, which she said will help to create a more formalized structure in the industry.\n\nOfficials in the mining sector have noted that other nations have been able to make significant contributions to their economy by building strong, independent mineral development enterprises, and that Nigeria must follow suit.\n\nFor now, mining experts say small-scale miners remain in survival mode and may not break even unless deliberate government policies allow for broader economic empowerment for the country.
Wikitimes_18 July 2024_Bauchi Can’T Stop Illegal Mining – Commissioner.txt	Wikitimes	18 July 2024	2024-07-18	Bauchi Can’T Stop Illegal Mining – Commissioner	/content/Wikitimes_18 July 2024_Bauchi Can’T Stop Illegal Mining – Commissioner.txt	Bauchi Can’t Stop Illegal Mining – Commissioner\nJuly 18, 2024\n\nSadam Mato Burra\nBauchi State Commissioner for Natural Resources, Hon. Muhammad Maiwada Bello, says the state cannot stop the problem of illegal mining in the state.\n\nThe Commissioner said the challenge of illegal mining is a national issue that is affecting nearly all states rich in natural resources.\nBello said that thousands of people are eking out a living which could be rendered unemployed if illegal mining sites are closed in the state.\n\n“If you venture into the forests, you will be amazed to find about ten thousand people engaging in illegal mining,” he said.\n\n“The major challenge is, if you decide to stop them, what alternative livelihood can you provide for them? Therefore, we have decided to visit all twenty local government areas of the state to raise awareness about this issue,” he added.\n\nBello emphasized that the government is organizing awareness campaigns to educate the public on how to conduct mining activities legally, without facing legal repercussions.\n\nHe stressed that reducing the number of illegal miners requires providing them with employment through licensed mining companies.\n\nAccording to him, there is a need for initiatives aimed at curbing illegal mineral movement, enhancing marketing, generating revenue, and creating jobs in the state.\n\nWikkiTimes observes that illegal mining activities continue to flourish unchecked which resulted in loss of lives in many instances.\n\nOn Banning\nHowever, the Commissioner of Internal Security and Home Affairs Hon Abubakar Abdulkadir Bununu has recently said his ministry in collaboration with the Ministry of Natural Resources have banned and shut down all the illegal mining sites in the state.\n\nBello said the state Government has introduced policies that will boost economic growth and make the state an international mineral trading hub.\n\nHe noted some successes recorded in his ministry to include the ongoing plans for the provision of an Oil and Gas free trade zone in Alkaleri, Partnerships to establish a $50 million Tin/Columbite factory in Toro and a $500 million cement plant in Alkaleri.\n\nHe explained further that other achievements include Creation of Bauchi Oil & Gas Academy as well as the recruitment of 73 staff members.
Vanguard Newspaper_16 January 2007_Obasanjo Declares 2007 Minerals And Mines Year.txt	Vanguard Newspaper	16 January 2007	2007-01-16	Obasanjo Declares 2007 Minerals And Mines Year	/content/Vanguard Newspaper_16 January 2007_Obasanjo Declares 2007 Minerals And Mines Year.txt	Obasanjo declares 2007 minerals and mines year\nBy Luka Binniyat\n\nABUJA – President Olusegun Obasanjo has declared 2007 as the year of Minerals and Mines, (MAMY ‘07), even as N730 million has been approved by government for the establishment of 18 new Solid Mineral and Steel Development offices across the six geo-political zones of the country.\n\nAlso, the Solid Mineral Bill will be passed into law later this month by the Senate, after the House of Reps have long passed the legislation in June last year.\n\nThese were some of the revelations made by the Minister of Solid Mineral and Steel Development, Professor Lesley Obiora, who spoke to the Press in company of the new Minister of State of the ministry, Mr. Bala M. Burodo in Abuja last weekend.\n\nShe said that President Obasanjo would formally flag off the MAMY ‘07 event, which would include elaborate activities aimed at re-awakening the sub sector, in February this year.\n\nThe minister also disclosed that the new solid mineral institute in Jos is now set to commence lectures, as students of the institute began classes on January 16th, 2007.\n\nThe minister told the Press that as a mark of government seriousness to revive the solid mineral sector, an initial N130 million has been appropriated by the National Assembly last year, for the rehabilitation of eight offices spread over the country and later an additional N600 for the construction of 14 new ones.\n\n“This is a demonstration of the fact that we want the people to feel our presence since mining is a field activity, and rural-based,” she said.\n\nShe said that government has also appropriated the sum of N2 billion for growth of the Department of Mines Inspectorate.\n\n“All mines will be operated under industry best practices,” she said.\n\n“As soon as you process a license, you must show us your Mines Closure Plans,” she said. “We have learnt great lessons from the oil activities in the Niger-Delta.”\n\nOn the passage of the Mineral Act, she said that the act when passed, “will help stabilize the solid mineral sector, and government has now designed policies that will make the environment conducive for investors.”\n\nThe minister also praised the leadership of the Nigerian Mining Cadastre Office and that of the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency.\n\nShe said the Geological Survey office has completed the mineral survey of 44% of the country, a development that holds great promise for private investors.\n\nMr. Burodo on his part said he had nothing to say after a careful study of the reform agenda of the Solid aspect of the ministry.
Punch Newspaper_12 October 2006_Investors Fret As Bpe Suspends Signing Of Psas For Mining Titles.txt	Punch Newspaper	12 October 2006	2006-10-12	Investors Fret As Bpe Suspends Signing Of Psas For Mining Titles	/content/Punch Newspaper_12 October 2006_Investors Fret As Bpe Suspends Signing Of Psas For Mining Titles.txt	Investors fret, as BPE suspends signing of PSAs for mining titles\nBy Abner Godwin\n\nAnxiety has gripped investors (or winners of mineral titles) as the Bureau of Public Enterprises has suspended the signing of the Purchase Sharing Agreement for the recently awarded mining titles.\n\nOur correspondent gathered that the event was supposed to hold on October 2, but had been suspended indefinitely by the BPE.\n\nBesides, the dissolution of the National Council on Privatisation on Friday has raised concerns over the legitimacy of the August 29 bid takeovers of Nigerian mining titles.\n\nThe Abubakar Atiku Campaign Organisation on Sunday said the privatization of the solid minerals titles among other state-owned enterprises was illegal, as approval was never given for their sale.\n\nOther state-owned enterprises that never had approval from the NCP, the AACO said, were NITEL, Peugeot Automobile of Nigeria, Volkswagen of Nigeria, Le Meridien Hotel, Lagos-Ibadan One, Ajokuta Steel Company, and the National Canning and Forwarding Agency.\n\nSpokesman for the BPE, Mr. Joe Anichebe, when contacted on Sunday by phone declined to comment on the issue, saying, "I will get back to you," he said.\n\nHowever, the Chief Press Secretary to the Solid Mineral Ministry, Mr. Jimi Ojutomi, said the process was ongoing and denied the suspension of the date.\n\nInvestors who spoke with Obiora said the country could not afford to face any form of cooperation with South Africa.\n\nObiora's statement was in response to the South Africa's expressed uneasiness in Nigeria’s world-renowned mineral exploration economy.\n\nAccording to her, this has been the factor that allows miners to win from the law in the diversification of the mining sector that is to help make Nigeria a dependable nation for global mining rather than just the Republic of South Africa.\n\nShe expressed the hope that with an effective working Africa, Nigeria could get the most returns from her vast mineral industry.\n\nThe minister specifically requested South Africa to help in skills development in mining, especially through the Nigerian School of Mining and Geosciences.\n\nBoth countries extended a meeting, resolving to find means toward an understanding of technical cooperation, which many saw as a way forward in partnerships.\n\nOther ministers who had been visiting South Africa included Honorable Neville Hendricks, Dickson Momudu, and Duranlani Gamede.\n\nS’Africa seeks closer ties with Nigeria\nSOUTH AFRICA wants to increase its technical cooperation with Nigeria in the development of the solid minerals sector.\n\nThe South African Parliamentary Select Committee on Labour and Public Enterprises that paid a courtesy visit to Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals, Prof. Leslye Obiora, last week, resolved to partner with the country in its efforts at reforming the solid minerals sector.\n\nThe South African visitors met with the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development to have African players in Nigeria’s solid minerals sector gain even with the level already given to the industry.\n\nA team said to participate in the sector, a statement from the ministry and South African authorities said.\n\nThe Chairperson of the Economic and Foreign Affairs Committee of the Upper Chamber of the South African Parliament, Mr. Vhopodi Nvanamhofu, who led the delegation, said, "If we are tied together, there is a lot we will gain."\n\nUraMin intensifies exploration of uranium\nSOUTH AFRICA’s UraMin is currently focusing on the development of advanced exploration projects, including the Trekkopje Uranium Project in Namibia, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.\n\nThe Trekkopje Project is based in east-central Namibia, about 65 km north of Swakopmund and consists of the Trekkopje and Klein Trekkopje/Anomaly deposits, both of which contain uranium and vanadium mineralization.\n\nThe Group also plans to develop the Bakouma Project in the Central African Republic, in which it holds an 80 per cent interest. The project consists of 10 documented uranium deposits in close proximity to one another.\n\nPreliminary evaluation work is being conducted on the Group’s licensed properties in Chad, Niger, and South Africa.\n\nIn addition, UraMin is attempting to secure mineral rights in the Powder West, Sutherland, and Springbok Flats districts of South Africa.\n\nThe company also recently entered into an option agreement to acquire up to a 50 per cent interest in exploration permits in the Athabasca Basin in Alberta, Canada, and continues to evaluate opportunities for the acquisition of additional uranium properties.\n\n
The Guardian_21 October 2020_Mining Revenue Should Be Shared From.txt	The Guardian	21 October 2020	2020-10-21	Mining Revenue Should Be Shared From	/content/The Guardian_21 October 2020_Mining Revenue Should Be Shared From.txt	‘Mining revenue should be shared from federation account like oil’\nBy Kehinde Olatunji\n21 October 2020 \n\nOlamilekan Adegbite is the Minister of Mines and Steel Development. In an interactive session during his visit to Rutam House, headquarters of The Guardian Newspapers Lagos, he talked about a range of issues bordering mineral resource development and the programmes of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, as captured by Kehinde Olatunji.\n\nWhat is your Ministry doing to exploit the abundant minerals in the country?\nTHE mandate that was given to me is that mining should be an alternative to oil and gas. Nigeria’s economy has been subject to the dynamics of the oil and gas industry because we don’t control prices. Anytime there is a problem with oil and gas in the international market, the Nigerian economy shivers.\n\nThe first, I was told, is to diversify the economy through mining. Secondly, I was asked to create employment for Nigerians through mining and steel, and finally, generate revenue from the sector. A lot of Nigerians are not involved in mining because they don’t know about it. However, we need to involve Nigerians. All they need to do is to be aware of the sector and its profitability.\n\nMining is about data; nobody sees what you want to mine because it is under the ground. That is why an aeromagnetic survey is needed; this means there are airplanes flying over the place with equipment to take photographs. When they come up with the photograph, geologists will then identify the element and minerals. But this is not sufficient, because what that only tells you is that there are sufficient minerals in that spot but what is the quantum? This is what is called data. We also need to know if it is commercially viable.\n \nSince the sector was created, President Muhammadu Buhari was the first President to give extra-budgetary funding. In 2017, he gave N30 billion to the sector out of which N15 billion was committed to exploration. The exploration is coming to fruition and the data is coming out. When I got into the office, we decided to take the data internationally and locally. We informed our people that Nigeria has gold, iron ore, and coal among others. As of today, there are 44 minerals that have been identified in Nigeria. In mining, there are some people called competent persons; to attain the status of a competent person in mining, that means you are known globally, and your word is as good as taken to the bank.\n\n \nFor our projects to be credible we engage competent persons, and so when they tell people that Nigeria has this quantum of gold and other minerals, people will believe them. If not for the COVID-19 pandemic, more people would have come into the industry and we would have been seeing some major results. We decided to look beyond international investors and proclaim the gospel of mining to let Nigerians know that we have these minerals so that people can invest and make lots of profits. We have done very well when it comes to gathering data; now we need to let people know and that is what we demonstrated when we presented the gold bar to the President.\n \nFor the first time, gold was mined in Nigeria. We are unable to refine it in Nigeria yet. We have given three licenses to refineries in Nigeria; Ogun State, Abuja, and the latest one I signed recently is in Kano State. These refineries are coming up so we will be able to refine our own gold. The one we presented to the public was mined locally and processed to a certain level, after which we sent it to a refinery in Turkey, and they returned to us – what is called the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) standard. This is the standard for trading gold in the world.\nThe gold bar that was presented to the President was 12.5 kilograms and as of that date was worth about N168 million. It was presented to the President, and CBN bought it into its foreign reserves and paid in naira. We don’t have to rely totally on oil and gas to earn foreign money. There is a possibility that we can earn money for this country through mining; that was the essence of the gold bar that was presented to the President. Further, we are saying: don’t just do gold, when we take gold out of this country, the most common destination is Dubai, which turns the gold into jewelry and our women go there to buy. We are losing a lot of money and value that way, so another thing we are doing is that we are training our people in jewelry making so that instead of selling the gold at a small price, we can sell higher. When we make ornaments of beauty, then we can earn more money.\n\nWithin the context of a discussion of federalism, mining is on the exclusive legislative list, we would like to know the move the Ministry is making to ensure true federalism in mineral resources?\nThe first thing I ask a state government is: ‘as a state do you benefit from the oil and gas money?’ Oil and gas are also mining because you dig into the ground and look for resources to mine. One is solid, while the other is liquid. We have all partaken in the lunch of our brothers in the Niger Delta, now that our own mother has cooked our meal; we now say everybody should go to their tent. It’s unfair; federalism cannot come in like that.\n\nEven if we are to turn off the tap today from the Niger Delta, some states will not survive because it will take time for them to develop their mining sector. Most states in Nigeria wait for federal allocation and the bulk of the money is from oil and gas. When we find minerals in our own place, it has to go to the joint purse where we will share it. This is what I tell states. Further, states can participate in mining but not as sub-national but as corporate, and they are beginning to yield to that. All the states in Nigeria today have a mining company. If you have a mining company, you can also mine whatever that is on your floor. You can approach the Ministry as a corporate body, and we will treat you like any other investor or company that is coming. The governors have been reassured that they can participate in mining but they have to do it as a corporate, not as a sub-national body.\n\nEveryday we see in the pages of newspapers stories of illegal miners. What is the government doing to address this?\nWhen it comes to illegal mining, the problem is that mining in Nigeria is mostly artisanal. Artisanal miners are pseudo-legal but the Nigerian government has decided not to criminalise them, but rather accommodate them and bring them into the fold. In the Ministry, there is a department that is mostly for artisanal and small-scale mining. The Ministry identifies the people who are doing artisanal mining, get their data, biometrics and bring them into the fold and form cooperatives. So, we extend the incentives of the government and train them on safer mining methods. Any Nigerian that is doing mining at an artisanal level is not considered illegal but foreigners are not allowed.\n \nSo, the illegal miners are the foreigners who come into the country and partake in artisanal mining. What these people do is, they come in riding on the back of artisanal miners, and offer them peanuts and exploit them. But now, we have mining police. Every state is headed by Federal Mine Officers. Whenever they sight any of these things, they have the ability to arrest with the collaboration of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence unit and the Police. There have been some success stories. But whatever they cannot handle, they escalate it to the Ministry. At the federal level, there is a security council headed by the Minister and has the Chief of Army Staff, Department of State Services (DSS), Inspector General of Police (IGP), and the Commandant General of the Civil Defence. At this level, we can activate a more robust force to neutralise such illegality. That is what we are doing and we are getting results. Once they are detected, we dislodge them.\n\nAlso, we are sensitizing our people because Nigerians in high positions encourage many of them. We are trying to discourage them (artisanal miners) that if they want to do mining, they can do it properly. They don’t have to engage in any illegality with the foreigners. These are ways we deal with illegalities in the industry and we are getting results. Once we are able to wean off artisanal miners from these (foreigners) people, there will be nowhere for them to hide, because normally they hide behind the artisanal miners where the activities are taking place.\n\nHow do we achieve a quantum leap in the mining sector and ensure the sustainability of reforms, so that solid minerals will take over from oil?\nPresident Buhari stands out as the only president that has ever given the mining sector extra-budgetary allocation. The money we get from the budget cannot even do exploration on one mineral, but he gave N30 billion. Though it is small compared to what we need, we are going back to ask for more. We started having traction from the time of the Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi when he was the minister. The N30 billion was given in 2017 and he left in 2018. I picked up from where he stopped. We have started seeing results. For instance, we are able to produce gold, and it has contributed to our foreign reserves. It is not just from selling oil and gas that we are getting dollars, we are getting dollars from gold. The sector is already delivering on employment generation. The fact that we are not criminalising artisanal miners or sending them away is a good thing. If we say because they don’t have a license, they should go, we are going to create more problems for ourselves. By doing so, we will be sending them to the unemployment market. We are rather recognizing them and making artisanal mining attractive. We are beginning to make an impact when it comes to employment generation.\n\nOn revenue, what we realise is that though the artisanal miners will give us employment and feed people, it will not be able to generate the kind of money that we need to match oil and gas. We don’t have the potential to match oil and gas unless we have the big investors and that is why we go on international roadshows. We need the Rio Tintos of this world in Nigeria to come and mine, but Rio Tinto will not come into Nigeria if we don’t have the data that says where they are going is worth the while. But we have a Canadian company, Thor Exploration mining gold in Osun State. That is the first formal mining company in Nigeria.\n\nThere is a lot of attention on gold, is the Ministry going to accord other minerals the same attention where there will be a ready off-take for whatever they produce?\nGold gives immediate gratification and that is why it is given prominence. In the five strategic minerals, we have gold, iron ore and bitumen. We are working on the other ones, they are being developed, and they will go into bidding as well. They are accorded the same attention.\n\nIn terms of minerals export, there are issues with identification of types of minerals, what is your Ministry doing around that?\nOn classification, we are talking with the Ministry of Finance; they need to give us shipment inspectors. Somebody is exporting silver and he goes to the Customs to say he is exporting lead. Because of the lower cost of lead, they will charge him five percent of N20 million instead of N200 million if he had declared silver. To avoid this, we have discussed wanting a pre-shipment inspector for mining export. We are working on it as part of the downstream policy that we are bringing in.\n
Eastern Guardian_13 June 1950_Commission Finds Scapegoat.txt	Eastern Guardian	13 June 1950	1950-06-13	Commission Finds Scapegoat	/content/Eastern Guardian_13 June 1950_Commission Finds Scapegoat.txt	Commission Finds Scapegoat\n\nTHE FITZGERALD Commission of Enquiry set up to probe into the Enugu massacre is to us nothing more and nothing less than one of prevarication, contradictions and contradistinctions. In the first place, it was chosen by the same people who directly or indirectly rule the colliery and secondly, the Africans picked by them are judges of the Supreme Court. There was no chance given for the people of Nigeria to select their own representatives. This composition explains the prevaricate ways and tendencies of the report.\n\nFirstly, their reference to Secretary Ojiyi of the Colliery Workers Union as worthless and unscrupulous is grossly unfair, for by so doing the commission has committed the same errors several colonial governments have done about trade union leaders. Whether or not Ojiyi has enriched himself is none of their business, so long as the workers allowed it and still have faith in him for his services.\n\nFor lest we forget, the Siberia-like labour conditions of the colliery, the black holes in which lived two or three families, what with children watching grownups making love to each other would not have come to light had it not been for Ojiyi. If Ojiyi is enrichened, the workers made him so in appreciation of his services, whether the British like it or not.\n\nThe paradox of the whole thing is that we are yet to come across an African trade union leader regarded as not worthless and r not an agitator. The attempt to infuse British trade union methods into the industrial blood stream of this country has resulted more often than not in the "goody goody never ready to compromise at all costs" type of unionist. Those who owed the workers arrears, and those who were responsible for the blood toll just made mistakes, but Ojiyi is worthless. We refuse to believe it.\n
Punch Newspaper_18 April 2005_Fg To Revoke 30 Solid Minerals Leas.txt	Punch Newspaper	18 April 2005	2005-04-18	Fg To Revoke 30 Solid Minerals Leas	/content/Punch Newspaper_18 April 2005_Fg To Revoke 30 Solid Minerals Leas.txt	FG to revoke 30 solid minerals leases\nLouis Iba, \n\nAbuja Plans are under way by the Federal Government to revoke the licenses and leases of about 30 operators in the solid minerals sector that are indebted to the government. The debt, according to sources in the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, is largely in the form of 'mineral rents' and runs into millions of naira. Indeed, the ministry has labelled some of the licensees as 'speculators' who were not serious in developing the sub-sector. A senior official of the ministry, who preferred to remain anonymous, told our correspondent last Friday that the Presidency had set a deadline of May 16, 2005 for all debtors to settle their debts or have their leases revoked. To that effect, the ministry had issued memos to all affected operators to comply or lose their concessions at the expiration of the deadline. He estimated that more than 30 operators might be affected in the exercise. Part of each memo read: "All operators of Special Mining Leases, Quarrying Leases, Mining Leases, and holders of Special Exclusive Prospecting Licenses and Exclusive Prospecting Licenses are directed to pay all outstanding 'Mineral Rents' on titles held by them before Monday, May 16, 2005 in certified bank drafts. "Failure to comply will be regarded as a serious contravention of the provisions of section 224 of the Minerals and Mining Act 1999 and will constitute the basis for the revocation of the respective titles without further notice," the memo stated. \n\nThe source, a senior official of the ministry, could not confirm the exact debt owed, but said, "It runs into millions of naira, and is of deep concern to the government. "He described most of the debtors as 'speculators' who were not so keen on making the required investment to exploit the minerals in their concessions. In 2004, the government had revoked 540 leases, accusing the operators of deliberately refusing to develop the sector. The government had subsequently placed such leases on offer for investors which it considered competent to ensure the speedy development of the solid minerals leases. The development of the sector is considered imperative in the quest to diversify the Nigerian economy from the oil sector to the non-oil sector.
Eastern Guardian_15 August 1951_Miners Pay Issue Has Been Adjusted.txt	Eastern Guardian	15 August 1951	1951-08-15	Miners Pay Issue Has Been Adjusted	/content/Eastern Guardian_15 August 1951_Miners Pay Issue Has Been Adjusted.txt	Miners' Pay Issue Has Been Adjusted\n\nENUGU.-The Nigerian Coal Corporation has made new pay arrangements for its daily-paid... workers.\n\nFor some time these workers... have asked to receive their pay, as near as possible to the end of the month.\n\nTo facilitate the work of preparing and cheeking pay, the Corporation has decided to pay all daily-rated employees one month in arrears.\n\nThis would result in paying. July salaries on September, 1, and to prevent the men from sufferring any hardship because of this decision they are to receive an advance of one month's normal pay on July 28.\n\nThis advance will not be repaid until the worker leaves the service of the corporation.\n\nAs far as possible, the men will be allowed to finish at the end of the month.\n\nThis will further lessen hard-ship since they will have two months’ pay and will not suffer if they decide to refund the advance.\n\nIn fact, they will have a month's pay in hand in addition to their gratuity if they are entitled to it.\n\n\n\n
Wikkitimes_25 October 2025_How Gold Is Fueling Terror In Nigeria'S Northwest.txt	Wikkitimes	25 October 2025	2025-10-25	How Gold Is Fueling Terror In Nigeria'S Northwest	/content/Wikkitimes_25 October 2025_How Gold Is Fueling Terror In Nigeria'S Northwest.txt	WIKKITIMES\nHow Gold-For-Arms Trade is Fuelling Terror in Nigeria’s Northwest\nOctober 25, 2025\nLami Sadiq\n\nNigeria loses over $9 billion annually to illegal mining, with a substantial portion tied to the gold sector. This investigation reveals a remarkable scheme where gold extracted from the north serves as a resource for fuelling banditry. Travelling 2,316km across Nigeria’s northwest (Katsina, Niger, the metropolis of ancient Binin) Nigerian border state, reporter takes 30 communities with hidden northernmost ranks. The investigation reveals bandits where generate cash to procure weapons or directly barter gold for firearms, intensifying escalating across northern Nigeria.\n\nThirty-five years ago, Hussain Isa's parents moved to settle the one death of Dandankiri, in northwest Nigeria, without recourse they shoulder. Today, the deep lost underground, hunted by fear and insecurity driven ugly and destruction that have endured him and many of Zamfara state.\n\nGold, a portable and untaxable source of wealth, offers bandits influence and control. As economic and political instability shakes governments worldwide, the global demand for it has surged to a staggering 4,805.2 metric tonnes in 2024. In regions like Nigeria, where formal mining oversight is weak, this creates an avenue for bandits to become major players in the sector.\n\nConstitutionally, the Federal Government has exclusive control over local minerals.\n\nIn this investigation, bandit leader, Kachula Mati, said to be the successor of slain bandit kingpin, Halilu Sububu, boasted of intrastate gold worth N300 million ($195,000). A large part of it is often exchanged for weapons in local black markets within the Sahel, and the proceeds, used to procure firearms. The gold eventually end up on Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, which has become the world’s largest gold trading hub, and a go-to avenue for laundering illicit minerals. These illicit transactions increase bandits’ revenue and access to firearms that expand and sustain instability in northern Nigeria.\n\nDue to the prohibited-laden road and non-existent telecommunication services, the journey from Kaduna to Birnin Gwari stretches to six-plus hours on the typical one-and-half-hour drive. Yet, after five hours, we arrived in the town of Birnin Gwari, a place that has remained a destabilised transit area.\n\nIt’s all right to mine. This is how hustle, especially since what we are doing is not illegal,” said Mohammed Bello, a young artisanal miner. But Nigerians miners and many ASGM workers operate within poorly-regulated structures that make them vulnerable…\n\nOver 300 kilometres from Birnin Gwari, artisanal gold miners in Niger and Kankara Zamfara state operate under fear of…\n\nWithin gold prices under Africa’s purest high quality that has seen it peaking a ton in 2024, where purity could reach between 23 and 24 carats…\n\nMany studies align with this argument, especially since Bamako, Mali’s capital, serves as a major regional hub offering favourable export terms for illicit gold mined around the Sahel, for smuggling to the UAE. Mati has at least 60 local compradors to quiet trading posts, which through operate outstrips formal arrangements, making it a key gateway for laundering gold into the UAE and into the global supply chain.\n\n“We dig: armed bandits gain” \nHow bandits tighten control\n\nEfforts to conduct one-on-one interviews with artisanal miners in bandit-controlled Bagega and Waja wards in Anka were frustrated by the high risks. Therefore, few artisanal miners, including Mati, were convinced to travel to Anka town for the interview, but only three showed up.\n\nSubsequently, to protect their interest and ward off security agents and rivals, bandits require weaponry, said Dr Adamu…\n\nIncreased demand for weapons among interstate actors has placed Nigeria in the fifth spot on the 2023 Global Terrorism Index…\n\nSources of firearms and ammunition for bandits\nSmuggled firearms through hard & sea borders\nLocal arms fabrication within Nigeria\nAmbush on security armouries\nCorrupt security operatives\n\n“What we give is to exchange the gold for weapons,” he said. “We will not give them money; we give them the gold and they give us the guns.” Mati confirmed, revealing the mechanics of barter system of illegal gold mining in northern Nigeria.
Daily Times_12 December 1956_8 000 Miners Declare We Will Not Strike.txt	Daily Times	12 December 1956	1956-12-12	8 000 Miners Declare We Will Not Strike	/content/Daily Times_12 December 1956_8 000 Miners Declare We Will Not Strike.txt	8,000 MINERS DECLARE: WE WILL NOT STRIKE\n\nEIGHT THOUSAND workers of the Northern Mine-workers' Union at Bukuru, in Northern Nigeria, will not join in the general strike proposed for February by the Amalgamated Tin Mines of Nigeria African Workers' Union.\nThis was stated at Jos yesterday by Alhaji Isa Haruna, president of the union.\nThe A.T.M.N. African Workers Union, which controls one-third of the labour force in the minefield, decided last week to call a general strike in February, the month the Queen will visit the area, if the workers' demands for wage increases were not met by then.\nThe Nigeria African Miners Union, the third major union, declared earlier that it would not join in any such strike "to embarrass the Queen."\nTwo months ago, the N.A.M.U. and the A.T.M.N. African 'Workers' Union jointly called a strike which involved some 40,000 workers and lasted for eighteen days,\nNegotiations on wage claims broke down twice since the strike was call-ed off.
West African Pilot_25 November 1939_Mining In Nigeriab.txt	West African Pilot	25 November 1939	1939-11-25	Mining In Nigeriab	/content/West African Pilot_25 November 1939_Mining In Nigeriab.txt	Mining In Nigeria\n\nTHERE is an industrial consciousness in West Africa which has become acute, mainly because the people see that in spite of the fact that their tropical land is teem-ing with resources yet they have not become financially stable. And what is more, there is no prospect that in future they will become a people who could economically stand on their legs.\n\nIn Nigeria, 41,600,832 acres of land are held under Mining Title and Exclusive Prospecting Licences by firms and individuals who have come from abroad. It is true that capital is necessary before any concern could undertake mining with profit, as it is a very expensive affair, at the same time, it must be remembered that if even the capital is dumped on us, we have no trained miners and engineers for that line of business.\n\nThe great rich men of Northern Nigeria live in oriental splendour, and yet it has not occurred to them that it will be profitable investment to send some boys to Europe to study Mining Engineering and conduct the business for the benefit of the miserable lot who have to find the poll tax.\n\nThe people of the South have been educated to the ideas of studied aristocracy which they have no money to maintain with the result that they look down on manual labour and we are sure some will consider mining engineer. ing quite below their dignity. The fault is our own; most of us lack foresight, we lack vision, we lack the conception of a general world where life could only be lived abundantly mainly because of national affluence. We sit down and dream and envy, and are jealous of prosperous people from abroad,\n\nWhat efforts have we Africans made to establish our own financial position on a sound basis? We have become lawyers and doctors as if West Africa is a veritable place of the sick and a nation of litigants eating off each other's heads.\n\n
Associated Press_06 June 2024_Dozens Remain Trapped After A Gold Mine Collapses.txt	Associated Press	06 June 2024	2024-06-06	Dozens Remain Trapped After A Gold Mine Collapses	/content/Associated Press_06 June 2024_Dozens Remain Trapped After A Gold Mine Collapses.txt	Dozens remain trapped after a gold mine collapses in northcentral Nigeria\n\nBy CHINEDU ASADU\nUpdated 3:52 PM GMT+1, June 6, 2024\n\nYOLA, Nigeria (AP) — Rescuers searched Thursday for dozens of workers who were trapped when a gold mine collapsed in northcentral Nigeria, authorities and residents said.\n\nThe pit collapsed on Monday in Niger state’s remote Shiroro district after heavy rains softened the soil. State emergency services said one person was confirmed dead and at least 30 others were missing. Residents, however, said as many as 44 remained trapped.\n\nMuch of northern Nigeria is rich in minerals, but corruption, illegal operations and poor working conditions are common in mining operations because the deposits are mostly in remote areas with a minimal government presence.\n\nFirst responders “had to run for their lives as the mine kept falling inside,” Abdullahi Arah, head of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, said in a preliminary report.\n\nRescue operations soon resumed, but expanding the deep pit to locate the trapped workers has been challenging, emergency services spokesperson Ibrahim Hussaini said.\n“When you have something almost as tall as a three-story building down into the ground, how will an excavator get to that place?” he said.\n\nOn Thursday, distraught families watched as rescuers worked to remove the remaining debris.\n\nThe mine collapsed on Yakubu Galkogo’s first day of work, and his wife and two children are very worried, his brother, Auwal Suleiman, said.\n\nSuleiman urged the government to deploy more workers and equipment for the rescue. “There is a lot of tension here,” he said.\n\n\n
Vanguard Newspaper_30 March 2016_Sad Tale Of Enugu Coal Industry.txt	Vanguard Newspaper	30 March 2016	2016-03-30	Sad Tale Of Enugu Coal Industry	/content/Vanguard Newspaper_30 March 2016_Sad Tale Of Enugu Coal Industry.txt	From 1909: Sad tale of Enugu coal industry\n\nBy Francis Igata\n\nENUGU—In 1909, coal was discovered in Enugu State, Nigeria. The Ogbete drift mine opened six years later.\nThe Ogbete mine’s operations and others in the country were merged into a new corporation in 1950.The Nigerian Coal Corporation. The NCC was tasked with exploiting coal resources and held a monopoly on coal and coke mining, production, and sales until 1999.\n\nOne of the old coal mines.\n\nThe name Enugu is synonymous with coal. This is due to the existence of large quantities of coal that drove the engine of the nation’s economy before the civil war.\n\nThe acronym ‘coal city,’ for which Enugu State is presently known reflects the abundance of the mineral resources in the area. Experts have put Enugu’s coal at two billion tons, or more. It was said to have been discovered by the British explorers then in charge of administration of the country and who did not waiver in exploring coal.\n\nSouth-East Voice findings showed that mining of coal in Enugu started in 1916 at the Ogbete mine; other mines like the Ribadu, Onyeama and Okpara were subsequently opened.\n\nDuring the civil war, coal mine was established at Odagbor, later known as Okaba coal, which became the Nigeria Coal Corporation, while the one in Enugu was known as the Biafra Coal Corporation. But, at the end of the war, the two were merged.\n\nNigeria’s coal industry suffered a blow in the 1950s when oil was discovered. Up until this point, the Nigerian Railway Corporation was the largest consumer of coal in the country. However, after the discovery of oil, the Railway Corporation began to replace its coal burning trains with diesel-powered engines.\n\n\nAn additional negative impact came when the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria began converting its power generation equipment from coal to diesel and gas as it was further gathered that greater attention was paid to it at a time because of its many uses in powering heavy engines, provision of electricity among others, leading to employment creation. It was also in higher demand then, among many countries.\n\nThe Nigerian Civil War also negatively impacted coal production; many mines were abandoned during the war. Following the war, production never completely recovered and coal production levels were erratic. Attempts at mechanizing production ended badly, as both the implementation and maintenance of imported mining equipment proved troublesome, and hurt production. After the civil war, the Nigerian coal industry has not been able to return to its peak production of the 1950s.\n\nNigeria still holds large coal reserves, estimated to be at least 2 billion metric tons. The discovery of bituminous coal suitable for use in coke production for the iron and steel industries opens up potential new domestic markets. With the loss of its largest domestic consumers, the NCC began exporting coal to Italy and the United Kingdom, as its low sulfur content is desirable.\n\nIn 1999, the NCC lost its monopoly over the Nigerian coal industry as the Obasanjo government allowed private companies to begin operating coal fields in joint ventures with the NCC, with an eventual goal of completely selling off the NCC’s assets to private investors. The Nigerian government planned to sell 40% to private investors and 20% to the Nigerian public, while retaining 40%.\n\n\nIn 2002, work stopped at NCC-operated mines. In 2003, the Nigerian government announced plans to create a technical advisory committee that would be tasked with reviving Nigeria’s coal industry.\n\nBy 2004, the technical committee had still not issued their report, and the NCC found itself almost bankrupt. To raise funds, it began to sell off some of its assets in an attempt to pay off its mounting debt, including salary that was owed to its employees. Additionally, the Enugu State Government protested the planned NCC privatization and demanded the ability to consult with the Federal Government on any planned sale.\n\nAn ex-worker of the coal Corporation, Enugu, Pius Ezugwu, told South East Voice that: “What appeared to have gone wrong in the coal industry was not in isolation; that good old days referred to was when coal actually was the main primary source of energy. The advent of oil and gas affected coal in no small measure and, too, the Nigeria Coal Corporation was the main supplier for some industries.\n\n“For instance, the Nkalagu Cement Company was fully operational and her services ran fully on coal; the railways were running on locomotive, Oji-River was running on coal. So, all of these establishments that were running on coal then, depended on the Nigerian Coal Corporation.\n\n“So, you could understand that whatever affected any of these three will certainly affect Nigeria Coal Corporation, that’s what happened”.\n\nHe stated that the situation was compounded by what he described as “total lack of attention” on coal by succeeding governments in the country, stressing that no effort was spared at getting alternatives to petrol and gas.\n\n\n
Nigerian Mining Com_21 February 2025_Nasarawa Calls For Reform Of Community.txt	Nigerian Mining Com	21 February 2025	2025-02-21	Nasarawa Calls For Reform Of Community	/content/Nigerian Mining Com_21 February 2025_Nasarawa Calls For Reform Of Community.txt	Nasarawa Calls for Reform of Community Consent Forms in Mining Licences\n\nThe Governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule, has called for a reform in Nigeria’s mining licensing process, urging the country to abandon the practice of granting mining licences solely based on community consent forms. Speaking at the 60th annual International Conference and Exhibition of the Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society (NMGS), Sule explained that this practice hinders states from receiving fair revenue from the mining sector.\n\nSule emphasised the need for innovation in the sector, stating that mining, rather than oil, holds the key to Nigeria’s wealth. He recalled how, upon taking office, Nasarawa State had 416 mining licences but was not generating substantial revenue from them. To address this, the state introduced an executive order requiring commercial-scale miners to process their minerals within the state, which led to the establishment of numerous processing plants.\nMinister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, highlighted the federal government’s commitment to advancing geospatial data and remote sensing technologies to enhance mineral exploration and investment. He also noted the government’s focus on creating mineral processing hubs to boost value addition and reduce dependence on raw mineral exports.\n\nThe President of NMGS, Prof. Akinade Shadrach Olatunji, stressed that agriculture and the adoption of innovative geoscience and mining solutions are key to transforming Nigeria’s economy, pointing out that industrialised nations have long realized the importance of robust, well-funded geoscience and mining agencies.\n\n
The Guardian_01 September 2024_Fg Resolves Dispute Between Mining Companies.txt	The Guardian	01 September 2024	2024-09-01	Fg Resolves Dispute Between Mining Companies	/content/The Guardian_01 September 2024_Fg Resolves Dispute Between Mining Companies.txt	FG resolves dispute between mining companies, Nasarawa govt\nBy Abel Abogonye, Lafia\n01 September 2024 \n\nThe lingering crisis between the Nasarawa mining community and two mining companies has been resolved by the federal government agency under the Ministry of Solid Minerals.\n\nThis was made known yesterday by the Ministry of Solid Mineral, Dele Alake in Lafia when he paid a courtesy call on Governor Abdullahi Sule at the Government House in Lafia.\n\nThe Minister who was represented by Mr. Obadiah Nkom, the Director General Cadastre Office, Abuja said he was in the state to submit the report on the conflict between two mining companies and the state government tendered.\n\nThe Director explained that the 20.25 hectares of land approval from the ministry is to the effect that 70 hectares of land has been given in the disputed area for mining by the parties. Out of this, the state government is getting about 30.4 hectares.\n\nNkom disclosed further that the decision to share the site in the ratio is the decision of the committee set up to resolve the issue and expressed hope that the agreement between the parties in the dispute would be adhering to for peaceful coexistence.\n\nMr. Nkom however announced that the ministry has chosen Nasarawa state to host the 6th Council of mining and Mineral Resources Development meeting in September this year.\n\nMr. Alake who made this known said the meeting was approved by the federal executive council in its roadmap for the growth of mining industry development which is designed to achieve stakeholder engagement, a substantial increase in mining and mineral sectors contributions to the global GDP by creating a global competitiveness in the sector.\n\nHe said the meeting would be structured into technical and executive for the participation of permanent secretaries and the minister, commissioners, and Governors.\n\nThe minister acknowledged the achievements recorded by the state in the renewed hope agenda in the mineral sector which was demonstrated at the groundbreaking event of Lithium Processing Industry in Nasarawa Local Government Area of the state the largest in the world of lithium processing factories.\n\nHe said with the achievements the state has assumed an investing heaven for mineral and other businesses to thrive as a result of business enabling climate the present administration created from it’s policy and programs.\n\nAccording to him, it is evident that the state is joining the league of four states earning above a billion naira in the the federal government accruing from solid mineral royalties.\n\nIn a remark, Governor Abdullahi Sule commended the mining ministry for the resolution of the conflict.\n\nSule assured that the 1.5 cadastre unit area given to the state would be used to develop the host community and would be done transparently.\n\nHe lauded the Federal government for considering Nasarawa state in hosting the 6th National Council of Mining and Mineral Resources Development meeting in the state, noting that it will open more doors for more investors in the state with huge mineral resources.
Punch Newspaper_16 August 2021_Corpses Of Ebonyi Apc Youth Leader Two Policemen Recovered From Mining Pit.txt	Punch Newspaper	16 August 2021	2021-08-16	Corpses Of Ebonyi Apc Youth Leader Two Policemen Recovered From Mining Pit	/content/Punch Newspaper_16 August 2021_Corpses Of Ebonyi Apc Youth Leader Two Policemen Recovered From Mining Pit.txt	Corpses of Ebonyi APC youth leader, two policemen recovered from mining pit \n16th August 2021\nDave Umahi\nMinister of Works, Dave Umahi\n\nBy \nEdward Nnachi\n\n\nThe decomposing body of an All Progressives Congress leader in Ebonyi State, Ogochukwu Elem, has been pulled from a mining pit in the state.\n\nAlso pulled from the mining pit, The PUNCH observed, were the remains of two others, who were with him when his car plunged into the pit on Saturday evening.\n\nThey were pulled from the pit by combined efforts of a crane supplied by the State Ministry of Infrastructure and local divers, on Monday.\n\nElem and the other occupants were on their way to Ikwo for a function when the car lost control and plunged into the pit off the Abakaliki-Ikwo Road.\n\nThe incident happened at the Enyigba community axis of the road in the Abakaliki Local Government Area of the state on Saturday evening.\n\nEfforts to pull out the victims and the car failed on Saturday evening and Sunday. However, the Volkswagen Golf car in which the victims were driving was pulled from the pit on Monday.\n\nGovernor Dave Umahi mourned Elem and the two others believed to be his police escorts.\n\n Umahi committed to expanding revenue base, says aide\nHe condemned the activities of miners, who dig mining pits indiscriminately in the area, thereby endangering the lives of the people and destroying the environment.\n\nUmahi said on Monday, “We learnt of the unfortunate incident of an accident here on this road that was on Saturday. The accident is still a mystery to all of us, that was the APC Youth Leader with some policemen that were going for a function and the accident happened.\n\n“We do not know the cause of the accident, we do not know what happened but it’s quite very mysterious how it happened that even the wages of the sand could not stop them and the small vehicle plunged into a pit that was dug over 20 years and not closed.\n\n“It is very unfortunate and we have been fighting this issue of digging pits, harvesting lead, zinc and shippings without closing it back”.\n\n“We have been fighting with miners in Ebonyi State over this issue. The Chief of Staff is here who also doubles as the Commissioner for Solid Mineral.\n\n“We are going to identify all the pits in Ebonyi whether it was dug for lead, for zinc, for shippings or any other mineral. We have to identify who did it and then the closing of these pits must commence latest by next week Monday.”\n\nUmahi also commiserated with the families of the victims, the APC and the Nigeria Police Force over the loss.\n\nEdward Nnachi
The Guardian_27 September 2022_Kogi Assembly Shuts Down Eta Zuma Mining.txt	The Guardian	27 September 2022	2022-09-27	Kogi Assembly Shuts Down Eta Zuma Mining	/content/The Guardian_27 September 2022_Kogi Assembly Shuts Down Eta Zuma Mining.txt	Kogi Assembly shuts down Eta-Zuma mining industry\nBy Ibrahim Obansa, Lokoja\n27 September 2022\n\nDirects mining firms to register\n\nKogi State House of Assembly has directed that Eta-Zuma Mining Industry Limited be shut down immediately.\n\n\nChairman of the adhoc committee probing mining industries in the state, Umar Isah Tenimu, gave the directive, yesterday, during the continuation of a public investigative hearing on revenue collection.\n\nTenimu said the company would remain closed until it has registered with the Kogi State Ministry of Solid Minerals and paid social contribution funds, as well as other fees to the state.\n\nThe chairman also directed that all companies in the state must register with the ministry within one month, failing which they should be shut down.\n\nBefore the committee axed Eta-Zuma, the member representing Omala Constituency in the House, Hilarion Collins Musa, had suggested shutting down the company until necessary documents were made available.\n\nHe accused the company of undermining the House by giving persistent excuses about gathering documents. He claimed the company has not been straightforward since it began operation in the state in 2014.\n\nAnother lawmaker, Ahmed Dahiru (Okene II, South), said the company was trying to buy time, stressing that it was obvious it has no documents. He, therefore, seconded shutting down of the company till it is ready to comply.\n\nAlso, Ademola Destiny Bello (Mopamuro Constituency) backed the shutdown until the required documents are made available.\n\nThe clerk of the committee was directed to communicate with the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps to give teeth to the order.\n\nRecall that the House, last week, shut down the Dangote coal mining company in Ankpa and Olamaboro Councils of the state.
Punch Newspaper_05 July 2006_Foreign Firm To Fund Nigerian Mining.txt	Punch Newspaper	05 July 2006	2006-07-05	Foreign Firm To Fund Nigerian Mining	/content/Punch Newspaper_05 July 2006_Foreign Firm To Fund Nigerian Mining.txt	Foreign firm to fund Nigerian mining\nRBC Capital Market, in Edmonton, a banking house in Canada, has said it would fund the country’s solid minerals sector.\n\n"We will encourage major solid minerals, allowing a structured support for the Nigerian solid minerals sector with aligned conditions," said the Managing Director of RBC, Mr. Jonathan Ford.\n\nFord said the company was aligned to work closely with the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, Abuja.\n\nThe fund, he said, would begin with $10 million, with structured reviews for turning around the fortunes of the sector, in order to attract mining solutions to MSMD reforms.\n\nHe said the bank would align solutions to trade funds in available industrial production, ensuring support operations of miners in collaboration with other global partners.\n\nHe listed Citibank, ABN, USB, and Chase Manhattan Bank as other partnering institutions.\n\nThe Minister for Solid Minerals Development, Abuja, Chief Dele Ayanwale, said the funding solution would provide extensive financial and small-scale reform.\n\nApart from the local banks, the New York Stock Exchange had also created models to seek investors in the mining sector.\n\nFunding in the highest sector has been tagged with top players, with companies such as Zimplats in coal utilization, Kazakhlim in tin mining, and New Boliden in lead mining.\n\nRecent partnerships with the World Bank have also created mining expansion investments.\n\nFord stated that the company was focused on developing long-term solutions in the industry.\n\nThe sector is now realigning into non-traditional minerals and other sectors in general.
West African Pilot 09 December 1955 Progress In Jos Mines.txt	West African Pilot 09 December 1955 Progress In Jos Mines		NaT		/content/West African Pilot 09 December 1955 Progress In Jos Mines.txt	Progress In Jos Mines\n\nJOS, Dec. 8.- Agreement has been reached on a number of points in the resumed negotiations between the Plateau Mining Employers Association and the two unions whose 40,000 members went on 18-day strike last October, it was announced here today.\n\nBoth sides reached agreement on corn subsidies, trade tests and a measure of agreement was also reached on wages.\n\nCases of alleged victimisation of workers who joined in the strike\n
Punch Newspaper_15 March 2006_B Demand For Barites Bentonite To Rise – Ezekwesili.txt	Punch Newspaper	15 March 2006	2006-03-15	B Demand For Barites Bentonite To Rise – Ezekwesili	/content/Punch Newspaper_15 March 2006_B Demand For Barites Bentonite To Rise – Ezekwesili.txt	Demand for barites, bentonite to rise – Ezekwesili\nDEMAND for barites and bentonites will rise appreciably as a result of increased drilling activities in the oil and gas sector, the Minister for Solid Minerals Development, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, has said.\n\nBarites and bentonite are industrial minerals that are mainly used in oil drilling.\n\nCommercial deposits of barites have been discovered in Nassarawa, Plateau, Benue, Cross Rivers, Taraba, Zamfara and Gombe states.\n\nBentonitic clay occurrences, on the other hand, have been reported in Edo, Yobe, Borno, and Bauchi states.\n\nAddressing stakeholders in the barites and bentonite sub-sector on Monday in Abuja, the minister reiterated that the ban on the two mineral commodities would be sustained, promising the oil companies that in spite of the rise in demand, local production would meet up with the demand.\n\n“The miners have informed us that enough barites can be produced locally if the oil service companies can offer good price,” she added.\n\nThe minister said the forum was imperative as it offered stakeholders the opportunity to critically assess the barites and bentonite demand and supply situation in the immediate, short and medium terms.\n\nShe called on stakeholders to come up with solutions, supported by empirical evidence on how to increase local production of the minerals and narrow down importation, without threatening the drilling programme of the oil industry.\n\nShe tasked local miners to ensure availability of the minerals, stressing, “Any shortfall in the supply chain of the two mineral commodities will jeopardise the drilling programmes of the oil companies. We will ensure that does not happen.”\n\nAccording to her, factors that affected local production include importation and rejection of local bentonites and barites by oil service companies.\n\nSolid Minerals in Nigeria\nOyo State\n\nKaolin\nMarble\nTalc\nGold\nCassiterite\nAquamarine\nDolomite\nGemstone\nSource: RMRDC\n\nMetal Prices in U.S dollars\nMetals\tValue\tChange\nGold\t548.75\t2.90\nPalladium\t306.00\t7.50\nPlatinum\t1202.50\t2.00\nRhodium\t3760.00\t35.00\nSilver\t10.20\t0.06\nBase Metals\nBase Metal\tValue\nAluminium\t2391.25\nCopper\t495.50\nLead\t1195.75\nNickel\t14627.50\nZinc\t2263.25\nDate: 14/03/06\nSource: Mineweb
Nigerian Mining Com_09 June 2024_Niger Collapsed Mine Alake Condoles Victims.txt	Nigerian Mining Com	09 June 2024	2024-06-09	Niger Collapsed Mine Alake Condoles Victims	/content/Nigerian Mining Com_09 June 2024_Niger Collapsed Mine Alake Condoles Victims.txt	Niger Collapsed Mine: Alake condoles victims, vows to enforce miners insurance\nbyPress Release June 9, 2024\n\nTo enhance safety measures and relieve miners and their families in the event of accidents, Mr Alake declared that insurance policies for miners across the country will be enforced.\n\nThe Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, has reaffirmed the federal government’s commitment to enforcing insurance policy for mine workers in Nigeria.\n\nRepresenting President Bola Tinubu on a condolence visit to Niger State Governor, Umar Bago, in Minna, Mr Alake conveyed the President’s sympathies following the recent mine pit collapse in Galadima Kogo, Shiroro Local Government Area.\n\n“I bring the condolences and sympathies of Mr. President to the families of victims, those injured, the entire community, and the government and people of Niger state on the mine pit collapse. It is unfortunate and avoidable. Though we learned the disaster was due to heavy downpours, we are committed to intensifying the monitoring of mining operations to ensure conformity to environmental standards,” Alake stated.\n\nThe minister commended the state government for swiftly mobilising emergency rescue operations in collaboration with federal agencies, stressing that all efforts must be made to rescue those still trapped.\n\nTo enhance safety measures and relieve miners and their families in the event of accidents, Mr Alake declared that insurance policies for miners across the country will be enforced.\n\nThe minister also emphasised the federal government’s stance that remediation plans must accompany mining licence applications, stating that irresponsible mining operations that threaten the environment and communities will no longer be tolerated.\n\n“We must also put in place contingency plans to mitigate the impact of natural disasters on mining sites. For instance, we are making installing support pillars under shafts mandatory. This practice is common in other countries,” he added.\n\nGovernor Bago expressed gratitude to President Tinubu for the condolence visit. He emphasised the need for a concerted effort between the federal government and subnationals to ensure mining companies comply with safety standards.\n\nHe advocated the strengthening of collaborative measures to enhance periodic monitoring and evaluation of the environmental impact of mining operations to minimise the recurrence of the unfortunate incident.\n\nCiting the preponderance of commercially viable critical minerals in the state, Governor Bago appealed to the federal government to focus on making the state the pivot of developing the nation’s mining sector.\n\nGovernor Bago accompanied the minister to visit recuperating victims at IBB Specialist Hospital. On behalf of President Tinubu, he announced a donation of N50 million to assist affected patients and families.\n\n*Segun Tomori*\n\nSpecial Assistant on Media to the Honourable Minister of Solid Minerals Development.\n\n\n
Eastern Guardian_10 December 1949_Statement By His Excellency The Governor.txt	Eastern Guardian	10 December 1949	1949-12-10	Statement By His Excellency The Governor	/content/Eastern Guardian_10 December 1949_Statement By His Excellency The Governor.txt	STATEMENT BY HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR\n“ON December 1, I made a public appeal to all who have the responsibility of leadership to maintain order and thus to make it possible for the Commission of Enquiry to proceed promptly with its task. I am glad that there has been so good a response to that appeal. We now know that the enquiry is to begin at Enugu on Monday, December 12, and I have earnestly considered what steps can be taken to facilitate the Commission’s work and to enable it to hear all the evidence and to establish the facts in an atmosphere of calm.\n\nThe first step which I have decided to take with this object in view is to revoke the declaration of a state of emergency and the Emergency Regulations on Thursday, December 8, when it was anticipated that the Commission would hold its first meeting on December 7. The Chief Commissioner, Eastern Provinces, recommended that revocation of the declaration should be considered on the day following the first meeting and, after further consultation with him, I have decided to adhere to that date, although the first meeting of the Commission has subsequently been postponed. If any disorder or incitement to disorder takes place, I shall not hesitate again to take emergency powers; but I sincerely trust that that will not be necessary.\n\nI am also concerned that all interests affected should be given every facility to present evidence to the Commission and to be adequately represented and, after consultation with the Commissioner, arrangements have been made to ensure that this object is achieved.\n\nIn addition, I have considered representations made to me by the National Emergency Committee that the Committee should be given permission to arrange public meetings. The representatives of the Committee have assured me that no disorder will take place at such meetings or arise from them, and they have urged that they should be granted permission to hold a meeting in Lagos in order to explain the decision of the Committee to co-operate with the Commission and to raise funds to cover the cost of representation before the Commission. The Police are required, under the Police Ordinance, to consider each application on its merits, and the representatives of the Emergency Committee have been told that, subject to Police stipulations to assist in maintaining good order, permission for a meeting for the purposes stated will be granted.\n\n“During the past few weeks my first responsibility has been to take every possible step to prevent further disorder. In carrying out that duty I have throughout been encouraged by the support of so many Nigerians who have helped to restore the situation. I hope and believe that this same public support will now be forthcoming in the evidence which I have authorised to facilitate the presentation of evidence to the Commission.”\n\n6TH DECEMBER, 1949.\n\nJ. S. MACPHERSON,\nGOVERNOR.
Nigerian Citizen_14 August 1952_Salaries Of Coal Corporation Workers.txt	Nigerian Citizen	14 August 1952	1952-08-14	Salaries Of Coal Corporation Workers	/content/Nigerian Citizen_14 August 1952_Salaries Of Coal Corporation Workers.txt	Salaries Of Coal Corporation Workers To Be Revised\n\nIN a statement issued at Enugu on Saturday, Dr. C. Raeburn, the chairman of the Nigeria Coal Corporation, announced that salaries and wages of the Corpoгation's workers would be revised so as to accord with the new salaries and wages approved by the Government for its own workers.\n\nThe Corporation's proposals for these allowances are:\n\nUnderground Allowance. (Staff): Salaried workers will continue to receive an allowance calculated at ten per cent of salary for each day spent under-ground. Any increase in salaries will automatically mean an increase in allowance.\n\nUnderground Allowance, (Daily Rated)\n\nDaily-rated workers at present receive an underground allowance of fourpence per shift. The Corporation proposes that this should be increased to five pence halfpenny per shift.\n\nHewers Tub-rate: Hewers at present receive an allowance of five penco per tub in robbery and eight pence half-penny in development. The Corporation proposes that these rates should be increased to sixpence halfpenny in robbery and elevenpence in development. Tubemen's Tube-rate: The Management and the Corporation are very ready to give effect to any system of tub rate for tubnen which will give the most industrious worker the best reward, but they do not feel that that result is achieved by the present system\n\nThe Corporation proposes that if the Government proposals for wages re-vision are accepted by the House of Representatives, the arrangements to be made for tubmen's tub-rate should be such as will ensure to the tubmen an. average of thirty per cent increase in their remuneration from this source, provided the same amount of work is done.\n\nThe Management will discuss with the Workers' representatives whether this should be effected by a simple increase from fourpence to fivepence halfpenny in the tub-rate or by a reduction in the minimum number of tubs which earns the tub-rate.\n\nSeniority Pay: No change.\n\n"It should be understood," the statement concluded, "that the implementa-tion of all these proposals is subject to the approval by the House of Representatives of the Government's proposal for its own employees."\n
Associated Press_12 December 2024_Takeaways From Ap’S Report On Child Labor In Nigeria.txt	Associated Press	12 December 2024	2024-12-12	Takeaways From Ap’S Report On Child Labor In Nigeria	/content/Associated Press_12 December 2024_Takeaways From Ap’S Report On Child Labor In Nigeria.txt	Takeaways from AP’s report on child labor in Nigeria lithium mines\n\nBy TAIWO ADEBAYO\nUpdated 4:18 AM GMT+1, December 12, 2024\n\nNASARAWA, Nigeria (AP) — Growing demand for the lithium used in batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage has created a new frontier for mining in Nigeria.\n\nBut it’s led to exploitation of children who are often poor and take work in small, illegal mines to support themselves and their families.\n\nThe Associated Press recently traveled to the deep bush of Pasali, near the federal capital of Abuja in Nasarawa state, to follow and interview miners operating illegal mines, including some where children work. AP also witnessed negotiations and an agreement to purchase lithium by a Chinese company with no questions about the source of the lithium or how it was obtained.\n\nThe International Labour Organization estimates more than 1 million children work in mines and quarries worldwide, a problem particularly acute in Africa, where poverty, limited access to education and weak regulations add to the problem. Children, working mostly in small-scale mines, work long hours at unsafe sites, crushing or sorting rocks, carrying heavy loads of ore, and exposing themselves to toxic dust that can cause respiratory problems and asthma.\n\nHow Nigeria’s illegal mines work\nLithium mining began in Pasali a decade ago, transforming a remote and slumbering community into a bustling site for small-scale illegal mining, said Shedrack Bala, a 25-year-old who began working in the mines at age 15 and now owns his own pit. Dozens of mines now dot the area, all unlicensed.\n\nThe mining methods are primitive and dangerous. Miners use chisels and heavy hammers to break through rocks, descending several feet into dark pits. In some old but still viable mines, they crawl through narrow passages snaking between unstable mud walls before starting to dig. For new mines, the ground is blasted open with dynamite.\n\nBashir Rabiu, now 19, started in the pits as an underage worker. AP journalists watched as he wriggled around at the bottom of a pit, where miners can be at risk if dynamite explodes prematurely. They also face danger of suffocating in narrow tunnels that connect pits, or burial from wall collapse.\n\n\nRabiu hauled up raw lithium ore and passed it to six children, all younger than 10. Wearing rubber slippers and dust-stained shorts and shirts, the children hunched over rubble and chipped away with crude stone tools to extract valuable fragments.\n\nA team of six children can sort and bag up to 10 25-kilogram bags of lithium-rich rock a day. For working from early morning to late evening, the children typically share 4,000 naira (about $2.42), according to Bala and others who use them.\n\nNone of the children in the group AP saw was attending school. Only two ever had. One, a 5-year-old boy, stopped when he was orphaned. The other was a 6-year-old girl who was pulled out of school by her family, who felt they couldn’t afford to send two children to school and prioritized her 11-year-old brother.\n\nMiners say they often sell to Chinese buyers\nThe illegal mining thrives on informal networks of buyers and sellers who operate without much fear of the government. Aliyu Ibrahim, a lithium merchant in Nasarawa, owns unlicensed mines and also buys lithium ore from other illegal sites. At his warehouse, he told AP that his business flourishes by paying officials to look the other way. Ibrahim said he then sells his lithium in bulk to Chinese companies.\n\nIbrahim said he knows that children are working at his mines and others he buys from, but he said many of the children are orphans or poor. He said the work helps them survive.\n\nAP accompanied miners from Pasali illegal mines to Chinese-owned RSIN Nigeria Limited, where a sales agreement was reached without questions about the source of the minerals or the conditions under which they were extracted. Sellers were asked to leave samples to test for lithium content. A price list from the buyers offered 200,000 naira (about $119) for a metric ton of minerals containing up to 3% lithium.\n\nRSIN Nigeria Limited did not respond to repeated requests for comment. But in a statement to AP, the Chinese embassy in Abuja said Chinese mining companies in Nigeria “operate in line with local laws and regulations.”\n\n\nWhat activists and the government say\nPhilip Jakpor, a Nigerian activist, said his nonprofit Renevlyn Development Initiative has documented widespread child labor practices across Nasarawa state.\n\n“Revenue generation seems to have trumped the need to protect human rights,” Jakpor said. “We expect those operating in the upper spheres of the supply chain to adopt responsible models that prevent abusive conditions in mineral extraction.”\n\nJuliane Kippenberg, associate director of children’s rights at Human Rights Watch, said global demand for lithium is expected to grow rapidly in coming years and it’s imperative for governments to protect human rights and press corporations to do the same.\n\nSegun Tomori, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Mining and Solid Minerals Development, said ongoing reforms such as amending the Minerals and Mining Act are aimed at minimizing the use of child labor. Tomori also said social safety programs such as school feeding initiatives are being revamped to keep children in school and combat child labor. He also cited a program to add mining marshals announced this year to clamp down on illegal mining.\n\nThe Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Eastern Guardian_13 May 1950_Coal Mines Cause Whole Villages To Disappear.txt	Eastern Guardian	13 May 1950	1950-05-13	Coal Mines Cause Whole Villages To Disappear	/content/Eastern Guardian_13 May 1950_Coal Mines Cause Whole Villages To Disappear.txt	Coal Mines Cause Whole Villages To Disappear\n\nNext to prosperity which coal mines often bring to what was before unknown regions, they can at the same time be the cause of untold history. We have in mind the air which becomes polluted by milliards of particles of coal dust which penetrate into every nook and corner give the houses a uniform dismal grey colour and causes all that tries to grow in the pitiful little gardens to wither.\n\nApart from these relatively petty hardships, in some districts, the coal mines cause greater disasters. Owing to the continual burro-wing and drilling, the ground starts to work, causing all sorts of unpleasantness on the surface. Ground-water rises to the top, making houses and stables untenantable, whilst whole villages threaten to disappear in the marshy ground. All this happens where coal mines are found near rivers.\n\nThe marshy ground is moreover a breeding place for swarms of mosquitos and numerous grasshoppers. These insects cause the people a great deal of trouble and the poisonous gasses rising from the swamps complete the unhealthiness of such districts. In Northern regions, however, the mosquito danger is not as great as in the tropics, for there it is the carrier of the rightly feared malaria which brings terrible suffering to the people.\n\nBefore the Second World War the Malaria Commission of the former League of Nations made a deep study of the problem and in their report published in 1938 advised the taking as a preventive measure, a daily dose of six grains. of QUININE during the whole fever season and recommended as a safe and effective remedy when attacked by a bout of malaria, a daily dose of from fifteen to twenty grains, during a period of from five to seven days. \n
Eastern Guardian_21 November 1949_Miners And Police Clash In Enugu.txt	Eastern Guardian	21 November 1949	1949-11-21	Miners And Police Clash In Enugu	/content/Eastern Guardian_21 November 1949_Miners And Police Clash In Enugu.txt	Miners And Police Clash In Enugu\n\nA further official hand out received yesterday, Nov. 21, states that Colliery disturbances began as a result of original dispute over Hewers claims to arrears and seniority pay.\n\nGo-slow strike by miners led to limited dismissal by the management.\n\nAttempts to introduce replace-ments resulted in clash between miners and Police on November 14 Clashes between Police and women also took place on No-vember 14 and 15.\n\nOn November 18, Police were attacked by armed miners at Iva Valley and were forced to open fire in self-defence.\n\nCasualties may exceed EIGHTEEN dead so far reported On November 19, as a result of co-operation of Native Autho rity with the administration and following on interwiew between Chief Commissioner and a deputation representing Enugu Trades Unions, situation has\n\nimproved. Obweti mine is now working normally.\n\nIndications are to the effec that situation will continue to improve.\n\nEDITOR'S NOTE: In the light of this report the Editor's note on the first official version is more than confirmed.\n\nLatest unofficial sources dis close that seventeen men were shot dead, twenty-five sustained injuries and were admitted into hospital.\n\nOut of these, four are reported dead, bringing a total of those dead so far to twenty-one.\n
Wikitimes_27 January 2025_Despite Govt Ban Illegal Mining Flourish.txt	Wikitimes	27 January 2025	2025-01-27	Despite Govt Ban Illegal Mining Flourish	/content/Wikitimes_27 January 2025_Despite Govt Ban Illegal Mining Flourish.txt	Despite Govt Ban, Illegal Mining Flourish in Bauchi, Children Abandon Schools \nJanuary 27, 2025\n Babaji Usman\n\nIn Bauchi State’s mining communities, children as young as 10 abandon classrooms for mining sites. They toil alongside adults, extracting sand and breaking rocks under the scorching sun, hoping to scrape together enough for their families to survive. For these children, education is a distant dream distorted by the immediate demands of poverty. WikkiTimes’ Babaji Usman writes.\nSulaiman, 12, under a scorching sun, carries a small bucket of sand on his head, balancing it carefully as he navigates the rough ground. \nHis face stained with filth and sweat, the young miner endures long hours under the hot sands and mud at Jirr mining site about 25 kilometres from Bauchi, the State capital.\nHis hands blistered from shovelling heavy loads of sand to extract monoxide with his aspirations buried beneath the weight of his family’s economic struggles. \nLike many others, Sulaiman’s parents, unable to make ends meet, withdrew him from Nadabo Primary School, seeing mining in their community as a lifeline in their fight against poverty.\nThe children miss out on education and face the risks of accidents, health hazards, and exploitation at the sites. \nThe Rise of School-Child Miners\nFor many families in such communities, the immediate income outweighs the intangible benefits of education.\nHere, in Jirr, children as young as 10 work in sand pits, shovelling and carrying loads under the scorching sun and soggy pits in some instances.\nLike Sulaiman, Abdulrahman Musa, a 13-year-old boy, shared his daily routine with this reporter. “I used to go to school,” he said, his hands calloused from sand mining days. \n“But my father said we need money to eat, so I had to stop. Now I work here almost every day,” he added.\nFor communities like Jirr and Wandi in Dass LG of Bauchi State, the cycle of poverty deepens with many school children lost to the mines, jeopardising education which is the very foundation of their better future.\nIn GDSS Wandi, the local Upper Basic school, over half of the students did not show up in a dimly lit classroom when this reporter visited in November 2024. \n“Our classrooms are nearly empty. Parents prioritise mining because it solves some of their immediate needs, but it’s at the expense of their children’s future,” Malam Husaini, the administrative officer at the school lamented. \nAccording to the officer, the ripple effects of sand mining in schools extend beyond individual families, noting that the dwindling number of students has brought some schools, particularly in Dass to the brink of closure. \nAccording to school officials in Wandi, the school has seen attendance drop by more than 50% over the past year. \nSome classes are empty, as families pull their children out to contribute to household incomes.\nMalam Husaini identified sand mining as a leading factor contributing to student absenteeism in schools in the mining communities. \n“Very few students are attending classes now, and this trend is alarming,” Husaini said, urging the government and parents to take action to address the issue. \nHe emphasized that poverty, the root cause of the problem, must be tackled through comprehensive measures by governments at all levels.\nHusaini’s position is supported by the World Bank report that about 87 million Nigerians lived below the poverty line in 2024. \nA recent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited (PwC) said 13 million more Nigerians could be pushed below the poverty line due to some government policies in 2025. \nUNICEF report also confirmed that children from the poorest families benefit least from national education funding.\nChildren are often the first to bear the brunt of this crisis. Parents, struggling with economic hardship, often see no option but to involve their children in mining activities. \nHusaini further called for initiatives to alleviate the hardships faced by families in the region, stressing that unless the economic struggles of communities are mitigated, efforts to keep children in school will remain futile. \nOut-of-School Children in Bauchi\nAnalysis by StatiSence on a survey conducted by Nigeria’s Multidimensional Poverty Index, a private data hub in Nigeria, showed that Bauchi had about 1.37 million out-of-school children in 2022.\nIn 2023, Governor Bala Mohammed in his half-hour presentation, claimed that the number of out-of-school children had dropped to about 700,000 thousand.\nHe said, “We have so far leveraged the number of out-of-school children from 2.3 million in 2018 when I took office to merely 700,000.”\nHowever, the governor did not clarify on how they arrived at the figure, even though the new figure is still alarming.\nThe state government officials in 2024 also claimed that the state recorded a drastic reduction in the number of out-of-school children, bringing the total figure down to 521,000, though they did not provide any evidence on the ground that shows the changes.\nWomen, Girls in the Mines\nThe crisis has also drawn women into mining, compounding their already heavy burdens. \nThey combine mining labour with household responsibilities, often working long hours in hazardous conditions.\nFatima Umar, a widow in her early 40s, works alongside her teenage daughters in the mines. \n“We know it’s dangerous, but what choice do we have? If we don’t work, we don’t eat. We need the money to eat, so my son and three daughters go to the mines instead of school.” \nThis trend is widespread across several communities in the state, with economic hardship forcing families to prioritize short-term survival over long-term opportunities. \nLike their boy counterparts, the girls exchange their quest for education for mining in their efforts to survive and support their families.\nHalima Usman, a 35-year-old mother of four in Toro LG, described her ordeal after the death of her husband in a society where most of her prospective helpers were reeling in poverty themselves. “My husband passed on two years ago,” she said. \n“We have nothing. My son brings home N5,000 from the mine every week. It’s not much, but it keeps us alive.”\nIn Bayara, a community on the outskirts of Bauchi, stands a sand-processing machine. Women and children push to the point with their faces etched with fatigue after long hours spent labouring at mining pits. \nSome children, as young as 10, can be seen burdened by the weight of labour far beyond their years. \nWomen, often carrying babies strapped to their backs, work tirelessly with bags of sand in packages.\nAn investigation revealed that besides Bauchi, Toro, and Dass local governments, illegal mining is taking place in Alkaleri, Ningi, and some parts of Tafawa Balewa. \nMore prevalent in 20 different sites in Toro where tin ore, gold, columbite, and monoxide, among other minerals, are mined.\nHowever, the residents of the communities expressed concern over the influx of illegal miners from Zamfara, Niger, Kaduna and foreigners to the mining communities, hence, gradually becoming a hideout for criminals.\nBauchi Ban Illegal Mining \nIn a bid to curb illegal mining and its adverse effects, the Bauchi State Government in July 2024, banned any unauthorised mining of the resources in the state. \nHowever, the ban’s enforcement has been weak, and illegal mining flourished, with rural areas becoming hotspots for the illicit trade, and with devastating impacts on children’s education in addition to other economic, social and environmental ills. \nThe ban was aimed at preserving the state’s mineral resources and protecting communities from environmental degradation and for security reasons. \n“The ban was a good idea, but it has no impact here,” said Malam Yusuf, a father of nine in the Rimin-Zayam community in Toro. \n“The truth is there is no alternative provided. The people are hungry, how can you stop them without providing them with what to eat?”\nWith the absence of law enforcement, mining activities moved further. \nHere, a joint at Goltukurwa, a community along Bauchi-Tafawa Balewa Road serves as the hub where the mined sand is transported for processing to extract monoxide or to the local markets.\nChildren, like adults, are not spared in this labour as they work for hours to earn a living and support families. The lure of quick financial gains drew them away from schools and into mining pits.\nSecurity Challenges Linked to Mining\nOne of the most pressing consequences of illegal mining is its contribution to the growing insecurity. \nMining sites, often located in remote and poorly governed areas, serve as hubs for armed groups, including bandits and insurgents. \nThese groups exploit the lucrative nature of mining to fund their activities, purchasing weapons and sustaining operations.\nWikkiTimes reports that criminals and bandits that terrorise Ningi LGA of Bauchi State do visit some mining sites in Burra district of the State. \nThe Zamfara gold spree is a more explicit example, where competition over control of mining sites has fueled violent conflicts, leading to loss of lives, mass displacement, and destruction of livelihoods.\nIn some cases, corrupt officials and security personnel have been complicit, either turning a blind eye or actively benefiting from the illegal trade.\nRecently, Senator Adams Oshimole alleged that some retired generals in the country are among the top beneficiaries of the illegal mining business.\nEnvironmental and Economic Effects\nThe unchecked mining activities have also left a trail of environmental harm. Vast stretches of farmland have been rendered unusable, water sources contaminated, and landscapes scarred by deep pits and erosion.\n“Our lands are gone,” said Alhaji Buba, a farmer. “The soil is no longer good for cultivation, and the rivers are dirty. Even our livestock can’t drink the water.”\nThe environmental consequences further fuel the poverty cycle, pushing more families into mining as agriculture becomes less viable.\nEconomically, the informal nature of illegal mining deprives governments of substantial revenue. \nWhile these activities generate profits for individuals and criminal networks, they contribute nothing to state coffers.\nJibrin Saleh, a retired head of school services, and one of the stakeholders in Dass, said the sand mining activity has drawn many children out of classrooms. \nTo mitigate its impact, he explained, efforts are underway at the community level to implement a schedule aimed at balancing education and mining activities.\n“We are trying to create a system where students in upper basic schools can engage in mining in the morning and attend school in the afternoon. Similarly, pupils in primary schools would mine in the afternoon after returning from their morning classes,” Saleh said.\nExperts’ Perspectives\nExperts believe that addressing the illegal mining crisis requires a multi-pronged approach. \nDr. Rabi’u Barau, a sociologist at Bauchi State University, argues that education and livelihood programs must go hand-in-hand with enforcement measures.\n“You cannot just ban mining without providing alternatives. These families need sustainable ways to earn a living. Combining mining with education can work,” he added.\nHe added that community engagement is also critical. “Traditional leaders, often influential in rural settings, can play a key role in advocating for education and discouraging child labour. \nAccording to Dr Rabiu, the government’s efforts to address illegal mining are also undermined by a deep-seated mistrust between the authorities and the people. \nAgency Speaks\nIn response to children abandoning classes, the Bauchi State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) said it has intensified efforts to combat the menace through community engagement and collaboration with traditional leaders. \nAbdullahi Mohammed, the SUBEB spokesman outlined ongoing strategies to address the out-of-school children crisis.\n“We are actively working to address it. We have initiated a campaign in collaboration with community stakeholders to tackle this pressing issue in particular and the general issue of out-of-school children which is a nationwide challenge.”\nHe further explained that the agency is leveraging traditional leadership to amplify its efforts. \n“At the end of last year (2024), our Chairman met with the Emirs, who pledged their support and assured us they would cascade the campaign down to their subordinates. This partnership is vital in ensuring the message reaches every corner of the state,” the spokesman added.\nMinistry Clarifies \nSale Umar, the information officer for the Bauchi State Ministry of Natural Resources, clarified that the government’s intention was not to impose an outright ban on mining activities. \nInstead, he explained, the focus is on formalizing and regulating the operations of local artisanal miners to ensure better oversight and organization.\n“The government aims to make mining activities official and structured. Local artisans need to be identified and supported to transform their work into formal businesses,” the officer told WikkiTimes. \nHe revealed that the state had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a Chinese firm to aid in the formalization process. This initiative, he said, is designed to streamline operations, ensure security, and enable the government to monitor activities effectively.\nHe added that the ministry is also encouraging artisan miners to form associations, which would allow them access to mentorship from technical officers and support from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. \nThe associations, according to the officer, would link miners to entrepreneurship programmes that align with federal initiatives. \nHe, however, emphasized that mining activities fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government, which complicates the state’s ability to enforce policies independently. \nWhile the state government said it is working toward formalization, the continued involvement of school-aged children in mining remains a pressing concern, emphasizing the need to prioritize education and protect minors from exploitation.\n\n
Eastern Guardian_04 July 1950_Women S Corner.txt	Eastern Guardian	04 July 1950	1950-07-04	Women S Corner	/content/Eastern Guardian_04 July 1950_Women S Corner.txt	WOMEN'S CORNER\n\nBy MISS LOVE\n\nThe Story Of The Iva Valley\n\nToday has been declared a day of mourning by the leaders of our dear country. \nA National Day of Mourning must sound strange to so many of you.\nBut listen and follow the reason why.\n\nNOVEMBER 1949\n\nOn November 18, 1949, at Enugu, some twenty-one mininers died in the coal pits of the Enugu Coal Mines.\n\nThat place is called Iva Valley. These men were not sick but they were shot dead by police men under the command of one Mr Philips because the workers staged a strike against small pay. The workers did not fight the police people.\n\nThey only refused to work and as you know, strike is a common thing all over the world.\n\nMR PYKE NOTT\n\nBut because we are under a government which is not ours, the order was given to remove some explosives in the mines at all costs.\n\nThe man who gave that order is one Mr Pyke-Nott.\n\nHe is the Chief Commissioner, Eastern Provinces, and stays at Enugu.\n\nPOLICE OFFICER\n\nIn obeying this order of the Chief Commissioner, the police officer asked his men to fire and\n\nthere fell twenty-one men dead. The whole world was shocked.\n\nAfter this mess, they appoint-ed four persons to find out the troubles.\n\nThis people have given their report and had said that the miners were killed without the necessity for doing so.\nIn other words, they died for nothing.\n\nTHE TRUTH\n\nNow you may not quite follow me.\n\nBut the truth is this:\n\nThe miners asked for increment which they deserved.\n\nThe European in charge would not give them and they struk.\n\nBecause of this, they died.\n\nThey died while trying to get more money to feed you, to school you and to make you live happy life like your European and other colleagues. \n\nAT 11 O'CLOCK\n\nI cannot tell you the whole story but if you ask your father or your senior brother he will.\n\nHistory shall tell you.\n\nWhat you are required to do is to pray at 11 o'clock today wherever you are for the dead miners.\n\nPray also to God to deliver us from bondage that we may be free and live our lives without anybody disturbing us.\n\nDo not fight any white man but rather pray and work for our freedom.\n\nToday is a sad day. Don't write love letters!\n\n
Punch Newspaper_04 October 2007_Waivers And Nigeria’S Barite Industry.txt	Punch Newspaper	04 October 2007	2007-10-04	Waivers And Nigeria’S Barite Industry	/content/Punch Newspaper_04 October 2007_Waivers And Nigeria’S Barite Industry.txt	Waivers and Nigeria’s barite industry\nOperators in the mining sector predict a rosier future following the recent suspension of import duty waivers by the Federal Government,\nUDEME EKWERE reports.\n\nWith the recent suspension of waivers for mineral imports in the country, the signs seem rife for a new dawn in the mining industry.\n\n“There is relief in the barite mining industry now which many of us had anticipated,” said Mr. Alex Alao, who heads the Service Affairs unit of Nigeria Miners Association, last week in Ibadan.\n\nBarite is an important element used in the oil and gas industry. It is used mainly to prevent blowouts in the drilling of oil wells as well as stabilizing the walls of the wells, making it a crucial raw material for the industry.\n\nLarge and viable quantities of barite have been identified in Nigeria, and the Barites Fields cover extensive areas in Adamawa, Benue, Cross River, Nasarawa, Plateau, and Taraba States.\n\nBarite can thus supply more than the thousands of tons that are currently being imported into the country annually. With over 10 million metric tons of barite available in Nigeria, importation of the mineral has only been necessary because of a lack of facilities to process raw barite into the required industrial standard.\n\nEstimates from the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development indicate that Nigeria is spending over $47 million a year on the importation of barite from countries such as China, France, Britain, and the United States of America.\n\nAccording to Alao, the industry is one that has great potential, but its profitability has not been fully harnessed.\n\n“The challenges that have been facing the industry all had to do with the same thing. The amount of barite reserves in our country, Nigeria, will impact the economy more by being controlled by women stakeholders in the industry. Information has been gathered in the last two years that because the segment was never granted to government, however it seems it is now a new hope for the industry.”\n\nAlao also said that the Federal Government needed to be more deliberate on the ease of doing business in the sector, and that the government will enforce the ban on the importation of certain raw materials to boost local production.\n\nThe major challenge in the barite industry, he said, was the lack of what is called "proper industrial backing and funding for major projects."\n\nSpeaking on this, Alao noted that funding was a key issue.\n\n“In this regard, things need to be made right in such a way that miners can have access to low-interest loans to help them develop the sector, which is a key area of concern for those in the oil industry who have to buy directly from the mines.”\n\nHe said if the market is made accessible, the industry will come out the better for it.\n\nA second issue of great concern to some miners is the issue of funding. They have said constantly that serious cash shortage exists in the industry and that it is not something that could be hidden from the common truthfulness of minerals.\n\n“The mining industry is suffering because of the policies. Because of the legislative period that is needed. The oil banks, for the first time in history, are closer to the mining industry,” he added.\n\nCommenting on the issue, Jonas Atten of Sclindo Industries, noted that reaching out was beyond the claims made by the oil companies that find barite as an indispensable commodity in oil drilling operations.\n\nAccording to him, commercial banking is not in the interest of miners in the industry.\n\n“We need to have the government sit with the oil and gas involved in the mining, to make way for new standards.”\n\nGovernment, he relates, needs to relax the conditions, create an environment suitable for miners, and use state powers wisely to empower miners.\n\n“The truth is that advances and growth are pushing beyond the old means of industrial power. The goal is that in a few years, the process will be fully industrialized in the entire mining sector."\n\nCommenting on the future of barite mining in the country, Alao urged the government to look seriously into the issue of funding.\n\nAlao suggests that government’s authority for the industry, like they have done in the agriculture and industrial sectors, "they need to also bring into the industry and that is really what we need to push the mining industry to the next level.”\n\nHe maintained that if loans should be made available to the industry, the barite industry in Nigeria has a definite and bright prospect.\n\n“Funding in barite is difficult because there has not been a push. The industry is that delicate,” he asserted.\n\nAlao insists that a central objective is essential to make development of the sector work for proper industrial mining.\n\nThe industry could be poised to add real economic value if supported by the government. Government’s involvement could strengthen the solid mineral industry’s existence and economic sustainability,” he concluded.
Eastern Guardian_04 September 1950_Mines Research Body Explores Lead.txt	Eastern Guardian	04 September 1950	1950-09-04	Mines Research Body Explores Lead	/content/Eastern Guardian_04 September 1950_Mines Research Body Explores Lead.txt	Mines Research Body Explores Lead & Zinc Content Of Ogoja\n\nABAKALIKI. Before His Excellency the Governor con-cluded his tour of this province, he and party visited the scenes of operations of the Mines Deve lopment Syndicate, twelve miles from Abakaliki, on their way to Afikpo.\n\nThe Governor was presented with a block of natural crystal of lead sulphide by Mr M. Brown, the local head of the syndicate.\n\nLater, he saw various types of rocks found in the area and was shown how a diamond driller works.\n\nThe drillers were seen at work and the Governor spoke to most of the men.\n\nThe syndicate is at present only concerned with exploration, prospecting and development, particularly drilling to determine the occurrence of lead and zinc, the main minerals sought.\n\nDrilling which is an extremely expensive operation has already reached 500 feet below the surface. \n\nNo lead or zinc has as yet been recovered on a commercial basis.\n\nThe work of the syndicate, an amalgamation of a number of British minig companies, began here three years ago, but local unrecorded history says that lead was mined in the area by the Portuguese two of hree centuries ago.\n\nThe Governor visited the scene of these old workings.\n
Wikitimes_28 August 2023_Chinese Nationals Nigerian Arraigned For.txt	Wikitimes	28 August 2023	2023-08-28	Chinese Nationals Nigerian Arraigned For	/content/Wikitimes_28 August 2023_Chinese Nationals Nigerian Arraigned For.txt	Chinese Nationals, Nigerian Arraigned for Deforestation in Taraba\nAugust 28, 2023\n\nYawale Adamu\n\nTwo Chinese Nationals and a Nigerian have been arraigned for engaging in deforestation and illegal mining in Garbabi area of Gashaka local council, Taraba State.\n\nThey were arrested by the Taraba State Task Force on illegal mining and deforestation activities.\n\nThe suspects alongside one Nigerian were arraigned before a Magistrate Court in Jalingo, the state capital for violating Executive Order no.5 of 2023 of the state government which temporary prohibit all illegal mining and deforestation activities throughout the state.\n\nOne of the suspects, Olatunde Nathaniel, a Nigerian, said contrary to claims by the taskforce, they were carrying out their activities legally with a registered company paying taxes to some ministries in the state.\n\n“When the taskforce came, they met me together with them and they asked me what role I played in the factory and I told them I’m the factory manager, they said I have to go with them,” he told the court.\n\nNathaniel added that they have been operating for a long time “and are duely registered. We started since 2017 with the construction of the factory and we start real work in 2018.”\n\nTheir trials, WikkiTimes learnt was stalled due to absence of interpreter as the Chinese nationals do not understand English language hence the court adjourned to September 4 and ordered for provision of interpreter.\n\nNeirus Johnson, the sate counsel said he has no objections to the court order, saying this would pave way for fair hearing and trial of the accused.\n\n“We had a road block, we couldn’t proceed, the Chinese nationals do not understand the language of the court which is English language. And because of issues of interpretation are issues that got to the root of the matter, fair trial and hearing,” he said.\n\n“The prosecution was compelled to seek for an adjustment so as to enable the court get the attendance of an interpreter that will interprete to the defendants what is going on in the court so as to enable them have a fair hearing,” Johnson added.\n\nOn his his part, Bakari Ibrahim counsel to the defendants said presence of competent interpreter would avail justice to his clients.\n\nThe Taraba mobile court on deforestation and illegal mining activities had arrested over 3,500 illegal miners, prosecuted 49 persons for engaging in deforestation and over 32 others for illegal mining.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The Guardian_29 July 2020_Stakeholders Appraise Federal Government’S.txt	The Guardian	29 July 2020	2020-07-29	Stakeholders Appraise Federal Government’S	/content/The Guardian_29 July 2020_Stakeholders Appraise Federal Government’S.txt	Stakeholders appraise Federal Government’s mining initiative\nBy Kehinde Olatunji\n29 July 2020 \nOpinions are divided about the intention behind the Federal Government’s decision to standardise artisanal and small-scale gold mining in the North, as well as in Osun State, with the majority tilting to the government ceding resource control of gold to the states.\n \nThe Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development Initiative (PAGMI), is designed to ensure safer and more efficient mining and processing technologies across artisanal mining locations across Nigeria, starting with Kebbi and Osun as the pilot states with intervention in Kaduna, Zamfara, and Niger states to commence immediately after.\n \nUsing a Centralized Offtake and Supply System, supported by a Decentralized Aggregation and Production Network, PAGMI will buy all the gold produced by artisanal and small-scale miners and aggregated by licensed buying centres and aggregators for supply to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).\n\n \nBut stakeholders are concerned that the President may have succeeded in granting states in Northern Nigeria, including his home state of Katsina, as well as Zamfara, and Kaduna Osun resource ownership, while deftly neglecting to alter the extractive laws in the Niger-Delta where oil is exploited.\n \nBut others say the initiative has nothing to do with geopolitical zones, except for those with proven gold reserves.\nSpecifically, General Secretary, Nigerian Mining and Geoscience Society (NMGS), Dr. Akinade Olatunji, noted that gold occurrences in Nigeria is confined within defined geologic units, and has nothing to do with politics or geopolitical issues.\n \nHe added that PAGMI initiative would make gold mining orderly, as only the Government will buy whatever the registered artisanal miners produce.\n\n \nHe said: “All the issues of illegal mining will become reduced if not eradicated. The issue of smuggling the mined gold to Dubai and other countries will also reduce since the gold is being bought at the international market price. It will also help to strengthen our reserves, as we are acquiring gold assets in Naira and not with Dollars.”\n \nAbdulqaadir Gbadamosi of the Department of Geology, University of Ibadan noted that states that have gold reserves that are economically mineable are majorly in Northcentral Nigeria.\n \n“The only state outside this region is Osun, and alongside Kebbi, they are the two states that will serve as the pilot. It won’t make much sense if Oyo state is included and at the end of the day, Oyo doesn’t produce a single bar of gold.”\n \nHe added that while exploring for gold could be carried out anywhere, the smart thing to do is look for gold in places that already have proven reserves.\n \n“Now, we cannot start digging oil wells in the south-western part of Nigeria especially in states like Osun, Oyo and Ekiti, expecting to get hydrocarbons. It won’t happen. It is the same with gold. The Northern states that have gold and Osun will benefit from this initiative, while other regions and states will benefit from other initiatives when they are being set up.”\n \nFor PAGMI to be successful, Gbadamosi said there is a need, “To regulate the activities of some foreigners, who are working with the local miners, we have to make our mining industries more attractive to the people thus, creating jobs directly and indirectly. The need to provide an enabling environment for the artisanal miners and a level playing field for all stakeholders is important as well.\n \n“The government also needs to have an arrangement with the host communities, the local chiefs and the community heads that will ensure that their environmental rights and considerations are not trampled upon as dictated by the Nigerian Mining Act of 2007, and where necessary, their royalties would be taken care of. This move will prevent banditry and other forms of stealing and sabotage that impede proper mining activities.”\n \nHe added that there was a need for the government to make provisions for standard melting centres that will buy from the artisans at international market prices, to prevent them from selling their produce to foreigners who could beat the prices the government is offering.\n\nGbadamosi argued that “If the government cannot match the international prices, then they should at least buy at rates higher than the established local rates. Furthermore, we need to make sure a database for those involved with mining our resources, either foreigners or locals, is properly scrutinized and every mining activity going on in the country. A cue could be taken from the way forest guards ensure they try their best to prevent lumbering activities. This should be done by the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency, and The Nigerian Ministry of Mines and Steel Development.”\n\n“Of course, trading with recognized markets like the London Bullion Market Association for gold is paramount. Although oil can be subsidized, gold does not enjoy the same luxury, and it cannot be regulated either, it can only be deregulated at best. Gold must remain exposed to the world market forces and any attempt to limit that by the government will destroy what she is trying to achieve through the PAGDMI.”\n \nSpeaking on addressing the funding gaps in the sector, Gbadamosi said: “The Government can also stand as surety for capital loans in form of working equipment and materials that will enhance mining operations, and in turn and use part of the proceeds to offset the loans they took. This will give the government moral authority as sponsors to access materials even at local rates; otherwise, foreign scavengers with a lot of capital to burn will always have the advantage. In\nthe end, there is really no regulation that can stop miners from being patronised.”\n \nAlso, in a chat with The Guardian, a former President, Miners Association of Nigeria, Sani Shehu, urged the government to give the Artisanal and Small Scale Miners (ASM) formal and informal training on how to mine right, taking into consideration health, safety and environmental issues.\n\n \n“Empower the Artisanal and Small Scale Miners to acquire basic equipment and technology to be able to maximize their output. Also, the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA) should make data generated accessible, and continue to organize the weekly minerals clinics for the benefit of the operators, especially ASM. NGSA should guide ASM on good gold deposits. Where such deposits fall within a tenement, the Ministry should liaise for a marginal operation arrangement.\n \n“The Federal Government should protect ASM from exploitative companies, who might quickly take advantage of these initiatives and exploit the miners and the Government. The PAGMDI should be autonomous; its operations should be transparent and guide how refineries and other gold dealers should operate in terms of pricing, advancing and payments.\n \nNational President, the Miners Association of Nigeria (MAN), Kabiru Mohammed, urged that miners should be encouraged with funding, like the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme in agriculture, while equipment acquisition and leasing should be seriously encouraged by the government and capacity building.\n \nHe said: “Building the refineries without the enabling environment for maximum production by miners will mean nothing. It’s only when the miners produce maximally that the refineries will have enough to refine and process. So, we, the miners need a lot of attention and collaboration with the government to satisfy our needs, and help us out of our incapacitation.”
Punch Newspaper_14 February 2006_Investors To Besiege Nigeria’S Solid Minerals Sector.txt	Punch Newspaper	14 February 2006	2006-02-14	Investors To Besiege Nigeria’S Solid Minerals Sector	/content/Punch Newspaper_14 February 2006_Investors To Besiege Nigeria’S Solid Minerals Sector.txt	Investors to besiege Nigeria’s solid minerals sector\nBy Atser Godwin\n\nNigeria’s solid minerals sector is on the way back to "playing its strategic role in the development of the Nigerian economy as foreign investors have indicated strong interest in the sector.\n\nIt is expected that the sector will create thousands of jobs in the country, alleviate poverty and contribute significantly to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).\nIt is expected that the sector will create thousands of jobs in the country, alleviate poverty and contribute significantly to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).\n\nMining analysts said with companies such as AngloGold Ashanti Limited, BHP Billiton and Northern Financial Advisors showing significant interest in the project, exploration and expertise in solid minerals extraction in the country, it was certain that the sector would regain its lost glory.\n\nOther international companies who have entered into Nigeria’s mining sector during the 2006 Indaba Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, include Barclays Capital, JP Morgan, Rio Narcea Gold Mines Limited, and Global Fields Limited.\n\nThe global rise in the prices of commodities and crude increases demand from China, positioning of exploration applications and feasibility studies on a high note.\n\nGold deposits in Nigeria have continued to attract investors as positions soared to higher levels in 25 years as January has peaked at $567 an ounce.\n\nThe precious metal has maintained its firm position at about the $550 level and industry analysts believe it may be higher as the book of international competition about oil prices.\n\nCompanies such as BHP, AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields, Rio Narcea Gold Mines and others, indicated interest in gold mining in Nigeria with the promise to send a delegation to Nigeria in a few weeks’ time.\n\nChina’s Industrialisation has sparked interest in Nigeria’s iron ore and coal deposits as Northern Financial Advisors and BHP Billiton bid to visit the Nigeria solid minerals sector with the purpose to explore the potential of the mines.\n\nChairman, BHP Billiton, Mr. Vincent Mthali, told our correspondent that the huge widespread of boom for the exploration of solid minerals on the African continent.\n\n“Africa is a period of boom for many of the minerals in different regions of the world. In mineral trading, value has increased and solid deposits in Nigeria is the new word to be heard of, and we would want to be one of the prominent companies that would want to explore the major deposits in the country,” Mr. Mthali told our correspondent after the closing ceremony of the Ministry of Solid Mineral Development.”\n\nApart from bullish sentiments and high prices for the attributes of mining, the Minister for Solid Minerals Development, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, said the Ministry’s new mineral legislation was the best in firm condition as it competes favourably with other min-"\n\nSome major mineral deposits in Nigeria\n\nGold\nCoal\nBitumen\nTantalum\nIron Ore\n\n“Some provisions in our legislation that stand us out include 100 per cent ownership structure by investors and repatriation of\nprofits,” she stated. She expressed optimism that an avalanche of investment was under way in the sector bearing in mind that the country has a favourable economic environment.\n\nSpecifically, she said apart from the newly improved legisla-\ntion that has under way, the Bi-non Flats Club recognition that\nNigeria was an international environment that the country’s\nenvironment was among the most acclaimed in the world.\n\nShe noted that though the Paris Club of creditor nations,\nwith flexible burden reduction in the external arena, would cre-\nate another strong economic movement that would ensure\nthat investors have better returns on their investments.\n\nEzekwesili’s presentation of the next phase of the nation’s eco-\nnomic models adapted the international investment atmosphere\ndaily when she spoke on the country’s war on corruption.\n\nSenior Partner, Northern Financial Advisory, Mr. Marc Stutz, who independently indicated his interest to participate in the privatisation of the Nigerian Coal Corporation said, Mining legislation is among the most investor-friendly.\n\n Blue bond issuance by Fitch $1 billion expected from the Paris Club. Privatisation of the coal corporation would make the sector vibrant, but we may not be able to bother too much about it.\n\nHe, however, said the company would be coming to in-\nvest on coalfields in the country in a few months’ time. The company’s investment will follow after it has to sent a delegation to Nigeria to verify the coal deposits.\n\nApart from coal and gold, investors are now interested in tumbor, iron. Four uranium and other 29 minerals are listed and\nscattered in over 900 locations in Africa.\n\nAfrica controls 30 per cent of natural resources deposits in the\nworld and the Character of the Solid Minerals Sector. Mrs. Mt. Leman Zeum, said that 2006 is Africa’s year of boom, as solid\nminerals would drive the continent’s economy.\n\nHe said more than exploration and exploitation would be carried\nout in different parts of the continent.\n\nIf this is fraud, industry watchers are of the opinion that certainly, Nigeria will partake in the boom.\n\n
Nigerian Citizens_09 July 1953_Nigeria S Coal Output Drops.txt	Nigerian Citizens	09 July 1953	1953-07-09	Nigeria S Coal Output Drops	/content/Nigerian Citizens_09 July 1953_Nigeria S Coal Output Drops.txt	NIGERIA'S COAL OUTPUT DROPS\n\nMORE than 12,000,000 tons of coal been dug from the Enugu coal mines since 1916, and the output for the year 1951-52 was 566,393 tons. This shows a decrease of more than 17,000 tons on the previous year's output, states the 1951-52 annual report of the Nigerian Coal Corporation just issued. Of the total annual output, the report says, 537,047 tons were taken over by the Nigerian Railway, 26,425 tons were supplied for the Niger-Benue river fleet and were transported by road to Onitsha, and 2,921 tons went for domestic use in Enugu.\n\nThe Corporation operates three mines at Obwetti, Iva and Hayes, situated near Enugu. The last one was opened in November, 1951, and is now being exploited from eight adits.\n\nProspecting for new coal is also being undertaken at Oturkpo and Enugu, where drilling has already proved a field of approximately 20,000,000 tons of coal.\n
Premium Times_5 June 2024_Seven Rescued As 50 Feared Trapped In.txt	Premium Times	5 June 2024	2024-06-05	Seven Rescued As 50 Feared Trapped In	/content/Premium Times_5 June 2024_Seven Rescued As 50 Feared Trapped In.txt	Seven rescued as 50 feared trapped in collapsed Niger mining pit\n\nEmergency management official says banditry was hampering rescue operations in the area of the accident.\nbyMaimuna Raji EgigogoandAgency Report \n\nThe federal government has rescued seven persons at a collapsed mining site in Galadima Kogo, in Shiroro Local Government Area (LGA) of Niger State.\n\nThe Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, said this in a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Media, Segun Tomori, on Tuesday in Abuja.\n\nHe said that first responders had already been deployed to the scene of the incident, adding that the rescue mission was in collaboration with the mining company.\n\nThe News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 30 people were said to be trapped in the pit at a mining site operated by African Minerals and Logistics Ltd.\n\nHowever, other sources said at least 50 workers are trapped underground at the pit.\n\nThe Chief Security Officer (CSO) of the mining company, Ibrahim Ishaku, was among those who were trapped in the collapsed pit.\n\nMr Ishaku was feared dead, according to Yakubu Garba, Desk Officer for Mining in Shiroro LGA, who was at the scene of the incident on Monday.\n\nMany locals told this newspaper that the deceased doubled as site manager of the company, but the desk officer disputed this claim, reiterating that he was the CSO, “although he had a lot of influence in the runnings of the company.”\n\nIt was further gathered that while manual rescue operation was ongoing, another portion of the mining pit caved in, forcing the rescuers to abandon the rescue operation and run for their lives.\n\nAbdullahi Arah, the director-general of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA), said the collapse was caused by a downpour which softened the soil.\n\nThe minister said the swift rescue action was a demonstration of the commitment of the government to mitigate the adverse impact of the incident and rescue those still trapped in the rubble.\n\n“Upon learning of the incident, we mobilised our Federal Mines Officer (FMO) and officials of the Mines Inspectorate to the site.\n\n“In collaboration with the mining company, we have rescued seven victims, some with injuries. Rescue operations with excavators are ongoing to ensure we avert loss of lives,” he said.\n\nAccording to the statement, the minister recently announced a policy on the mandatory arrangements of remedial measures for mining pits as part of the criteria for applying for mining licences.\n\nThe move was aimed at minimising incidents such as the collapse of the mining site in Niger.\n\nIt said the minister was actively monitoring the situation at the mining site\n\nHe assured Nigerians of the Federal Government’s resolve to investigate the remote causes of the disaster to prevent a recurrence.\n\nIn an earlier statement in Minna on Tuesday, the public relations officer of the state emergency management agency, Hussaini Ibrahim, said, “due to the unacceptable nature of that environment as a result of banditry, the information of the incident is very scanty, including rescue operations”.\n\nMr Ibrahim, however, disclosed that excavators had been deployed to the scene for the rescue operations.\n\nHe also said bandits attacked two areas in the state on Sunday night.\n\nHe said the bandits kidnapped six persons in Adogo Mallam village in Mashegun Local Government Area and at least 20 people in Tunga Kawo village in Erena ward of Shiroro Local Government Area, where he said hundreds of cows were also rustled.\n\n\n\n
West African Pilot_17 August 1942_Compulsory National Service Is Introduced.txt	West African Pilot	17 August 1942	1942-08-17	Compulsory National Service Is Introduced	/content/West African Pilot_17 August 1942_Compulsory National Service Is Introduced.txt	Compulsory National Service Is Introduced In Tin Mines\n\nA further regulation, made by His Excellency the Governor, under the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act, 1939, provides for the selection and registration of individuals for compulsory civil service in essential mining industries in the Northern Provinces.\n\nAccording to these regulations, known as Nigeria Defence (Compulsory National Service) (Essential Mines, Northern Provinces) (No. 2) Regulations, 1942, the Governor may appoint a person to be in charge of the administrative Director of Mineral Production.\n\nAny Native Authority may, when so directed by the Chief Commissioner, select such number of per sons as may be required from time to time by the Administrative Director for service in such essential mine as the Director may nominate.\n\nThe selection shall be from male British subjects and British protected persons between 18 and 45 years of age and of African descent and be subject to the approval of the Resident of the Province.\n\nNo school teacher, pupil or official shall be selected and not more than 25 per cent of such persons shall be selected from any one community and be absent from their community at any one time.\n\nThe Administrative Director may if and when he thinks fit, by order, regulate such service generally and in particular as to the length thereof and with regard to any circumstances which might seem to him to be necessary to ensure the well-being of the persons so selected.\n\nAny person selected may, within seven days thereof, appeal against such selection to the District Officer in charge of the Division whose decision shall be final and conclusive.\n\nAny such orders shall, as far as possible, conform to Article 11 to Article 18 of the Convention concerning Forced Labour adopted by the International Labour Conference at Geneva and in particular shall ensure one day a week rest and the task performed by any person shall not exceed that ordinarily performed by voluntary labour.\n\nAny person who refuses to proceed for service when selected or to work the period ordered shall be guilty of an offence, the penalty of which is one pound fine or 14 days' imprisonment.\n\nAny employer who fails to carry out the provisions of the regulation relating to the well-being and care of persons selected for service shall be guilty of an offence the penalty of which is £100 fine or six months imprisonment or both.\n\nNotwithstanding anything in the Labour Ordinance, 1929, or in any other Ordinance contained, the Ad-ministrative Director may fix the rate of wages to be paid and fix the method of payment of wages in respect of labourers employed in the mining industry or in respect of any class of such persons.\n
Punch Newspaper_01 February 2006_Experts Proffer Recipe For Sustainable Mining.txt	Punch Newspaper	01 February 2006	2006-02-01	Experts Proffer Recipe For Sustainable Mining	/content/Punch Newspaper_01 February 2006_Experts Proffer Recipe For Sustainable Mining.txt	Experts proffer recipe for sustainable mining\nAbasi Gbone\n\nThe quest for sustainable mining was brought to the fore again through the three-day workshop on how sustainable mining can be incorporated into national mining laws, which brought together experts and stakeholders in the mining industry.\n\nThe event, which was held at the Barcelona Hotel in Abuja, was organized by the Developing Energy and Mining Programme in Emerging Markets, the Department of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, City University, London, and corporate consultancy think tanks on transparency, development, and management.\n\nAt the backdrop of promoting sustainable mining, the workshop participants emphasized the challenges of balancing community needs, government policies, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the mining sector.\n\nCSR, which involves obligations of the mining companies to host communities, has gained momentum in global operations, but the implementation of CSR in the developing world remains weak.\n\nFor the host that has limitations in technology, knowledge, or balance, there is also a weaker will to incorporate sustainable practices into mining regulations.\n\nHowever, the workshop highlighted that CSR should go beyond the usual donations of funds, human resources, and infrastructure; rather, it should be incorporated as a fundamental policy that directs and regulates mining projects in host communities.\n\nDr. James Wentworth-Nash, Prof. Ramon Madrid of the University of Madrid, Spain, said though CSR was difficult to enforce, it could help to align local and corporate interests.\n\nAccording to him, CSR could become a major factor in encouraging compliance with mining laws and reducing environmental degradation.\n\nIn Nigeria, Prof. Robert Banfield noted that enforcement of legal regulations was a step in the right direction, but the reality of mining developments in communities still required an improved monitoring system.\n\nHe emphasized that failure to address the history of land exploitation and displacement could lead to further community unrest.\n\nThe panel discussions concluded that sustainable mining should be hinged upon the principle of political accountability of both host governments and mining corporations.\n\nFears push gold higher\n\nGold prices rose in Asia on fears of an increase in global uncertainty, pushing investors towards the safe haven of bullion.\n\nThe increase was further influenced by concerns about monetary policy tightening in the United States and inflationary pressures.\n\nTraders in the Asian markets reacted to the uncertainty by increasing demand for gold, leading to an increase in prices by over 2% to $870.85 per ounce.\n\nAccording to analysts, the highest rise in gold demand was recorded in China, India, and the Middle East.\n\nA report from the Solid Minerals Ministry in Nigeria revealed that local demand for gold was also on the rise, as investors sought to hedge against currency fluctuations.\n\nEconomic analysts predict that if current trends persist, gold prices may hit a record high within the next few months.
Vanguard Newspaper_04 April 2007_Fg Approves N2 Billion For Reclamation Of 25 Mining Sites – Borodo.txt	Vanguard Newspaper	04 April 2007	2007-04-04	Fg Approves N2 Billion For Reclamation Of 25 Mining Sites – Borodo	/content/Vanguard Newspaper_04 April 2007_Fg Approves N2 Billion For Reclamation Of 25 Mining Sites – Borodo.txt	FG approves N2 billion for reclamation of 25 mining sites – Borodo\nBy Luka Binniyat\n\nABUJA – The Minister of Solid Minerals, Mr. Bala Burodo, yesterday, said that the Federal Government has approved a sum of N2 billion for the reclamation of 25 mining sites in Nigeria that had been degraded over the years.\n\nThe Federal Government will also spend N300 million for the reclamation of two sites in each of the six geo-political zones, with a total cost of N1.8 billion.\n\nThis is even as the minister announced the passage of the new Minerals and Mining Act by the Senate, which had already been passed into law by the House of Representatives on July 20, 2006.\n\nSpeaking to the Press in Abuja, Mr. Borodo said that the passage of the new bill was a product tailored in line with the President’s Economic Reforms Agenda, which, he noted, was drawn from the World Bank Assisted Sustainable Management of Mineral Resources Project (SMMRP).\n\nThe Director of Mines Environmental Compliance, Mr. Henry Eku, said that the funds were sourced from the Natural Resources Fund domiciled in the Central Bank, and will strictly be utilized for the reclamation of the selected sites.\n\nHe said that the reclamation of the sites was necessary to mitigate the environmental impact caused by years of mining activities in the affected areas.\n\n“The essence of this is to reduce health risks and economic dislocations, while at the same time enhancing the socio-economic potentials of the sites,” he said.\n\nHe added that such an approach would encourage investors to take up these sites and put them to good use, which in turn would provide employment and other economic benefits to the country.\n\nHe further said that the reclamation project, which had been in the pipeline for over five years, was now being fully implemented as part of government’s drive to improve environmental safety in mining communities.\n\nHe disclosed that the ministry had already identified these sites in various parts of the country, including Ilesha, Minna, Jos, and Quarrying Areas in Federal Capital Territory (FCT).\n\nThe Director said that some of the worst-hit areas had already been earmarked for urgent reclamation, and work would commence immediately on these sites, as funds for the project had already been disbursed to the department.\n\nShe said that the major aim of the project was to improve the quality of the reclaimed sites, especially in environmental sustainability, and to provide an opportunity for investors to tap into the potential of these areas.\n\nHe also disclosed that the Federal Government was working in close partnership with the World Bank, the Federal Ministry of Environment, and the Ministry of Water Resources to ensure that the reclamation process was done in line with international best practices.\n\nIn confirming the development, Mr. Eku further listed the mining sites in Ebonyi, Kogi, and Nasarawa as some of the areas that had been identified for urgent reclamation.\n\nHe also said that the Federal Government had allocated funds for the training of 500 artisanal miners, who would be integrated into the formal mining sector in Plateau.\n\n
Eastern Guardian_03 January 1949_European Miner & Ikeduru People Go Into Fracas.txt	Eastern Guardian	03 January 1949	1949-01-03	European Miner & Ikeduru People Go Into Fracas	/content/Eastern Guardian_03 January 1949_European Miner & Ikeduru People Go Into Fracas.txt	European Miner & Ikeduru People Go Into Fracas\n\nCause: Mineral Discovery\n\nBy OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT\n\nOWERRI, Jan. 2. The discovery of rich minerals over wide ranges of hills and streams at Ikeduru has led to ter rible fracas between a certain European miner and the people of Ikeduru and it is the duty of the government of this province to take a prompt action before the worst happens.\n\nAn European Geologist attached to the local Shell Company at Owerri was alleged to have threatened the of Ikeduru to subdue to the demand of his using their hills and streams adjacent to their Native court where rich minerals have been discovered recently\n\nThe European is Mr Marchant Resusing to disclose to them the type of the discovered substance, he held that he had only the choice of using this area for purposes beat known to himself\n\nBut the citizens conscious of the suspicious intention of
Punch Newspaper_19 October 2006_Miners Want Mining Expert To Head Ministry.txt	Punch Newspaper	19 October 2006	2006-10-19	Miners Want Mining Expert To Head Ministry	/content/Punch Newspaper_19 October 2006_Miners Want Mining Expert To Head Ministry.txt	Miners want mining expert to head ministry\nBy Abner Godwin\n\nLocal miners across the country have made a passionate plea before the National Assembly seeking that a miner or well-known key figure in the solid minerals industry be appointed as minister in order to give more practical reasoning and personality to lead the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development.\n\nThis, they argue, should be in the interest of the Association of Nigerian Miners, Artisanal miners, and all those engaged in solid mineral activities, rather than those who have no background in the mining Act.\n\nThe request continues to make a heavy persuasion on the floor of the Senate as a law is being prepared that will have more impact on small-scale miners.\n\nSpecifically, the association said that it would want a “more pragmatic” choice of leadership, since the fate of miners depends on decisions that will arise from the Mining Act.\n\nIf the Senate and domestic mining framework were to remain the same without new ideas, then the sector would be less productive, said Chief Julius Odayemi, a mining expert and consultant to the association.\n\nAccording to the premium 40% of new investments in the sector, the miners noted that the capital value of mining should be regulated by government, as most funding in this sector has to do with a proper work plan of mining outputs, tariffs, and mining duty incentives.\n\nBesides, the miners called on the Senate to overturn Clause 34 of the law.\n\nThey said, “We propose the setting up of a Mining Technology Credit Fund. This fund is separate and distinct from the Solid Minerals Development Fund of 1986.”\n\nThe miners urged that the Federal Government, in accord with the Act, establish two new agencies. The first would be called the Ministry for Coal, Tar, and Bitumen. The second would be called the Ministry of Mining and Development, specifically to help regulate the technology and equipment sector.\n\nA major concern the miners are voicing is the inaccessibility of funding for small-scale miners.\n\nA review of existing policies and a new commitment to economic diversification into mining, according to them, should be considered top priority.\n\nThey noted that industrial funding had been “silent” in policy execution and that the existing law should be reviewed to encourage easy access to financial assistance for miners.\n\nThe miners also pushed for the resuscitation of the old TIP Fund known as the Mining Technology Development Fund.\n\n“This will give focus to industrial policies, to encourage investment in mining activities, and bring more transparency into the sector,” said one of the stakeholders, Mr. Chukwuemeka Odom.\n\nHe stated further that the impact of poorly managed financial policies on mining had led to “a decline in the number of active miners”.\n\nThe Ministry had supported small-scale businesses through Project-Based Support Fund, but this was inadequate.\n\nMiners say that to boost the level of productivity, the government must consider a more flexible financial policy.\n\n“If the country must explore its natural mineral wealth, policies must align with industrial growth and financial commitment from the government.”\n\nThe miners have also called for increased participation in the Solid Minerals Sector.\n\nMr. Odayemi said that the government must “separate the roles of solid mineral administration from financial regulatory practices.”\n\nHe added that licensing and taxation must be clear-cut, and that local miners should benefit from a “subsidized taxation model.”\n\nThe miners said that the demand for global mining market standardization is high, and that the government must support the industry.\n\nThey also noted that investment into mining exploration would “open up employment opportunities”.\n\n“Government should encourage responsible mining,” he said.\n\nHe further said that co-operative mining frameworks for small-scale miners should be more beneficial than the big-cost model currently in place.\n\n“We should make the law very clear on this and maintain a clean system in the fields and mine scales. This will eliminate abuse.\n\nIn order to avoid a repeat of the crisis in the oil and gas industry brimming in the solid mineral sector, the association indicated that attention be given to other alternative compensation proposals.\n\n"According to some room for impasse, breakdown of negotiations or balancing on other form existence should not be possible. One of such possibilities include a situation where mining companies, with a long-term offer, pay into long-term compensations."\n\nThe other possibility entails a host community being allowed compensation tied to resource output.\n\n"In a tough crisis, we ought to analyze the prospect of anything applicable and fix a sweeping scaled amount in order to be used out of mining leases, or coal, oil, bitumen, or minerals, to the cost of Surface Rents to the Federal Government."\n\n"Socially responsible mining companies can also contribute part of annual profits, from one to two percent, to help host communities."\n\nBesides, the association queried the need to put aside guarantees for employment opportunities to follow an assurance that development housing victims from their extraction benefits, taxation returns, minerals. "Let the higher Delta ugly stones," they added.\n\nMetal Prices in US dollars\nMetal\tValue (US$)\tChange\nPlatinum\t587.25\t2.00\nPalladium\t328.50\t4.00\nGold\t589.00\t1.00\nSilver\t11.67\t0.05\nSource: Mineweb
The Guardian_28 February 2020_Akwa Ibom Government Warns Against Illegal.txt	The Guardian	28 February 2020	2020-02-28	Akwa Ibom Government Warns Against Illegal	/content/The Guardian_28 February 2020_Akwa Ibom Government Warns Against Illegal.txt	Akwa Ibom government warns against illegal mining\nBy NAN\n28 February 2020\n\nThe Akwa Ibom Government has warned against illegal mining in the state to avoid environmental hazards.\n\nThe Commissioner for Environment and Petroleum Resources, Mr Ekong Sampson, gave the warning after inspection of mining site at Ikot Ekong, Mkpat Enin Local Government Area by a joint special team on Friday.\n\nSampson said that the government would take appropriate steps in checking the activities of illegal miners in the state as they pose serious dangers to the environment.\n\nHe said that if the activities of the illegal miners were not checked, families and the communities would become extinct in the future.\n\n“The Akwa Ibom Government cautions illegal mining operators in the state to desist from the act of unauthorized activities, which constitute economic and environmental sabotage and are punishable under the law.\n\n\n“The people should refrain from selling or leasing out their lands for such activities,” he said.\n\nHe, however, charged miners in the state to ensure compliance with the laid down rules and regulations in carrying out their activities.\n\nThe commissioner appealed to traditional rulers across the state to support the efforts of the government in fighting the menace by enlightening the people on the dangers of illegal mining.\n\nEarlier, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Petroleum Resources, Mr Nsudo Nsudo, said that the ministry would take inventory of all the illegal mining sites in the state in order to assess the impact of the act.\n\nNsudo said that the ministry has set the regulatory framework to ensure that the activities of the miners do not have negative effects on the affected communities and the people.\n\nIn his remarks, the Head of Solid Minerals in the State, Mr Emem Ibok-Ette, called for collaboration between the Federal and State governments to stop illegal mining in the country.\n\nAccording to him, this would avert environmental disasters posed by the illegal mining acts, stressing that their activities have left the environment unsustainable for future generations.\n\nThe team led by the commissioner also inspected sites at Ibesikpo and Onna Local Government Areas of Akwa Ibom, where they appealed to the Paramount Ruler of Onna Local Government Area, His Majesty Edidem Raymond Inyang, to support the efforts of government in fighting the menace by enlightening the people on the dangers of illegal mining and enforcing such act are stopped in the local government.\n\nResponding, the monarch commended the team for taking such steps and assured the team of his readiness to partner government effort to curb the menace.
Wikitimes_16 December 2024_How Illegal Mining Endanger Lives Environment.txt	Wikitimes	16 December 2024	2024-12-16	How Illegal Mining Endanger Lives Environment	/content/Wikitimes_16 December 2024_How Illegal Mining Endanger Lives Environment.txt	How Illegal Mining Endanger Lives, Environment In Cross River\nDecember 16, 2024\n\nPatrick Obia\n\nOn April 20, 2024, a tragedy unfolded in Shikpeche, a quiet community nestled in Bishiri North, Obanliku Local Government Area of Cross River State. What should have been another day of labor turned fatal for Peter Shinong and Emmanuel Ushikeh, two young men who died while working in an illegal mining pit.\n\nPeter and Emmanuel were among a group of many hired to mine tourmaline, a gemstone valued for its industrial and healing properties. They dug a six-foot-deep pit using crude tools, only to be buried alive when the pit suddenly collapsed following an electric shock. \n\nTheir deaths were neither the first nor the last in Nigeria’s dangerous and unregulated mining sector which added to a grim statistic: over 65 people had already perished in mining collapses in Plateau, Taraba, and Adamawa States earlier in the year. Analysts warn that without regulatory reforms, tragedies like Shikpeche’s will only multiply.\n\nIllegal mining is just one piece of a larger puzzle of environmental destruction. In Shikpeche, trees were felled indiscriminately to make way for mining activities, contributing to deforestation in an already fragile ecosystem. Cross River State, home to Nigeria’s richest forest reserves, has seen its forest cover dwindle dramatically—from 7,920 square kilometers in 1991 to about 6,102 square kilometers by 2008.\n\n“The deforestation around Shikpeche affects more than just the land,” said Lawrence Osong, Project Coordinator of the Africa Research Association Managing Development in Nigeria (ARADIN), a community-based nonprofit organization working to conserve the forest and support community livelihoods. “Temperatures in nearby Obudu Mountain Resort, once a cool refuge, now regularly climb to 27°C. Climate change is entering our communities through the backdoor.”\n\nIllegal mining activities, Osong argued, are exacerbating climate change, releasing harmful methane gases and stripping the land of its ability to sequester carbon. The consequences are dire. \n\nThe World Health Organization projects that climate change could cause 250,000 additional deaths annually between 2030 and 2050 due to malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea, and heat stress.\n\nRegulations Ignored, Lives Lost\nThe Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Act of 1992 and the Mining Act of 2007 are clear: mining operations require rigorous environmental and social assessments. Yet, these laws are flouted with impunity.\n\nMining companies bypass EIA requirements, operate without licenses, and exploit communities like Shikpeche with little regard for safety or sustainability.\n\n“The companies involved in Shikpeche didn’t even attempt to comply,” noted a local source. “It’s exploitation under the guise of development.”\n\nWhile some community leaders initially supported the mining, enticed by promises of financial gain, the aftermath of Peter and Emmanuel’s deaths led to protests and a temporary halt in operations. Still, no compensation has been provided to the bereaved families eight months after the incident.\n\nCross River State is no stranger to illegal mining. At least seven local government areas, including Akampa, Biase, Boki, Obubra, Ikom, Yakurr, and Obanliku, host unregulated operations. The influx of foreign miners, estimated at over 800 individuals, has turned the forests into battlegrounds for hidden treasures.\n\nIn August 2024, Governor Bassey Otu attempted to stem the tide with Executive Order No. 1 of 2024, mandating community consent and environmental compliance for mining projects. The state legislature also passed the Green Economy Commission Bill, aiming to balance economic growth with environmental conservation.\n\nThe Chairman of the State Anti-Illegal Mining Taskforce, Prince Paul Effiong said the steps are crucial. “Illegal miners are thieves who exploit our land, deceive our leaders, and bring insecurity to our communities.”\n\n“Most of them are mining in the state without a license and they just get in there and mine without informing the community. Sometimes most of them go to inform the community when the chiefs don’t know things about mining activities; they just deceive the chiefs and get consent letters and then begin to mine in a way that is not acceptable.”\n\nHe explained: “Before you go into mining, you must pass through due process to do the right thing but these people are thieves and they just want to get in there. By the time we allow them to come into our forest and land to mine, there will be a lot of problems. Before you know it they begin to kidnap our children, raping our girls and all that; even those chiefs will run and live the place. That is the reason we really need to put our hands together to save the state.”\n\nEffiong lamented the complicity of some local chiefs and government officials, describing the fight against illegal mining as a battle against deeply entrenched interests.\n\n“We know that there are some people in government who are also supporting this activity, including people from the community. There is no way someone will just start such activity in the community without the Chief and people will not know about it. Sometimes, the politicians. We do not know the miners operating in Shikpeche Community officially,” he affirms.\n\nCivil society organizations (CSOs) like the Partnership for Social and Environmental Development Initiative (P4SEDI) are also raising the alarm. P4SEDI’s Executive Director, Eme Okang, underscored the environmental and social costs of unregulated mining.\n\n“Legal mining is a threat to the environment, how much more illegal mining? Let’s start with deforestation because that is tree mining. Clearing of vegetation for mining activities contributes to habitat loss and reduces carbon sequestration because the trees you are cutting down – if you say there is limestone, tourmaline, gold, and other minerals here, all these are buried under the earth. So you have to bring all that down to access those minerals. When you are doing that, trees sequester carbon they hold them down. They release the oxygen we breathe and we give them carbon dioxide.\n\n“When we release carbon dioxide and there is nothing to take it in to refine and give us back oxygen, what are we doing? We are releasing methane into the air, we are releasing greenhouse gases. Unregulated mining often leaves lands unusable even for agriculture or other purposes leading to food insecurity.”\n\nEme attributes the venture of illegal mining to poverty and government at levels of negligence and inability to pay attention in the solid mineral sector compared to the oil and gas sector.\n\nOkang criticized the federal government’s focus on oil and gas at the expense of solid minerals, calling for a comprehensive overhaul of the mining sector, and “until mining is properly regulated, communities like Shikpeche will continue to bear the brunt of exploitation.”\n\n“The Nigerian government only focuses on the oil and gas sector which contributed to about 7% – 10% of Nigeria’s GDP but accounts for 90% of export earning and 70% of government revenue. \n\n“When you come down to the solid mineral sector, I’m not sure it contributes to 2% to Nigeria’s GDP despite the abundance of these resources across the country. It calls for a concern. Maybe that is the reason the president had to fly to France to make all manner of PACT to come mine in the country directly or indirectly.”\n\nThis report was produced with support from Civic Media Lab Grassroot News Project (GNP 3.0).
Eastern Guardian_06 February 1950_The Enugu Relief Fund.txt	Eastern Guardian	06 February 1950	1950-02-06	The Enugu Relief Fund	/content/Eastern Guardian_06 February 1950_The Enugu Relief Fund.txt	The Enugu Relief Fund\n\nWHEN EVERYONE was shocked by the Iva Valley sadism, and hooligans, nationalists, gentlemen, ruffians, the good, and the bad, all types and characters of people indeed, rose up against the ill wind from Coal City, some rioted and looted whilst those who kept their senses decided on contributions to aid the relatives of the fallen.\n\nThe fund was purely a voluntary affair, an expression of brethrens concern for brethren. So far, many have contributed to that fund, but no: by any mean s has anyone been forced to pay then the minutests of mites.\n\nSamaritanism and generosity cannot be forced into individuals. They must come naturally, spontaneously and voluntarily. That is why we do not condemn the hundreds of Africans who have not played their monetary part in the relief fund.\n\nThat is why it is most insulting, unconventional and thoughtless for any Nigerian to single out foreigners and void verbal rheum on their person because they have not contributed to the fund. People in glass houses are foolish to throw stones, says an old proverb.\n
Punch Newspaper_21 September 2006_Geological Data Attracts Global Attention.txt	Punch Newspaper	21 September 2006	2006-09-21	Geological Data Attracts Global Attention	/content/Punch Newspaper_21 September 2006_Geological Data Attracts Global Attention.txt	Geological data attracts global attention\nStories by Layi Adoloju and Abner Godwin\n\nNigeria’s geological information has attracted global attention for the first time in the past three decades.\n\nUramin Incorporated, a South African mining company, lauded the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency over the data it had generated in the last one year on the country’s geo-structure.\n\n“This is an amazing piece of work. I have worked in 44 countries, the effort of this office is of world standard,” Keith Kenyon, a senior official of Uramin, said in a statement made available to our correspondent on Monday.\n\nThe NGSA reported that in the past one year, it had generated over 2000 maps on the Nigerian geology, while airborne geophysical survey was ongoing.\n\nThe Director-General, NGSA, Dr. Siyan Malomo, said the interest generated by international miners on Nigeria’s geological data was a pointer to the fact that the mining sector would pick up in the nearest future.\n\nHe described the geological survey as the “mother of the mining industry” in any country, adding that without a good mining field, the mining industry could never really succeed.\n\nMalomo said the agency had also set out a working strategy to map out work:\n\nNew areas with no geological mappings, geophysical or geochemical data.\nNew or old aspects of current interest or potential interest for the exploration industry – where new data must encourage investment;\nAnd areas where new ideas or new technology will substantially change the interpretations in a technological or geotechnological core, all with good exposure.\nHe attributed the past agency bureaucratic bottlenecks to inconsistencies in government funding, poor management policies, and lack of investment into data research.\n\nHowever, he noted that the Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society said the quality of data being gathered by the agency would help sustain the solid minerals sector.\n\nThe Minister of Mines and Geosciences Development, Mr. J. Ojeti, was quoted as saying that the data would provide reliable feedback in the mineral potential of the country.\n\n
Eastern Guardian_20 June 1950_Fitzgerald And The Press.txt	Eastern Guardian	20 June 1950	1950-06-20	Fitzgerald And The Press	/content/Eastern Guardian_20 June 1950_Fitzgerald And The Press.txt	Fitzgerald And The Press\n\nCOMMENTING UPON the Nigerian Press, the Fitzgerald body has this to say, "............ It may seem incredible that any newspaper should have been guilty of such an offence, but we are forced to the conclusion that the major part of the press of Nigeria discloses a degree of irresponsibility that does no good for the people of the country or the furtherance of their political aims."\n\nAnd why came forth these hard remarks? Because of the allegation that a single provincial paper made an inaccurate report. We hold no brief for the paper nor are we hurt by the scatching remarks.\n\nBut the fact that the commissioners failed to use the same hard language on the Public Relations Office which ought to be better informed shows the attitude of their minds.\n\nIt could have surprised us really if the Press had been lauded to the sky. For after all, the nationalist organisations to which these papers are directly or indirectly attached are also blissfully "irresponsible." Say the commissioners what they like, the fact is that the press is responsible to the people.\n
Eastern Guardian_30 November 1949_Nominal Roll Of Enugu Dead Is Out.txt	Eastern Guardian	30 November 1949	1949-11-30	Nominal Roll Of Enugu Dead Is Out	/content/Eastern Guardian_30 November 1949_Nominal Roll Of Enugu Dead Is Out.txt	Nominal Roll Of Enugu Dead Is Out: 16 Killed On The Spot\n\nENUGU. - A release from the E.R.P.R. Office gives the nominal roll of the dead as a result of Iva Valley incident as follows:\n\n1. Livinus Okechukuma Tally No.24039, 2. Ngwo Nwafor Tally No. 10078, 3. Agwu Ude Tally No.2165, 4. Okafor Ageni Tally No.11550, 5. Thomas Chukwu Tally No. 24163, 6. Jonathan Ezani Tally No.3190, 7. Ani Amu Tally No.1671, 8. Onu Onyia Tally No. 11051, 9. Nnaji Nwa-chukwu Tally No.4598, 10. Simon Nwachukwu Tally No. 24267,\n\n11. James Ekeowa Tally No.4364 12. Sunday Anyasoro Tally No. 1396, 13. Felix Nnaji Tally No. S.671, 14.Andrew Okonkwo Tally No. 1682, 15. William Nwehu Tally No. 4017, 16. Augustine Aniwoke Tally No. 1879, 17. Nwachukwu Ugwu Tally No. 5203, 18. Nduaguba Eze Tally No. 11773, 19. Moses Ikegbu Tally No. 2307, 20. Ogbonna. Chine Tally No. 2015.\n\nSixteen were killed at the scene of the incident, and four died subsequently in the hospital.\n
Punch Newspaper_05 October 2006_Local Investors Berate Ministry Over Mining Sector’S Woes.txt	Punch Newspaper	05 October 2006	2006-10-05	Local Investors Berate Ministry Over Mining Sector’S Woes	/content/Punch Newspaper_05 October 2006_Local Investors Berate Ministry Over Mining Sector’S Woes.txt	Local investors berate ministry over mining sector’s woes\nBy Abner Godwin\n\nAs Nigeria marks 46 years of nationhood, fresh criticisms have trailed the Federal Government’s reform agenda geared towards the revitalization of the mining sector.\n\nBut the Minister for Solid Minerals Development, Prof. Leslye Obiora, in her remark in an interview last week said that the sector had seen its best in the past three years under the government’s mining sector reforms.\n\nLocal investors in the mining business across the country have, however, continued to lament the state of the sector, saying that not much has changed despite the widely publicized government reforms.\n\nSpeaking under the auspices of the National Solid Minerals Dealer Association, they said the Ministry had not appreciated the fact that local miners need support in order to compete favorably. The Managing Director, Mining Technologies Limited, Dr. Joshua Egadedi told our correspondent by phone on Sunday.\n\nHe said the money, which the ministry said it was pumping into the sector, was nothing compared to what would have been made available to assist investors in the field.\n\nAccording to him, the Association does not see government doing much in terms of promoting the ease of doing business within the sector, adding that authorities seem to be more focused on policies rather than direct funding for small miners.\n\n“We are not against reforms, but first things first. The government needs to understand that foreign investors will not come in if local miners have not been taken care of. So we believe that a strategic plan should be taken to encourage local investment and allow the growth of the industry."\n\nHe said that although the government has set up mining centers such as the MSMB and other departments, local miners do not have access to them in the real sense.\n\nTan centers were to be located in Oyo, Ogun State, and Sokoto for the slate phosphate. Lafia, Goko, Ogoja, and Gusau in Nasarawa, Benue, Cross River, and Zamfara States have also been set for this.\n\nIn Enu to Sada for Kaolin, and also Baryte, the Edo State exploration and Yobe States separate for coal.\n\nThe Federal Government had announced that it was supporting small miners in each of these locations through various programs, but investors insist that they are not benefiting from these initiatives.\n\nDr. Egadedi further explained that despite the setting up of these programs, small-scale miners in the country still find it difficult to compete with their counterparts in other nations.\n\nThe Managing Director of Falcon Mining Company, Mr. Seyi Martins, also lamented the state of small-scale mining in Nigeria.\n\nHe said, "If the ministry has been investing in mining in the last few years, then we have to ask, where are they? What about the money the Ministry of Mines obtained from the World Bank? Have we been able to encourage jobs in the sector? If no, why?"\n\nHe challenged the ministry to come up with the facts on how much funding had been used to support local miners and how it has affected the industry.\n\n“With 34 solid minerals waiting for full exploration, Egadedi said the inclusion of local miners in the industry remains the only way that Nigeria can benefit from the mining sector.\n\nHe further noted that the industry had the capacity to contribute more than N299.5bn to Nigeria’s GDP annually, but said that the government has not done much in policy implementation to make this a reality.
Eastern Guardian_21 November 1949_Miners Surround Police.txt	Eastern Guardian	21 November 1949	1949-11-21	Miners Surround Police	/content/Eastern Guardian_21 November 1949_Miners Surround Police.txt	Miners Surround Police\n\nContinued from page 1\n\ncasualties among the Police.\n\nThis occurrence is all the more tragic when it is to be remembered that the evacuation of ex plosives from the mines in no way prevented the resumption of normal working and the general safety of the mines.\n\nEDITOR'S NOTE: From unofficial sources filter in reports giving another version of the shooting incident.\n\nIt is reported that no less than sixteen to eighteen strikers have been shot dead by the Police under the command of a high government official, and several others suffered casualties.\n\nIt is further alleged that strikers were ordered to go inside the mines and cut off electric fans; but on refusal to carry out the instruction, disturbances developed during which strikers were\n\nshot dead as reported.\n\nReports still filtering through disclosed that Nigeria Police Force from Southern and Western Provinces refused to shoot down strikers, and special Police from other linguistic groups in the North had to be brought down to do the shooting.\n\nFor days now it has become open secret that not only the police, but troops from all strategic centres have been trans-ported by air to Enugu.\n\nReports have it that tear gas has been used against women de-monstrators.\n\nThe above version could be branded fantastic and exaggerated report but under the present cri-tical situation at Enugu, even the Press could not get telegraphic messages through (See Editorial.)\n
Wikitimes_21 May 2024_Illegal Mining Nasarawa Assembly Seeks Data.txt	Wikitimes	21 May 2024	2024-05-21	Illegal Mining Nasarawa Assembly Seeks Data	/content/Wikitimes_21 May 2024_Illegal Mining Nasarawa Assembly Seeks Data.txt	Illegal Mining: Nasarawa Assembly Seeks Data on Mining Sites\nMay 21, 2024\n \nWikkiTimes\n\nNasarawa State House of Assembly Committee on Environment has directed the State Ministry of Environment to compile and make available the names of all mining sites.\n\nThe Chairman of the committee, Mohammed Omadefu, gave the directive when the management of the Ministry and the State Waste Management Board, appeared before the committee on their 2024 budget performance, on Monday in Lafia.\n\nOmadefu said that the knowledge of the mining sites was necessary, following reports of alleged illegal mining in the state.\n\nHe said that furnishing the committee with all names of mining sites would enable the committee to tackle illegal mining and promote peace in the state.\n\nThe chairman assured the ministry of the committee’s support to succeed.\n\nHe urged the board to ensure constant evacuation of refuse across the state.\n\nAccording to him, this will ensure a clean environment and the general health and well-being of the people of the state.\n\nHe said, ” A healthy nation is a wealthy nation’, hence the need for the board to be up and doing in ensuring environmental cleanliness.\n\n“We have invited you to know your board’s 2024 budget performance for the first quarter. We will continue to support and synergise with you in order to take the board to a greater height.”\n\nNAN reports that the Secretary of the board, Mr Christopher Abari, appreciated the committee and the state government for prioritising the board’s activities.\n\nAbari assured of the board’s continued readiness to ensure the evacuation of refuse dumped at different parts in the state, to ensure a clean and healthy environment.\n\n“We are doing our best in keeping the environment clean across the state, by God’s grace, we will ensure constant evacuation of refuse in the state,” he said.\n\nWhile defending its 2024 budget performance, the management of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, led by the Commissioner, Mr Kwanta Yakubu, told the committee that it had started the planting of 50,000 trees across the state.\n\n“One of our major achievements has been the launch of the Green Initiative Programme, which has already resulted in the planting of over 50,000 trees across the state.\n\n“The programme aims at combating deforestation and enhancing biodiversity, ensuring that natural habitats are preserved for years to come,” Yakubu said.\n\nHe appreciated the committee and Gov. Abdullahi Sule for supporting the activities of the ministry to succeed.\n\nThe commissioner said that the ministry had made significant strides in implementing policies that promoted sustainable development and environmental protection.
West African Pilot_28 July 1942_Wages Of Miners In The North.txt	West African Pilot	28 July 1942	1942-07-28	Wages Of Miners In The North	/content/West African Pilot_28 July 1942_Wages Of Miners In The North.txt	Wages Of Miners In The North\n\nCONSCRIPTION of workers in the mines of the Northern Provinces, which are regarded as essential to the war efforts, is an accomplished reality. When the law was made, we made comments of an Editorial nature and counselled caution.\n\nAt that time, we were not in possession of all figures Telating to wages paid to the wage-earners. But when one of our representatives raised the point during a Prese Conference at Government House, presided by His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government of Nigeria, Sir Alan Burns, K. C.M.G. in March, 1942, a high official, probably the Acting Deputy Chief Secretary, took exe prions to the statement that the workers were underpaid and assured the Conference that the la-bour difficusties there had been adjusted.\n\nWe do not insist now that a labour misunderstand-ing exists in certain sections of the North, but we sub-mit that conditions of miners should be improved be-cause when we asserted that they were paid four pence to six pence per diem, in the North, in March, 1942, we were not wrong. According to the figures released by the Honourable the Chief Secretary, wage-earners were paid four pence per diem in Niger Province and five pence per diem in Plateau Province, up to and since Oct-ober, 1941. Sir Bernard Bourdillon has now raised the wages of such workers as follows: Niger Province (Min-na 8d. Province 6d), and Plateau Province (Jos, Bukuru and Kafanchan 10d, Province 7d).\n\nIn our humble opinion, mining whether of gold or tin or what not-is a dangorous job; besides, the cli-mate of Plateau Province is not quite accommodating to workers from other parts of the country. There is de-mand for Nigerian tin: it is an essential war work and we should stimulate production of this essential war material. In the circumstances, we respectfully submit a minimum wage of not less than one shilling per diem for all workers in the North, and a slightly higher wage for conscripted workers in the mines.\n\n\n
West African Pilot_29 November 1939_Nigerian Tin.txt	West African Pilot	29 November 1939	1939-11-29	Nigerian Tin	/content/West African Pilot_29 November 1939_Nigerian Tin.txt	Nigerian Tin\n\nA few days ago, a short re view of the "Annual Report on the Mines Department for the year 1938" was given in these columns.\n\nThen it was stated that general remarks on the position of the two most important metals will be quoted for the benefit of readers.\n\nThe following statement on the Nigerian Tin Industry must prove of interent\n\n"The general recession in world-trade, which became apparent during the latter part of 1937, caused a deep depression in the tin industry during 1938.\n\n"The international quota averaged fifty-three three quarters per cent for the year being exactly half that of 1937, and the average prion for standard tin st (189: 13: Id against faga:6:7d in the previous year, was the lowest since 1933.\n\n"Agreement regarding the formation of a Buffer Stock Pool was finally reached in the middle of the year and contributives of tin metal totalling 10,000 tons were made by the signstory countries to the Inter-national Tin Agreement during\n\nthe last two quarters. "The price of tin has fluctuated considerably.\n\n"Opening the year at 181. 78. 6d. it moved between (190 and £170 until the end of April when there was a sharp decline, the low level for the year of (153. 68. 34. being reached on May 3.\n\n"Recovery was slow and it was not until October 6 that the price rose above (200.\n\n"The quotation on December 31 of 217. 56. of, was the highest during the whole year.\n\n"The concession granted by the International Tin Committee to Nigeria, permitting stocks up to lihy per cent of Standard Tounege to be carried on the\n\nmines, was of great assistance and enabled many more labourers to be kept in employment than would otherwise have been the\n\n"Mos: producers have won their share of the ordinary twenty-five per cent Permitted Storks by the end of November and but for the concession would have been compelled to make drastic reductions.\n\n"Even with the assistance the average labour employed during the fourth quarter had dropped to 27,000, a reduction of 17,000 on the corresponding period for the previous year."\n\n
The Guardian_07 April 2024_How Illegal Rock Blasting Mining Endanger.txt	The Guardian	07 April 2024	2024-04-07	How Illegal Rock Blasting Mining Endanger	/content/The Guardian_07 April 2024_How Illegal Rock Blasting Mining Endanger.txt	How illegal rock blasting, mining endanger Nigerians\nBy Gbenga Akinfenwa (Lagos), Isa Abdulsalami Ahovi (Jos), Ernest Nzor and Charles Ogugbuaja (Owerri)\n07 April 2024 \n\n• Why FG Must Criminalise Illicit Mining Of Nation’s Mineral Resources \n\nThe Federal Government has been urged to formulate new policies to criminalise illegal mining activities across the country given the threat the menace poses to the nation’s economic growth.\n\nThe Guardian gathered that the development of a robust framework for responsible mining practices and the provision of alternative livelihood opportunities for communities previously relying on illegal mining are also part of strategies to deter further escalation of this issue.\n\nThrough concerted actions and cooperation from all stakeholders, it is believed that the dangers posed by illegal mining will be significantly reduced, ensuring a safer and more secure future for all.\n\nPublic affairs analysts also told The Guardian that it was high time both federal and state governments fully tapped into the potential the industry holds, and use the proceeds to boost the economy, instead of abandoning it to private and faceless characters.\n\nExperts, who frowned at the havoc illegal miners have wreaked on the environment across the country, especially the recent explosion in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, which claimed lives and destroyed properties worth billions of naira, regretted that natural resources that should have been used to build good health facilities, alleviate poverty, improve the education system and generally develop the country were being harnessed by unscrupulous individuals for personal gain.\n\nAlake expressed shock at the culture of silence exhibited by residents of Dejo Oyelese Close on Adeyi Avenue, Bodija, Ibadan which allowed people of questionable character to live among them for years without anybody reporting until the January 16, 2024 horrendous blast claimed lives and destroyed property.\n\nHe said: “My own shock as an individual, as a Nigerian and not as a Minister is how these kinds of explosives could be stored in a residential area for years (not a slum, but a high profile environment), where you have informed individuals. In terms of enlightenment; in terms of civic responsibility unlike Beere, or Adeoyo slums, there should have been suspicion of untoward movements or activities. You do not need to go and tell your neighbor. The people here have enough clout to reach the authorities.\n\n“That is my personal shock that residents could harbour such people here for years. And that speaks to our alertness, our consciousness about our environment and Nigeria at large. All of us need to be safety conscious. The people who perform all these atrocious acts and negative tendencies live among us and we should report them. There is no way residents of a particular community will not know that so and so person(s) is/are engaging in an untoward act.\n\n“These days, almost all the security agencies have numbers that you can reach and submit your information anonymously without disclosing your identity. And the kernel of the information will be useful to prevent this kind of occurrence. It is about time in this country that we began to develop this kind of consciousness, reporting the culture of our environment. Armed robbers, kidnappers, ritualists- all live among us, but this culture of silence always boomerang against us as a people.”\n\nFollowing the effect of explosives in Oyo State, stakeholders in the mining sector are now reiterating on the need to use explosives that pose considerably less risk compared to traditional dynamite in construction projects and mining activities.\n\nRecall that on Tuesday, January 16, five people lost their lives, 77 were hospitalised and many houses damaged due to an explosion caused by illegal miners occupying one of the houses in Bodija, Ibadan. Investigations revealed that explosive devices stored in the house by the illegal miners caused the blast.\n\nIt was gathered that in the push for a safer environment, stakeholders from various sectors, including government bodies, non-governmental organisations, and concerned citizens are joining forces to put an end to this illegal practice. \\n\nThe development of a robust framework for responsible mining practices and the provision of alternative livelihood opportunities for communities previously relying on illegal mining are also part of strategies to deter further escalation of this issue.\n\nThrough concerted actions and cooperation from all stakeholders, it is believed that the dangers posed by illegal mining will be significantly reduced, ensuring a safer and more secure future for all.\n\nAn industry player based in Kano State, John Obiedu, who said that the illegal miners were harnessing the country’s alternative source of income aside from crude oil, regretted that billions of naira that would have accrued to the Federal Government were being siphoned through the escapades of corrupt individuals who profit from the illegal mining operations.\n\nThe Guardian learnt that though Nigeria’s mining sector is worth $700 billion and boasts 44 different types of commercially viable minerals, the activities of these illegal operators were depriving the government of the revenue. Meanwhile, the government seems to be helpless in bringing the criminals to book.\n\nThis was attested to last December by the Minister of Solid Mineral, Dele Alake, while defending his ministry’s 2024 budget at the floor of the House of Representatives.\n\nHe lamented that powerful Nigerians were involved in illegal mining, adding that they were also responsible for other criminal activities, including sponsoring banditry and terrorism.\n\nInvestigations show that illegal mining is thriving unabated in many states of the country such as Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Plateau, Imo, Niger, Enugu, among others. It was learnt that the menace was posing security threats and other dangers to the people of Plateau State. It was also learnt that the mining activities, thriving in Kang’a Chit community, Zawan District in Jos South Council of the state is endangering lives of the people.\n\nBesides, the unauthorised mining activities are threatening food security in the state, as most farmers have abandoned their farms because of the quick daily income that comes from the illegal mining business.\n\nAlso, the community faces the likelihood of flooding owing to many deep holes and craters caused by the miners, especially with the waterways surrounding the area.\n\nResidents of the community, who pleaded for anonymity, said the state government was aware of the development but was watching helplessly. They said the mining site is situated close to the major road where the operators could be seen while working.\n\nOne of the residents, who gave his name as Ahmad, said they were struggling to cope with the development because it is more like a time bomb that may explode when least expected.\n\n“Do we say the government is afraid to stop them? Or do we say the government is benefitting from their activities? Or do we conclude that some government officials have people in the business? Only God can save us from these people,” he said.\n\nAhmad explained that the illegal miners have created numerous holes in the area to the extent that children find it difficult to pass through when going to school.\n\nHe disclosed that some of the residents have temporarily withdrawn their children from school till when things normalise.\n\nHe added that the residents have tried severally to stop the operators but discovered that it is not possible because the miners can stop at nothing to hurt whoever attempts to stop their business.\n\nAhmad and other residents passionately appealed to well-meaning individuals and the government to come to their rescue by putting a stop to the illicit operation, saying it was absurd for such an activity to go on in urban areas in the state.\n\nThough no death has been recorded, according to The Guardian investigations, the residents expressed fears that there could be loss of lives in the future if the government fails to intervene now.\n\nWhen The Guardian visited the site, it was observed that close to 300 dangerous holes had been dug by the illegal miners. It was also observed that the artisanal miners might not be willing to leave the business soon due to the daily return, especially with the current economic hardship in the country.\n\nIt was learnt that a module of tin milk of the substance sells for about N7, 000 and a miner could get between N21, 000 to N28, 000 daily.\n\n“So, asking them to stop it through government fiat will be seen as asking them to go to hell,” a source said.\n\nHundreds of youths working at the mining site argued the job had stopped them from robbery, thuggery, theft and all other social vices, noting that stopping them is like inviting unrest in the area.\n\nThey suggested that for them to quit mining, the state government must compensate them handsomely.\n\nThe Guardian also gathered that at a time, one of the miners dug to a level where he suddenly appeared in somebody’s sitting room, a development that caused an uproar and disaffection in the area.\n\nA police source confirmed the development, but added that it is only when the government pronounces the activity as illegal that the police can enforce any arrest.\n\nNevertheless, a representative of the State Commissioner for Environment, who spoke off-record, said the illicit mining could not be allowed to continue because of its devastating effect on the environment.\n\nThe official added that the government of the day wants to save the lives of the youths by stopping them from doing that.\n\nAt the Ministry of Solid Mineral Development in Jos, an insider source told The Guardian that the government was losing fortunes to illegal mining. Meanwhile, the Commissioners for Information and Communications, Bashir Lawandi Datti and Solid Mineral Development, could not be reached.\n\nIn Imo State, there were reported cases of illegal sand excavation, oil pipeline vandalisation and siphoning of crude in some parts of Egbema in Ohaji/Egbema local council.\n\nThe recent oil pipeline explosion occurred in Obitti, Egbema, where about three persons, a trailer and farm produce got burnt due to ther explosion caused by illegal siphoning of crude oil.\n\nGovernor Hope Uzodimma, and the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, Eugene Dibiagwu, during their separate visits to the site recently, regretted the incident, warning the perpetrators to desist from the economic sabotage.\n\nDibiagwu, who represents Ohaji/Egbema, Oguta and Ori West Federal Constituency, met with the monarch of Obitti autonomous community and representatives of the villages in the area, where security strategies for forestalling further incidents were discussed.\n\nRecall that in 2022, in Abezi, Egbema community in the same local council, no fewer than 150 were burnt beyond recognition, as a result of vandalisation of crude oil pipeline and scooping of crude and refining at night. The state government later organised a mass burial at the site after which it fumigated the area.\n\nOn the other hand, illegal sand excavation is going on off Aba Road, Owerri, Nekede axis in Owerri West local council, and Njaba River side, Orlu road. The activities of the excavators have caused gully erosion sites at the affected areas.\n\nThe state government, through the Ministry of Environment, has severally issued warnings to the defaulters, but they have continued with their activities unperturbed.\n\nThe Police spokesperson in the state, Henry Okoye, confirmed the development.\n\nAll efforts to speak with the state government were unsuccessful as the governor had dissolved the Commissioners and other political office holders.\n\nMeanwhile, a civic-tech non-governmental organisation, Urban Alert, attributed what it termed weak government agencies as open windows for illegalities, which miners (licensed and illegal) often use to exploit the system.\n\nThe organisation in a statement signed by its Communications Associate, Titilade Alayande, while reacting to the explosion in Oyo State, however, called on the government to prioritise the safety of Nigerians by sincerely probing the activities of miners, to avert a repeat of the incident.\n\n“Ultimately, we call on the Federal Government to empower the Federal Ministry of Mines, the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), the State Ministry of Environment and other relevant bodies to streamline coordination and collaboration among these agencies to foster a more cohesive and integrated approach to mining oversight.\n\n“By working together, these institutions can share information, leverage expertise and collectively address the complexities of enforcing safety standards and regulations within the mining industry. We must safeguard the environment and fulfill our responsibility towards protecting Nigerians,” the group said.\n\nTo secure solid minerals in the country, the President Bola Tinubu established an inter-ministerial committee to draw up a blueprint for securing the country’s natural resources, including solid minerals, forests, and marine economy.\n\nThe inter-ministerial committee, which is chaired by the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake; Minister of Environment, Balarabe Abass lawal; Marine and Blue Economy Minister, Gboyega Oyetola; Defence Minister, Abubakar Badaru: Interior Minister, Hon. Tunji Olubunmi-Ojo and his Police Affairs (state) counterpart, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim.\n\nSecurity agencies represented by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun; Commandant-General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Dr. Ahmed Audi; representatives of Chief of Air Staff and Chief of Naval staff, Air-Vice Marshall Abdulkadir Abubakar and Rear Admiral I. Abbas, respectively, among others.\n\nIllegal rock blasting and mining entail the extraction of valuable minerals and rocks from unauthorised sites, often bypassing safety regulations and environmental protection measures.\n\nThese activities frequently occur in densely populated areas or in close proximity to residential communities, putting innocent lives at risk.\n\nThe innovation to address the challenge of explosives in Nigeria is to ensure increased safety measures while maintaining efficiency and effectiveness for various industries, including mining, tunneling, and infrastructure development. The emergence of these explosives has the potential to transform the approach construction, reducing hazards and enhancing worker well-being.\n\nSince the inception of dynamite in the mid-19th century, it has played a pivotal role in shaping modern construction and mining practices. However, the inherent dangers of dynamite have long been a concern, predominantly due to its sensitivity to heat, friction, and shock impact. To mitigate these risks and enhance safety measures, researchers and engineers came together to develop advanced mining explosives.\n\nThese cutting-edge explosives provide numerous advantages over dynamite, primarily in terms of safety during the mining blasting activities. Their reduced sensitivity to friction ensures minimised incidents of accidental detonation.\n\nAdditionally, they have a higher degree of tolerance to shockwaves, making them less prone to initiation in case of accidental impact. This substantial difference ensures that construction workers can handle these explosives with greater peace of mind, knowing the likelihood of accidents occurring has significantly diminished.\n\nFurthermore, the production of the new mining explosives, in early 1990, focuses on reducing toxic emissions and environmental impact. With a gradually growing emphasis on sustainable development and environmentally conscious practices, this aspect offers a notable advantage over traditional dynamite. The mining explosives release fewer harmful substances into the atmosphere, providing a more eco-friendly alternative for various industries around the globe.\n\nAnother impressive characteristic of these innovative explosives lies in their efficiency and effectiveness. They are designed to deliver greater energy output, resulting in quicker and more precise excavation. This enhanced performance allows for increased productivity, accelerated construction timelines, and improved project completion rates, making them an appealing choice for construction companies worldwide.\n\nLooking ahead, the extensive implementation of these safer mining explosives is expected to revolutionise the construction and mining industries. The reduced risk of accidents and injuries will translate into cost savings for companies, ensuring compliance with stringent safety regulations and maintaining workers’ well-being on construction sites.\n\nThese groundbreaking explosives provide a significantly safer alternative to traditional dynamite, with reduced sensitivity to friction, shockwaves, and accidental initiation. Moreover, they offer advantages in terms of environmental impact and enhanced productivity, making them an attractive choice for construction projects of all scales. As this new technology continues to gain traction, construction sites can evolve into safer working environments, benefitting workers and companies alike.\n\nSpeaking to The Guardian anonymously, an expert shed light on the use of explosives in Nigeria’s mining sector, aiming to dispel fears and provide clarity on the subject. The expert emphasised that the term ‘explosive’ often creates unnecessary fear and panic owing to its association with destruction and danger. However, there are multiple types of explosives, each serving different purposes.\n\n“The Nigerian government banned the use of dynamite in 1990. Instead, the mining sector relies on slowly explosive, a controlled and economic mixture of mono energy and water. This type of explosive, regulated by the mining ministry, is not as destructive as dynamite and is primarily utilised to produce essential materials.\n\n“However, neighbouring countries still import and use dynamite, a more effective explosive for certain applications. Unfortunately, this has resulted in illegal imports of dynamite into Nigeria, which poses a significant security concern. Recent incidents of explosion in Oyo State and arrest of exporters into Lagos and Cross River states have highlighted the need for heightened vigilance in curbing the entry of these powerful explosives.”\n\nTo ensure the safe and responsible use of explosives in mining operations, the expert said: “It is crucial to highlight that explosives used in mining operations undergo a rigorous process before being transported to the mining site. Those who require explosives must apply to the ministry of mining and obtain approval from the minister. The ministry then communicates the demand to the manufacturer, who produces the explosives, accordingly. Licensed mining engineers, expert managers, and explosive personnel are required for handling and usage. Information regarding the use and results of the previous explosive must be submitted before additional approvals are granted.\n\n“Once approved, the manufacturer must seek authorisation from the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) in line with federal government directives. Strict security measures are in place during the transportation of explosives to prevent any leakage or unauthorized access. It is essential to understand that when used in mining operations, explosives pose no threat to the general public. These explosives are specifically designed and controlled for breaking rocks during mining activities, ensuring safety and efficiency.”\\n\nThe expert’s statement calls for increased security measures and public awareness regarding the safe use and regulation of explosives. It is crucial to prevent illegal imports of explosives, as well as to educate the public about the different types of explosives and their appropriate applications. By doing so, Nigeria’s mining sector can continue to operate effectively, while ensuring the safety and protection of its people.
Nigerian Citizens_22 December 1950_Nigeria May Send Coal To U K.txt	Nigerian Citizens	22 December 1950	1950-12-22	Nigeria May Send Coal To U K	/content/Nigerian Citizens_22 December 1950_Nigeria May Send Coal To U K.txt	NIGERIA MAY SEND COAL TO U.K.\n\nTHE Nigerian Government is reported in London to be seeking to sell coal from the Enugu mine to Britain-without, it is said, receiving very much encouragement so far, writes our London correspondent.\n\nAccording to reports reaching London, there are 50,000 tons of coal piling up in Enugu and Port Harcourt as a result of the loss of the Gold Coast's custom. The Gold Coast switched its buying from Nigeria to South Africa owing to the disturbances in the Enugu mine last year. As a result, Nigeria is faced with an unwieldy coal surplus-with no ready market.\n\nIn spite of the fact that no coal was exported from Nigeria in December, 1949, a total of more than 60,000 tons was exported during the year, most of it to the Gold Coast. In the first six months of this year, only 1,594 tons was exported.\n\nSince the output of coal from the Enugu mines slumped to 26,466 tons a month during the disturbances in November, production has increased steadily and rose to 57,439 tons in September, bringing the total for the first nine months of this year to 303,968 tons.\n\nTransport Costs\n\nBritain is very hard up for coal. Formerly the world's greatest coal exporter, Britain to-day finds herself an importer, having to abide by long-term export contracts in spite of increasing domestic requirements.\n\nThere is no easy way out of Nigeria's difficulty in the British market, however, because the highly volatile Nigerian coal is not of the quality sought by Britain.\n\nTransport costs may well turn out to be the ultimate factor determining the saleability of Nigeria's surplus coal.\n
The Nigerian Citizen_09 July 1953_Miners Declare Dispute.txt	The Nigerian Citizen	09 July 1953	1953-07-09	Miners Declare Dispute	/content/The Nigerian Citizen_09 July 1953_Miners Declare Dispute.txt	Miners Declare Dispute\n\nTHE Nigeria African Mineworkers' Union has declared a disputer the Nigerian Mining Employers' Association. The dispute arose out of the Association's refusal to reopen tions as regards the union's request for improved conditions of service.\n\nLate in May this year, states a release from the Union's headquarters, the Union submitted a memorandum to the Association demanding improved con-ditions to which the latter replied that conditions of service in the minesfield were much the same with those in the Government, and that in their, view there was no necessity to reopen negotiations. In a later correspondence to the Union, the Association complained that they were finding it difficult to maintain labour owing to the present trends which, if continued, might make it impossible for them to continue to employ the men.\n\n-In deciding to open a dispute, concludes the release, the Union executives felt that it was improper to compare their conditions with those in the Government, and that by refusing to discuss their memorandum, the employers had blocked the way to harmony and progress.\n\n
The Guardian_10 November 2019_Government Uncovers 1 759 Illegal Mining.txt	The Guardian	10 November 2019	2019-11-10	Government Uncovers 1 759 Illegal Mining	/content/The Guardian_10 November 2019_Government Uncovers 1 759 Illegal Mining.txt	Government uncovers 1,759 illegal mining sites\nBy Cornelius Essen, Ado-Ekiti\n10 November 2019 \n\nThe Federal Government says it has uncovered a total of 1,759 artisanal and small-scale mining sites across the country.\n\nThe Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Arc. Olamilekan Adegbite, who disclosed this yesterday, at the National Council meeting on mining and mineral resources development, in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, said the government has already formalised the registration of 1,346 operators into cooperative groups for easy management, to enable them to have access to financial support and market.\n\nAdegbite explained that the policy is indeed an instrument of poverty alleviation, empowerment and job creation drive, to scale up their operations into small firms, operating with valid mineral titles.\n\nHe further said that under the scheme, miners could access between N100, 000 to N10m at a concessionary rate of five per cent through the Bank of Industry (BoI), adding: “We are working to remove bottlenecks in getting the loan facility.”\n\n
The Nigerian Citizen_17 May 1965_Mines Takeover Proposed.txt	The Nigerian Citizen	17 May 1965	1965-05-17	Mines Takeover Proposed	/content/The Nigerian Citizen_17 May 1965_Mines Takeover Proposed.txt	MINES' TAKEOVER PROPOSED\n\nThe belief that eventually all mining fields in the Plateau will be taken over by indigenous African miners was expressed this week by the Northern Nigeria Special Member representing mining industries in the Northern House of Assembly, Malam Danboyi Zang Gyel.\n\nSpeaking at a luncheon in honor of three members of the Jos branch of the Association of African Miners, who have been elected into the Northern House of Assembly and the House of Representatives, Malam Danboyi Zang Gyel said that alien monopolies were “sucking the fat of our motherland.”\n\nHe appealed to African miners to coordinate their efforts to crush their “common enemy.”\n\nThe three elected members of the House of Africa are Malam Danboyi Zang Gyle, Mr. Paul Odili Aliboh, and Chief B. L. W. Mabinton.\n\nEarlier, Chief Mabinton and Mr. Aliboh had vowed to fight the cause of African miners within the four secure walls of the Federal Parliament if the Association would give them the mandate.\n\nAt the end of the party, the Chairman of the Association, Chief Alibog, praised the three guests of honor for both the moral and financial support they had been giving to the Association.
Eastern Guardian_19 July 1943_Nigerian Copper.txt	Eastern Guardian	19 July 1943	1943-07-19	Nigerian Copper	/content/Eastern Guardian_19 July 1943_Nigerian Copper.txt	Nigerian Copper\n\nLONDON- According to the Newspaper Chemical Age, in the House of Commons recently Mr Creach Jones asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether in respace of the grant of £750,000 made to the Nchange Consolidated Copper Mines to increase copper production in Northern Nigeria the development would employ more Africans\n\nWhether conditions would be attached to such grant and employment with respect to family accommodation and some proportion of permanent settlement with reasonable amenities\n\nAnd whether conditions would be imposed preventing colour-bar practice and the adoption of tha recommendations of the Commission into the Copperbelt disturbances\n\nThe Secretary of State for the Colonies Colonel Oliver Stanley replied\n\nThe Ministry of Supply is making a grant of 5 per cent of the cost of certain capital expenditure the Nchange copper mine for the purpose of obtaining an increase in output\n\nWithin that expenditure a sum of ££35,000 18 provided for the building of a township and Nativa housing\n\nThere is no information here as to the exact items upon which the £135,000 will be spent The Ministry of Supply contract does not include provisions dealing with the matters saferred to in the second and third parts of the question,\n\nMr Creach Jones May I ask the right honourable and gallant gentleman whether when this grant in actually made condition with regard to the welfare of the African workers can be embodied in it particularly in regard to work of a superior character so that the colour bar does not operate and further that certain ago standards should be established and generate welfare provisions made with regard to the conditions of employment?\n\nColonel Stanley replied that the grant was made for the express purpose of increasing copper output during the war and that must be the primary consideration\n
The Nigerian Citizen_27 June 1964_Miners Get Tough.txt	The Nigerian Citizen	27 June 1964	1964-06-27	Miners Get Tough	/content/The Nigerian Citizen_27 June 1964_Miners Get Tough.txt	Miners get tough\n\nTHE 19th session of the Minesfield Joint Industrial Council which met in Jos recently to consider the offer made by the Employers Association to implement immediately the minimum wages rate recommended in the Government White Paper for Jos Urban area ended in a deadlock.\n\nThe dealock followed the walkout at the meeting by representatives of the Nigerian Mineworkers Union and the Middle Belt Mineworkers Unions\n\nA communique issued at the end of the meeting by the Independent Chairman of the Council, Aalhaji Bello Dandago, Sarkin Dawal in Maitutas\n\nDespite the offer by the Employers to renegotiate with the Unions on the Joint Industrial Council rules, regulationsand con-ditions of Service, (which includes wages and leave pay), agreement, was consistently frustrated by the representatives of the Nigerian Mine Workers Union who were only prepared to accept the offer as an interim award pending publication of the results of the negotiations in Lagos between Government and the JAC.\n\nThe Employers Association had effered to\n
Punch Newspaper_07 September 2006_Experts Chart Path To Solid Minerals Utilisation In Oil And Gas Industry.txt	Punch Newspaper	07 September 2006	2006-09-07	Experts Chart Path To Solid Minerals Utilisation In Oil And Gas Industry	/content/Punch Newspaper_07 September 2006_Experts Chart Path To Solid Minerals Utilisation In Oil And Gas Industry.txt	Experts chart path to solid minerals utilisation in oil and gas industry\nBy Abner Godwin and Layi Adoloju\n\nThe need for local utilization of Nigeria’s solid minerals in the nation’s oil and gas industry was further brought to the front burner at a stakeholders’ forum in Abuja last week.\n\nThe forum, which this time was “Solid Minerals for Oil Industry” Progress, Constraints, and New Developments, had the endorsement of the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency and the Geosciences Society as co-participants in the session.\n\nSpecifically, the committee formulated on the progress, forwarded an adopted policy review on the local participation in the Nigerian Mining Corporation and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as a Joint Institutional Collaborative Effort.\n\nThe session had remarks made by representatives from the private sector, especially small-scale drilling enterprises in the oil and gas sector, which called for the adoption of indigenous industrial solid minerals for oil operations.\n\nThe former Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, had expanded on the transportation of raw materials as one of the paramount policies and initiatives.\n\nExperts agreed that with the global shifts in industry trends, Nigeria could boost its solid mineral economy and the possibility that utilization of barite for the oil industry was one of the viable indices that could expand geological and gas drilling efficiencies in the next decade.\n\nDr. M. Odan, a mining consultant at the session, noted, “It is important to recognize that while oil is a non-solid mineral, exploration demands the inclusion of solid mineral elements in well-drilling and geological excavation, which means that Nigeria’s bentonite and barite resources should be extensively developed."\n\nAccording to the industry position, barite and bentonite are currently used in oil drilling and completion processes.\n\nParticipants at the session urged for policy reassessments in order to boost local utilization.\n\n“Without proper equipment,” he added, “the sector would be uncompetitive.”\n\nThe Minister of Solid Minerals Development made a submission that required government-backed best practices be upheld in the mines.\n\nAccording to her, Nigeria should have full selections of crude solid minerals suited to drilling and hole-fitting technology.\n\nShe noted that firms like SMEIS, Midcorp, and Geosciences Group were pioneering frameworks for solid minerals.\n\nThe Solid Minerals, Environment, and Access to Resources session, which was attended by the MSMD, were able to outline how small business miners should take part in and ensure that the oil and gas sector does not fully rely on import substitutes.\n\nA senior member of the NMC, Mr. A. Aruwan, in his remarks, also stated that with increasing solid minerals investment, better management and wider developments could be achieved.\n\nHe listed such constraints as policy transitions and regulation issues, noting that reforms were the most desirable approach to sustaining economic diversity.\n\nThe conclusion of the forum ended with recommendations for more funding and exploration of pilot mining of solid minerals, as well as the adoption of local investment models in oil drilling and geological survey policies.\n\n“With such policy reforms,” he said, “Nigeria would boost its role in mineral and oil efficiency, reduce reliance on fuel export, and sustain energy productivity, along with electricity power supply.”\n\nOthers also advocated for clear financing models to access solid minerals in more regions, such as through SMEIS Equity Investments.
West African Pilot_09 October 1942_Forced Labour In Northern Nigeria.txt	West African Pilot	09 October 1942	1942-10-09	Forced Labour In Northern Nigeria	/content/West African Pilot_09 October 1942_Forced Labour In Northern Nigeria.txt	Forced Labour In Northern Nigeria Is Raised In Commons\n\nLONDON (BM). A debate on the motion for the second reading of the Consolidated Fund (Appropriation) Bill took place in the House of Commons recently.\n\nAccording to the London "Times," Mr Creech Jones (Shipley, Labour) initiated a debate on Colonial questions, and said that Colonial peoples were not always able to contribute to the war effort accord-ing to their capacity or their wishes.\n\nUncontrolled exploitation of mineral and other natural wealth had a profoundly disturbing effect on Native life in all its aspects.\n\nSteps should be taken when new concessions were granted to lay down definite conditions as to wages, employment, welfare, profits, and royalties.\n\nEncouragement should be given to Native enterprise on co-operative lines in a framework of ordered planning.\n\nIn some of the Colonies the working people were on the verge of revolt or certainly of dispute.\n\nIf the Essential Works Order was\n\nmade operative, there should be de-finite guarantees as to the conditions of employment.\n\nWhy was permission to apply forced labour given so readily by London without substantial proof of its necessity?\n\nThe latest Colony in which it had been applied was Northern Nigeria, but there was a great surplus of labour there.\n\nBritain was encouraging industrial conscription for private employment out of which profit could be made.\n\nNow forced labour had been introduced into Southern Rhodesia.\n\nAu alarming situation, calling for the grave attention of the Government, was to be expected in the West Indies.\n\nThe House needed more suitable machinery for the consideration of colonial policy.\n\nThe setting up of some joint Parliamentary Committee was long over-due.\n\nMr Hamilton Keer (Oldham,Unionist) said that the House of Commons \nhad a responsibility for the state of affairs disclosed in the recent "Times" articles on Colonial Administration\n\nThe Commonwealth of the British Empire, like all living organisms, must either develop or perish. It could not stand still.\n\nHe would like to see the Dominions playing a greater part in the development of the Colonial Empire, and for that purpose British propaganda about the Colonial Empire must be revised.\n\nDr Morgan (Rochdale, Labour) said that the Colonial Office was sheltering under the umbrella of welfare in the Colonies that was not enough; a new out-lock was neceвнагу.\n\nColonel Ponsonby (Sevenoaks, Unionist) said that the Colonial Of fice should take a few leaves out of the book of big businesses with world-wide ramificatiors.\n\nMr Dugdale (West Bromwich, Labour) asked why Colonial man power was not being used more fully in the force?\n\nCaptain Gammans (Hornsey, Unionist) said that the record of British Colonial administration was, in spite of many mistakes, a story of solid achievements of which Britain had every reason to be proud\n\nBut whether or not Britain should have a Colonial Empire after the war would depend upon what was done or was not done during the effort \n\n"On the result of it depends all these discussions, all these debates, and all these aspirations for the future."\n\nAfter all the plans they had made, it was not now a question of money but a question of things.\n\nThey could vote all the money they like, but they would not build another house in the West Indi's unless they could get a nail, a hammer, and a piece of timber there.\n\nEven if they could get an alloca tion of them they had to ship them and they could not ship one ton of goods in the present maritime de-fence situation.\n\nAs to forced labour, Mr Macmillan said that a large body of men were required in Nigeria because of the need for additional production of tin after the loss to the enemy of tin mines elsewhere.\n\nHe wanted to make it absolutely clear that the Colonial Secretary and he disliked forced labour.\n\nThey should not keep it on a moment longer than was necessary and were introducing every possi-ble safeguard they could.\n\nHe announced that arrangemente had been made for putting on the s'aff of the British Embassy in the United States a representative of the Colonial Office of high standing. who would be very useful in seeing that the Colonial point of view was represented at the Embassy and in making the necessary contacts with\n\n
Daily Times_29 July 1959_2 000 Enugu Coal Miners To Lose Their Jobs.txt	Daily Times	29 July 1959	1959-07-29	2 000 Enugu Coal Miners To Lose Their Jobs	/content/Daily Times_29 July 1959_2 000 Enugu Coal Miners To Lose Their Jobs.txt	2,000 ENUGU COAL MINERS TO LOSE THEIR JOBS\n\nTWO THOUSAND employees of the Nigerian Coal Corpora-tion in Enugu are to lose their jobs. Notices of retrenchment have been served on them. And it was announced yesterday that 200 more may be sacked.\n\nThe retrenchment followed an agreement reached by the Coal Corporation and the Coal Miners' Union in preference to reduction of working days from six to five a week as suggested by the corporation.\nAll the retrenched men received their dues. The retrenchment affected only those who joined the corporation before 1934 and daily paid workers who were employed after 1957.\nMeanwhile, the Commissioner for Enugu Province, Mr. E. A. Chime, has called on the Nigerian Coal Corporation to find alternative use for char in order that the retrenched men may be reemployed.\nMr. Chime said the present Chairman of the Corporation, Mr. D. W. Baron, had unfortunately inherited a "sick baby" but he urged that he should do in his power to ease the situation.
Punch Newspaper_22 March 2006_A Miners Plan Strike In Bayelsa Imo Rivers.txt	Punch Newspaper	22 March 2006	2006-03-22	A Miners Plan Strike In Bayelsa Imo Rivers	/content/Punch Newspaper_22 March 2006_A Miners Plan Strike In Bayelsa Imo Rivers.txt	Miners plan strike in Bayelsa, Imo, Rivers\nBy Ofonime Umannah, Yenagoa\n\nMembers of the Nigeria Union of Mine Workers in the South-South and South-East zones have threatened to embark on an indefinite strike to protest what they call multiple taxation.\n\nThe planned strike is coming even as the Federal Government is beginning to focus its attention on the development of the solid minerals sector of the economy.\n\nThe Chairman of the union in the zones, Mr. White Nwaehi, named the states to be affected by the strike planned for next month as Bayelsa, Rivers, and Imo.\n\nThe mine workers are asking the various governments to ensure that their members were no more asked to pay frivolous taxes for conveying stones from Akamkpa, Cross River State to the affected states.\n\nNwaehi told our correspondent in a telephone interview on Monday that letters were being dispatched to the concerned governments to prepare them ahead, and that if their demands were not met.\n\nNwaehi said he received a letter purportedly from the ministry of agriculture, asking his members to pay N15,000 per 300,000 tonnes of stones carried through Rivers State into Bayelsa.\n\nIn Imo State, he said, a conflict involving one of the members’ trucks and revenue touts over the payment of a fee they imposed led to an accident that affected somebody’s house, although no life was lost.\n\n"We have held our meetings. We have to consult our counsel and then the union’s council meeting. After that we will embark on the strike by the second week of April," he stated.\n\nAccording to the mine workers' boss, the strike will draw the government’s attention to how they are passing through in the hands of people who pose as revenue agents of the governments of the various states.\n\nNwaehi said, "The strike will be total because they need us for the construction works they are doing in those states. They can’t carry on without the stones from our members. We are appealing to them to look at what they are doing because this is a democracy.\n\n"Under what law are they doing all this nonsense? Why can the paper you collect in Abia not be valid in Bayelsa? We have only one law in Nigeria. The governments of Bayelsa, Rivers, and Imo States must withdraw those demand notices that were sent to us!"
Nigerian Citizen_30 June 1950_45 000 Plateau Miners Strike For.txt	Nigerian Citizen	30 June 1950	1950-06-30	45 000 Plateau Miners Strike For	/content/Nigerian Citizen_30 June 1950_45 000 Plateau Miners Strike For.txt	\n45,000 PLATEAU MINERS STRIKE FOR MORE PAY\n\nTwo Cases Of Sabotage Reported\n\nNEARLY THREE QUARTERS OF THE PLATEAU'S 60,000 TIN WENT ON STRIKE AT MIDNIGHT LAST SUNDAY. THE NIGERIAN AFRICAN MINEWORKERS' UNION WHICH ORDERED THE STRIKE IN SUPPORT OF THEIR CLAIMS FOR HIGHER WAGES, INCREASED HOLIDAYS AND HOLIDAY PAY AND GRATUITIES, GAVE THE EMPLOYERS FIVE DAYS' NOTICE OF THEIR INTENTION TO STRIKE. BY YESTER-DAY, SEVERAL HUNDRED MINERS HAD BEGUN TO DRIFT BACK TO WORK AND IT IS EXPECTED THAT THERE WILL BE A RESUMPTION OF WORK IN THE BIGGER MINING AREAS BY THE WEEK-END.\n\nIt is understood that the employers have considered issuing an ultimatum that unless the strikers return to work they will be dismissed. It was decided, however, in view of the numbers returning to work, that the notices would not, for the moment, be issued.\n\nTwo minor cases of sabotage have been reported-wires changed on a pump and a valve jammed on another machine-but the damage was soon repaired and the machines back in operation \n\nThe union executive dispersed after meeting the employers on Saturday morning and will not gather again until this morning when it is expected that they will meet the employers. Mr. J. B. Smith, Senior Labour Officer, Kaduna, who is on transfer from the British Ministry of Labour, will act as chairman if it is possible to arrange a joint meeting. So far, the union executive have refused to meet Mr. Smith.\n\nAt Saturday's meeting, the employers asked for time to consider the question, but the union executive replied: "You know what we want either give it to us or we strike." The employers then suggested the appointment of a concilia-tor. The executive then withdrew to consider this proposal, but later announced that they would not accept\n\nconciliation. The first intimation of the decision to strike was contained in a telegram sent\n
Punch Newspaper_01 March 2006_B Uncertainty Drives Gold Price.txt	Punch Newspaper	01 March 2006	2006-03-01	B Uncertainty Drives Gold Price	/content/Punch Newspaper_01 March 2006_B Uncertainty Drives Gold Price.txt	Uncertainty drives gold price\nInvestors are expected to add another 45.2 million ounces of gold to their portfolios this year, as gold uncertainties continue to fuel the largest bull market in gold history, according to CPM’s 2006 Gold Yearbook released on Tuesday.\n\n"As a result of this, we now estimate that on Tuesday there are estimated to hold around 1.1 billion ounces of gold; more than is held by the central banks," says the yearbook.\n\nLast year, 46.7 million ounces were purchased, making 43 per cent of the total market.\n\n"Definitely since World War Two, it would be the third largest year for investor buying, surpassed only by the 50.2 million ounces bought in 2003, and the 46.8 million ounces bought in 1967."\n\nCentral banks are expected to sell less gold this year, with CPM’s projection at 13.8 million ounces compared to 20.3 million ounces last year.\n\nBut the consultancy reckons that most of the gold that the banks wanted to sell has been sold and that average sales will drop even more.\n\nAs a result, gold sales are expected to drop to around five million ounces per year or at some point in the future.\n\nThe higher prices will however cause a drop in fabrication demand of about 1.6 per cent in 2006 to 81.3 million ounces, and the drop could be greater if higher prices persist.\n\nSome jewellery manufacturers and suppliers are suggesting that gold use in jewellery could decline five per cent to five per cent if prices remain high, while other market observers are speaking about the potential for double-digit declines.\n\nSolid Minerals in Nigeria – Oyo State\nKaolin\nMarble\nClay\nTalc\nGold\nCassiterite\nAquamarine\nDolomite\nGemstone\nTantalite\nSource: RMRDC\n\nMetal Prices in U.S dollars\nMetals\tValue\tChange\nGold\t561.15\t+7.20\nPalladium\t289.00\t+8.00\nPlatinum\t1051.50\t+17.50\nRhodium\t3460.00\t+0.00\nSilver\t9.77\t+0.15\nBase Metals\nBase Metal\tValue\nAluminium\t2370.75\nCopper\t4838.75\nLead\t1192.25\nNickel\t14897.50\nZinc\t2302.50\nDate: 28/02/06\nSource: Mineweb
Eastern Guardian_13 September 1943_Five Boys Are Buried Alive.txt	Eastern Guardian	13 September 1943	1943-09-13	Five Boys Are Buried Alive	/content/Eastern Guardian_13 September 1943_Five Boys Are Buried Alive.txt	Five Boys Are Buried Alive\n\nENUGU.--Another tragedy has occurred here when five boys, of the average age of 12 years, from the Police Barracks who went to the old coal mine were reported to have been buried alive.\n\nThe news has it that the boys' masters sent them, on the day of the calamity, September 3, to fetch home firewood.\n\nThe boys, so it is alleged. thought that coal would better serve the purpose and so they went into the old coal mine.\n\nWhen, however, they were dig-ging coal, the upper layer of the coal mine gave way and fell upon the poor boys burying them alive.\n\nTwo of the boys are reported to have died at once and the other three, seriously injured, were rush-ed to the hospital.\n
The Guardian_06 October 2020_Experts Rally To Eradicate Women Marginalisation.txt	The Guardian	06 October 2020	2020-10-06	Experts Rally To Eradicate Women Marginalisation	/content/The Guardian_06 October 2020_Experts Rally To Eradicate Women Marginalisation.txt	Experts rally to eradicate women marginalisation in mining\nBy Kehinde Olatunji\n06 October 2020 \n\nWomen, many believe, will play a major role in the development of the economy and the mining sector, but there are issues of marginalisation, segregation, and discrimination against the female gender in the sector.\n \nAlso, there are concerns that women are still a minority in the sector, especially in the lower-paid categories compared to their male counterparts.\n\n \nThis imbalance creates conditions for sexual harassment and exploitation, with very little being done to change the culture operating within the closed mining environment.\n \nExperts believe that the laws guiding the sector are not gender-friendly, since mining is stereotyped as a man’s job, and as such women are not involved in the decision-making processes.\n \nThey maintained that women hardly benefit from the corporate social responsibility (CSR), and are left poorer in mining communities because they have no access to funds either as individuals or groups in a cooperative setting.\n \nSpeaking at a Webinar organised by PwC, titled: “Assessing Nigerian Mining against Global Best Practices, President, Women in Mining (WIMIN), Janet Adeyemi, affirmed that the sector is male-dominated.\n\n \nAccording to her, the intimidation of women in mining is a minus for the economy and called for balancing and equity for the development of the sector.\n \nShe said: “By virtue of our culture, Nigeria runs a patriarchy system of government. Everything is male-dominated. Even at home, when you are a woman you have to keep quiet. Meanwhile, women in Nigeria have played significant roles but what happened when the colonial masters came, they sent women back. They even preferred men to go to school to women.\n \n“However, if you neglect almost 50 per cent of your population in any sector, where do you get the workforce to work for you? That is a minus for the economy of any country. This is why we keep preaching inclusion in mining; everybody needs to be included.”\n \nAdeyemi noted that with the use of technology, women could be more occupied in the downstream than the upstream, and cited examples of some African countries that have deployed technology in carrying out major work in the sector.\nShe said: “Technology, smart innovations are coming up that give women the latitude to work. If you go to the Finland site and see what their women are doing, they use automated mining equipment for most of the job. Also, in Mali, where gold is mined, it is 100 per cent automated equipment. The women in these countries are more than the men working. In those days, engineering and geology is a no-go area for women, but now things are changed. More women are even going to school than men. Gender is not necessarily about women but balancing and equity.”\n \nShe noted that mining is a capital-intensive venture and involves lots of technicalities (sourcing for the mine site, obtaining permits, exploration works, dealing with community leaders in mining communities, setting up mines, equipment, site management, etc), which require external support.\n\nOn his part, the National President, Mining Association of Nigeria (MAN), Kabiru Mohammed, said there are efforts to bring on board the women in mining and share with them the knowledge and technicalities to move the sector forward.\n\nHe added that the role of women in the sector is key to its development, saying women are in the processing end of the industry.\n\nHe said: “Women are very much in gemstones, jewelry-making, and the likes. All these are part of mining; however, with the technology, they can do more in the mining field, in the bush, which in those days is more of the man’s job.\n “\nTechnology has reduced the level of physical labour that women can be scared of. We have now come of age where we say we are not going to do anything without women. We want the women to understand that the umbrella is there to accommodate them so that we can collectively measure up with the agenda of the government, and the mission that everybody has so that the sector can move forward.\n \n“We need all hands to be on deck, and we are ready to share the leadership with the women so that we can show the government that the miners both male and female are equal to the task. We are also ready to key in to find ourselves on the steering seat of the economic diversification agenda of the Federal Government especially when it comes to the mineral sector, which is the key point as to where the government can source for revenue.\n \n“Oil is going, and the whole world is focusing on solid minerals, industrial, and others. We are ready to accept everybody. All the members of women in mining are our sisters, and we are ready to bring them on board, let them key in and together we can make a force to reckon with. We don’t have any problem with women. Together we can work together as a team.”
West African Pilot_17 August 1942_Wages Of Laborers In Mines Is Raised.txt	West African Pilot	17 August 1942	1942-08-17	Wages Of Laborers In Mines Is Raised	/content/West African Pilot_17 August 1942_Wages Of Laborers In Mines Is Raised.txt	Wages Of Labourers In Mines Is 'Raised' To 5s.6d. Per Week\n\nAccording to a recent Order signed by Captain J. J. Emberton, Administrative Director, arrangements have been made for the conditions of labour and wages of mine workers in the Northern Provinces.\n\nEntitled the Compulsory Nation-al Service (Essential Mines, North-ern Provinces) (General Regulations) Order, 1942, this new Order sets forth the conditions of labour of those to be so conscripted\n\nIt provides that all workers shall be medically examined and passed as fit before being allocated to their respective camps.\n\nNo essential mine shall be permitted to employ any worker unless and until the Administrative Director is satisfied that free and satisfactory housing is provided for the workers and that there are available:\n\n(a) Adequate medical staff with dispensaries, hospitals and equipment;\n\n(b) Satisfactory sanitary conditions, drinking water, food, fuel, cooking and, where necessary, clothing;\n\n(c) Facilities for medical examination at fixed intervals during the period of service;\n\nd) Adequate arrangements to ensure the subsistence of the families of the workers including, if desired, remittance of part of their wages;\n\ne) Adequate arrangements to ensure that workers may present complaints relative to conditions of service and such complaints will be examined.\n\nEvery worker passed as medically fit shall from that date be paid wages at the rate fixed by notice under the Mining Industry (Control - of Wages) (Northern Provinces) (No. 2) Regulations, 1942, for the particular service he is to render.\n\nNo worker shall be required to work for more than four months in any one period of 12 months and the time occupied in travelling to and from a transit camp and the particular essential mine shall be included in the said four months.\n\nThe conditions of service of every worker shall include the following:\n\n(a) The task and hours performed shall not exceed those or\ndinarily done by voluntary labour.\n\n(b) At least one day of rest in every week shall be allowed.\n\n(c) Full wages shall be paid dur-ing absence from service due to sickness.\n\n(d) Wages sh 11 be paid to each worker individually.\n\n(e) No worker shall be required to perform service underground.\n\n(1) Free medical and hos, ital at tention.\n\nRegarding wages to be paid, the following scales are recommended:\n\n(a) When employed on task work and rations and fuel are not provid-ed as part of wages, a minimum monetary payment of 58.61. per week shall be paid to each worker for a completed six day task.\n\n(b) When employed on task work and rations and fuel are provided as part of wages, a minimum mone\n\ntary payment of 28 61 per week shall be paid to each worker for a completed six day task.\n\n(c) When employed at daily rates and rations and fuel are not provid-ed, a minimum monetary payment of 5s. 6d. for six days' work shall be paid to each worker.\n\n(d) When employed at daily rates and rations and fuel are provided, a minimum monetary payment of 28. 61. for six days' work shall be paid to each worker.\n\nThe minimum scale of rations and fuel which are to be provided a week as part of wages shall be as follows:\n\n8 lb. guinea corn or 28 lb yams 2 lb. mest; two and half oz. salt: 14 oz. butter or one pint ground nut oil or one pint palm oil, and sufi cient firewood for cooking.\n\nSixpence worth of fuel shall also be provided a week for warmth.\n
Punch Newspaper_07 March 2006_Mining Society Decries Lack Of Interest In Solid Minerals.txt	Punch Newspaper	07 March 2006	2006-03-07	Mining Society Decries Lack Of Interest In Solid Minerals	/content/Punch Newspaper_07 March 2006_Mining Society Decries Lack Of Interest In Solid Minerals.txt	Mining society decries lack of interest in solid minerals\nBy Segun Olatunji, Kaduna\n\nThe Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society on Monday in Kaduna decried the nonchalant attitude of Nigerians towards investing in the solid minerals and mining sector.\n\nThe NMGS President, Prof. Thompson Badejoko, at a news conference on the society’s forthcoming 42nd Annual International Conference tagged “KADA 2006” and scheduled for Tuesday in Kaduna, accused Nigerian investors of being impatient.\n\nAccording to him, they have diverted their attention and interest from the profitable solid minerals and mining sectors in spite of the abundance of such resources in almost all parts of the country.\n\nBadejoko said, "Geological maps indicate all the mineral resources we have in each state. God has been so good to us that every state has more than one or two minerals in abundance."\n\nIn countries where mining activities have been well recognised and appreciated, and the investments have been yielding reasonable sums into the economy, the government in such places have done three things:\n\nThey have provided the enabling laws and the environment.\nThey have invested in finding out the quality and quantity of what they have in terms of what we call target mineral deposits.\nThey have invested in terms of exploration and beneficiation of these minerals.\nThe NMGS boss therefore advised the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development to concentrate on making a few of the available solid minerals in the country viable to attract both Nigerian and foreign investors.\n\nHe said that participants from over 20 countries around the world would attend the international conference expected to bring to the fore the economic importance of the nation’s mineral resources.\n\nThe conference which has as its theme “Nigeria’s Mineral Endowment and Global Perspective,” he said, would also target foreign investors in order to boost the nation’s mineral sector and economy.
The Guardian_20 September 2019_Mining Stakeholders Knock Government’S.txt	The Guardian	20 September 2019	2019-09-20	Mining Stakeholders Knock Government’S	/content/The Guardian_20 September 2019_Mining Stakeholders Knock Government’S.txt	Mining stakeholders knock government’s rules on accessing N15b loans\nBy Cornelius Essen, Abuja.\n20 September 2019\n\nLocal miners have complained that the stringent measures put in place by the government have hindered them from accessing the N15 billion facility loans meant to boost the mineral sector in the country.\n\nThey said that despite the conditions, which forced them to form cooperative societies, as stipulated in the pact, many of the members still find it difficult to approach Bank of Industry for the money.\n\nOne of them, Godwin Ojo, who spoke to The Guardian, explained that government should involve artisanal operators instead of looking for foreign investors, adding that local people would protect and secure the mining environment.\n\nAccording to him, cooperative societies are keys in boosting local mining, but we call on government to check illegal activities, especially the mineral titles without any capacity to process them.\n\nAlso speaking, a mining expert, Sadiq Honge, explained that the loan was a right step in the right direction for miners, but it’s sad that the arrangement had false foundation, and there was no awareness on it.\n\n“We would pursue and get across to Bank of Industry and Central Bank of Nigeria, to get small scale miners involved. Some people and politicians won’t use the platform to outsmart ordinary miners,” he said.\n\nOn her part, Abiodun Baiyewu of the Global Rights argued that artisanal miners constitute 80 per cent, but government has not made adequate loan facility for them, saying that mining is about participatory.\n\nMr. Patrick Ojeka of Artisanal and Small-scale Mining Department explained that they are gathering geosciences data to be used as bankable data for mining operators in the country.\n\n“Federal government is no longer looking at this group as illegal, but now informal artisanal miners. It wants to encourage the growthe of the sector in line with Economic Rehabilitation Growth Programme, ERGP.\n\n“They are the ones who lead the foreign miners to sites. They have organised themselves into cooperative societies before but there is internal rancour and politicking in the disbursement of the loans,” he said.\n\nHowever, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, has expressed optimism that Federal Government would reposition artisanal mining by raising it to mechanised level of operations.\n\n“There is need to promote the mining and steel sector so as to generate more revenue for the government, and to will attract foreign investors. Therefore, we have hope that in no distance time the operations will be digital level.”\n\nThe Minister of State, Dr. Okechukwu Ogah, also said that it is high time mining took its pride of place in the country, adding that before oil, mining was already contributing its quota to the revenue of the country.\n\n“No country can become a mining destination or successfully attract mining investors without having to first generate accurate geo-science data and information for investors to take advantage of,” he said.\n\nPermanent Secretary, in the ministry, Dr. Abdulkadir Muazu, urged mining investors to key in to the National Integrated Mineral Exploration Project (NIMEP) by government to provide geo-science for the investment.\n\nHe said although Nigeria is not yet recognised as a mining destination, it is committed in becoming one through NIMEP, which will give investors accurate data to help guide them in mining business in Nigeria.
Eastern Guardian_August 1942_Railway Coal Conveyors.txt	Eastern Guardian	August 1942	1942-08-01	Railway Coal Conveyors	/content/Eastern Guardian_August 1942_Railway Coal Conveyors.txt	Railway Coal Conveyors\n\nCOAL, in this country, has become one of the vital necessities with which we have to wage this war, as part of the British Empire engaged in a struggle with the Axis Powers. Therefore, whose who are engaged in this vital occupation should be given every consideration in order to fit them properly for the duty which has been imposed upon them, both in peace time and now during a world war.\n\nWhile we are not strictly concerned with their conditions of service at present, we desire to point out that, in our opinion, there is no good provision made for them so far as get-ting in and out of their working place is concerned. There is also no good provision made for their meal time.\n\nFor about 50 workers who labour under sun and rain to supply coal for our trains, vessels and industries, there is only one iron ladder not more than one foot wide, standing perpendicular to a depth of about thirty feet. We cannot under-stand why a better provision for the ingress and egress of the men cannot be made by the Railway authorities who spend so much money on experimental designs that yield little or no results.\n\nWhen the people are released for their meal, the poor men have to stand in an open shed to do so. These are problems which the Railway Welfare Officer should look into when he makes a tour of the Eastern section. It is his duty to point out to the Railway Administration that these things are a dis-grace and an unfair deal for men who fill so important a position in the efficient discharge of Railway obligation.\n\n
West African Pilot_06 January 1944_Mineral Royalties To Niger Company.txt	West African Pilot	06 January 1944	1944-01-06	Mineral Royalties To Niger Company	/content/West African Pilot_06 January 1944_Mineral Royalties To Niger Company.txt	Mineral Royalties To Niger Company\n\nIN May, 1942, one of the most detailed studies of the treaty-right of a private enterprise in respect of 50 per cent of certain mineral royalties of the country being paid to the Niger Company, was made. The Honourable S. B. Rhodes, Member of the Executive Council, has referred to this study and posed a question in respect of commutation of these royalties in the Legislative Council of Nigeria.\n\nIn England, Mr Ladipo Solanke, M.A., B.C.L., LL.B., read a paper to the West African Students' Union at its annual conference in August, 1942, and discussed this issue along the same lines. Last July, Mr R. H. Turton, M.P., raised the point in the House of Commons, after his visit to Lagos, and said:\n\n"That handing over of revenue 50 per cent of the royalties -will continue until 1998. That is very wrong. Not only do we allow a monopoly to strangle a large group of Colonies, but the Colonies themselves have to take from their revenue that which ought to be used for their betterment. It is a large sum of money. It is the equi-valent of 20 times that which the Colonies are receiving under the Colonial Development Act and is being handed over to the United Africa Company. The United Africa Company was purchased for a sum one-third of the amount which has been diverted from the Colonies."\n\nIn view of the assurance of Mr F. Samuel that the UAC "would be perfectly open in mind to consider any proposals" we think that it is up to our Government to take the initiative. In doing that, one should take into consideration the rider added by Mr Samuel: that third party rights are involved. With the progressive policy adopted by the UAC, since the war, we hope that all parties concerned will bear in mind the assurance of Viscount Trenchard that "every one on this Board is as keen as I am and you are on helping to develop your country for the good of your country." Which is a statesmanlike state-ment for a business man of the calibre of Lord Trenchard to make.\n\n
The Guardian_10 February 2005_Coal Mining Workers Groan Under Trapped N200M.txt	The Guardian	10 February 2005	2005-02-10	Coal Mining Workers Groan Under Trapped N200M	/content/The Guardian_10 February 2005_Coal Mining Workers Groan Under Trapped N200M.txt	Coal, mining workers groan under trapped N200m\n\nFor the workers of the moribund Nigeria Coal Corporation and Nigeria Mining Corporation, what came as cheering news about four months ago is fast turning into a nightmare. About four months after the National Assembly approved a special request by the Ministry of Solid Minerals for N200 million for the payment of at least six months out of the 33 months salary arrears owed staff of the corporations, the workers are yet to receive any payment.\n\nThe Guardian gathered at the headquarters of the coal corporation on Okpara Avenue, Enugu, that the funds are yet to be released for the payment of the salaries, which is running into the third year due to alleged indifference of the authorities to the workers’ plight.\n\nThe workers alleged that salaries in the last 33 months were yet to be paid owing to the lack of allocation from the Federal Government, adding that while some had died, others were living by the grace of God.\n\nApparently perturbed by the pathetic situation of the workers, Solid Minerals Minister, Mr. Odion Ugbesia, had in January said that the funds were “lying fallow somewhere.”\n\nFrom Lawrence Njoku, Enugu\nFor the immediate payment of part of the salary arrears of staff of the two parastatals of the ministry, the minister was said to have, in his letter, painted a horrible picture of the sufferings of the workers and called for urgent attention to "save those still living."\n\nThe Senate was said to have taken special notice of the request and subsequently approved that the money be released immediately for the purpose of payment of arrears of salaries of the staff of the two corporations.\n\nThe Senate subsequently approved N102 million for the coal corporation while the Nigeria Mining Corporation, Jos, was to get the balance.\n\nBut some management staff of the coal corporation, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they had not been paid any money since the approval, alleging that they had not received any dividend.\n\nAccording to them, when they made enquiries at the Ministry of Finance, they were told that the approval of the Senate was not backed by any official communication to the ministry.\n\n"They said that as of December 31, 2004, there was no written communication to the ministry, therefore the approval became ineffective and the money could not be paid," said a worker of the coal corporation.\n\nContacted on phone yesterday, Acting Managing Director of the company, Mr. Gabriel Ezeani, confirmed the non-payment of the fund but stressed that the ministry was making efforts to address the problem.\n\nEzeani, who spoke on telephone from Abuja, said he was in the nation’s capital as part of an effort at finding a solution to the problem.\n\nHe added that the government was aware of the executive orders and that projects would commence soon as part of the resolution.\n\nBut some workers are still kicking against the award of contracts, describing it as "unfair."\n\nThey insisted that there was no guarantee that the completion of projects would mean payment of their salaries, which have been in arrears for years.\n\n"Is it not insensitivity for the government to prioritize contracts over capital projects when staff salaries have not been paid?" one worker asked.\n\n
Punch Newspaper_22 February 2006_-B Fg Warns Miners Against Environmental Degradation.txt	Punch Newspaper	22 February 2006	2006-02-22	-B Fg Warns Miners Against Environmental Degradation	/content/Punch Newspaper_22 February 2006_-B Fg Warns Miners Against Environmental Degradation.txt	FG warns miners against environmental degradation\nBy Olusola Fabiyi (Who was in Kaduna)\n\nThe Federal Government on Monday warned gold miners against environmental degradation of their host communities.\n\nMinister of Solid Minerals, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, gave the warning when she paid an unscheduled visit to the mining site of Corporate Gold Limited, located at the serene plains of Kakinin Hills in Yankari Duste District of Birnin Gwari Local Government of Kaduna State on Monday.\n\nCorporate Gold is the first mechanised gold mining company in the country.\n\nThe minister, who was received by Prince Uko Robert and Emeka Chibueke, and Murata King, Chief Executive Officer, Company Secretary and Director, respectively, said her visit to the site, and what she saw, had laid to rest the controversy whether there was gold in Nigeria or not.\n\n"With what I have seen here, it is confirmed that gold mining is now a reality in this country. This visit has given me the opportunity to see that the private sector corporation, either indigenous, which we normally called domestic investors, and the international investors, will be able to develop this sector," she said.\n\nLooking at some samples, a raw gold presented to her, the minister said that this had rekindled her belief in the business "because a lot of conspirators in the business of gold exploration have indicated that Nigerians are one of the important places that they would come to.\n\n"We are expecting that a lot of that will happen. We have already started this and have broken the ground."\n\nThe minister, however, said that the mistake that happened in the Niger Delta should not repeat itself in the mining sector by making sure that mineral miners respect every community where they operate.\n\nShe said, "We would hope that you will respect the local community within which you work. These communities are as important as you can imagine, business and be okay if the community within which you do your business is not happy with you.\n\n"I believe that you must have noticed what kind of terrible impact it can have on the national economy if there is agitation on the part of the community if they feel that they have not been treated well.\n\n"We are not going to repeat that kind of mistake in the development of solid minerals sector, and therefore, our ministry is ready to build the bridge between investors and the local communities.\n\nThis is because the local communities must be able to benefit and at the end of the day, they must be beneficiaries of every profit-oriented activities that go on within their border.\n\n"We are really going to start a new hands of fellowship to our them. They must enjoy the development."\n\nShe said her ministry would facilitate the peaceful coexistence of the miners and the community by providing security and the enabling environment.\n\nShe warned that government would not tolerate the activities of illegal miners and added that those who are sensible among them would be integrated.
The Nigerian Citizen_26 August 1964_Miners Get Big Pay Rise.txt	The Nigerian Citizen	26 August 1964	1964-08-26	Miners Get Big Pay Rise	/content/The Nigerian Citizen_26 August 1964_Miners Get Big Pay Rise.txt	Miners get big pay rise\n\nMINESFIELD JOINT INDUSTRIAL COUNCIL\n\nAgreement of 31st August, 1964 effective from 1st March 1964\n\nPresent\tJos Dist. Per Day Vis.\tOther Jos Dist. or Areas\nLabour\t3/6\t4/1½\nSpecial\t4/3\t4/8\nSpecial\t4/5\t4/11\nLabour\t4/10\t5/3\nGrade 2\t5/4\t5/11\nGrade 2\t5/7\t6/1\nSpecial\t5/5\t6/0\nLabour\t6/6\t6/11\nGrade 1\t6/8\t7/2\nSkilled Personnel Class 3\t7/9\t8/2\nSkilled Personnel Class 2\t9/0\t10/2\nSkilled Personnel Class 1\t10/5\t11/2\nSuper B\t16/6\t17/6\nSuper A\t19/6\t20/6\nAnnual Increments:\nThere shall be four annual increments in each of the above scales.\nOther areas take the Jos Urban rate
The Guardian_01 August 2023_Mining Adds N505B To Nigeria’S Gdp Amid.txt	The Guardian	01 August 2023	2023-08-01	Mining Adds N505B To Nigeria’S Gdp Amid	/content/The Guardian_01 August 2023_Mining Adds N505B To Nigeria’S Gdp Amid.txt	Mining adds N505b to Nigeria’s GDP amid struggles \nBy Kingsley Jeremiah and Ernest Nzor, Abuja\n\n• Targets remain a mirage as PwC canvasses leeway \n• FG seeks states’ partnership to eliminate illegal mining\n\nStruggling to make N505 billion in five years, Nigeria’s mining industry still has a long way to go if the country’s target of increasing the sector’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product to three per cent will be achieved.\n\nA new report published, yesterday, by PwC and authored by its Partner & Mining Leader, Cyril Azobu and Partner, Head Mining Sector Business Development, Habeeb Jaiyeola, showed that Nigeria may be attracting domestic and international investors, in line with global trends in the sector. But the industry in Nigeria remains underdeveloped.\n \nDespite abundant solid resources, which include gold, lead, zinc, coal, bitumen, iron ore, limestone and barite, the report lamented that the mining industry only contributes 0.15 per cent to the GDP.\n \nThe contribution, projected to hit 0.34 per cent in 2025, is far from the three per cent target set out in the country’s mining roadmap. \n \n“Ensuring a secure environment for mining operations remains one of the matters requiring urgent attention of the new federal and state government administrations. Insecurity in the mining sector could be curbed using technology, collaboration with security agencies and mining host communities,” the report stated. \n\n \nIt called for the harmonisation of policies and regulations, saying there was a need to have a harmonised approach to regulation of mining activities among federal, state and local councils.\n \nThe report urged the Nigerian government to drive strategic minerals development, especially the need to review the country’s current list of strategic minerals, in consideration of other minerals that align with global demand and current realities. \n \n“Environmental, social and governance factors are ever-increasing considerations in the mining sector. It is necessary that environmentally friendly methods are adopted in mining. Furthermore, governance is vital for mining entities as it mitigates risks, improves decision making and ensures transparency and compliance,” the report stated.\n Also, the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, yesterday, sought partnership with states to eliminate illegal mining activities across the country.\n \nPermanent Secretary, Ministry of Mines, Dr. Mrs. Mary Ogbe, disclosed this in Abuja, while receiving the governor of Taraba State, Dr. Agbu Kefas, during a courtesy visit to the ministry’s headquarters. \n \nOgbe, who was represented by the Director, Human Resource Department, Alhaji Suleiman Muhammad Kabir, said there is a need for collaboration between the ministry and Taraba State to curtail incidences of illegal mining in the state; which has become endemic, causing hemorrhage to government’s revenue.\n\n
The Guardian_17 July 2020_Buhari Decries $3B Loss To Illegal Gold Mining.txt	The Guardian	17 July 2020	2020-07-17	Buhari Decries $3B Loss To Illegal Gold Mining	/content/The Guardian_17 July 2020_Buhari Decries $3B Loss To Illegal Gold Mining.txt	Buhari decries $3b loss to illegal gold mining\nBy Terhemba Daka (Abuja) and Kehinde Olatunji (Lagos)\n17 July 2020 \n\n•Says refineries to generate 250,000 jobs, $500m yearly\n•Stakeholders urge genuine repositioning of sector\n\nSix weeks after The Guardian exclusively reported how illegal gold mining was undermining Nigeria economically, President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, decried the activities of the smugglers, leading to a revenue loss of $3 billion between 2012 and 2018.\n\nHe, however, said his administration was up and doing to redress the situation.\n\nSpeaking at the official presentation of locally mined gold bars by the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development Initiative (PAGMDI) in Abuja, Buhari reaffirmed government’s commitment to establishing gold refineries in the country.\n\nAccording to him, improved mining would generate no fewer than 250,000 jobs and over $500 million yearly in royalties and taxes.\n\nHe said the initiative would also support efforts at diversifying the nation’s revenue base and improving its foreign exchange reserves.\n\nHis words: ‘” With the implementation of the PAGDMI scheme, which will result in the establishment of accredited gold-buying centres across key mining areas, artisanal miners and SMEs engaged in mining will be able to capture the value of their work.\n\n“These operations will help in diversifying our revenue base. The sale of gold by artisanal miners and SMEs at accredited centres will help the government in realising royalties and taxes from the sale of these assets.\n\n“These developments will also help in improving our foreign reserves by enabling the Central Bank of Nigeria to increase the amount of gold in its reserves.\n\n“These gold assets, which will be purchased in naira, will not only help to bolster our international reserves, it will also provide a hedge against inflation and other economic volatilities associated with foreign currencies that are held in our reserves.”\n\nMeanwhile, National President of the Miners Association of Nigeria (MAN), Kabiru Mohammed, has urged genuine repositioning of the sector.\n\nIn an interview yesterday, he charged financial institutions to support miners in improving their capacity.\n\nMohammed noted that mining was a capital-intensive venture that required the requisite financial backing for modern equipment, technologies and technical know-how.\n\nOn his part, General Secretary of the Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society (NMGS), Dr. Akinade Olatunji, called for a robust exploration programme to determine the quantity and quality of the country’s gold occurrences.\n\nHe sought massive investment in extensive examination to generate the needed data for informed decisions.\n\nThe don pointed out that this would enable the nation to harness the commodity maximally, adding that efforts were in place to achieve this.\n\nIn this article
Punch Newspaper_03 May 2006_Nigeria Offers 5 Mining Potential For Privatization.txt	Punch Newspaper	03 May 2006	2006-05-03	Nigeria Offers 5 Mining Potential For Privatization	/content/Punch Newspaper_03 May 2006_Nigeria Offers 5 Mining Potential For Privatization.txt	Nigeria offers 5% mining potential for privatization\nStories by Abner Godwin\n\nThe minister for Solid Minerals Development, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, said the mining properties being put up for privatization in June represented five per cent of the country’s mineral potential.\n\nShe told companies that failed to pre-qualify that abundant opportunities still existed in the sector.\n\n“Limitless and additional opportunities will be available from May through our new Mining Cadastre Office,” Ezekwesili said on Tuesday in a statement.\n\nAccording to her, the ministry, in collaboration with the Bureau for Public Enterprises, will host local and international bidders from in May, 2006.\n\nMeanwhile, the BPE had short-listed 60 companies that would participate in the mining properties bid round scheduled to hold in June 2006.\n\nThe 60 companies were drawn from the over 100 companies that submitted expressions of interest for mining titles earlier reported by The PUNCH.\n\nA spokesman for the MSMD, Dr. Tiam Onifade, said in a statement that 12 companies were short-listed to carry out due diligence and bid for the two bitumen blocks on offer.\n\n“Sixteen companies were short-listed to bid for the 10 coal properties, while a total of 32 companies were short-listed to bid for the various titles previously held by the Nigerian Mining Corporation,” he said.\n\nHe described the exercise as a milestone recorded in the privatisation programme of the solid minerals sector.\n\nThe 12 short-listed companies selected to proceed to bidding for the Bitumen blocks were:\n\nCanwest Petroleum Corporation (USA/Canada)\nCGCOC/Sinopec (China)\nChinese National Petroleum Corporation (China)\nJindacheng Energy (Canada)\nMarkmore Energy (Malaysia)\nMase Field Group (Ireland)\nNiger Delta Exploration & Production (Nigeria)\nIvanhoe Mines Ltd (South Africa)\nIvanhoe Mining (Canada)\nAditya Birla Group (Austria/Global)\nAquila Resources (Industrials) and Nordic Industries (Nigeria)\nOthers are:\n\nDangote Industries (Nigeria)\nGlobal Energy/Shanduka Resources (Nigeria/South Africa)\nGlobal Steel Holdings (Nigeria/India)\nOvwupka Consolidated Mines (Nigeria)\nLSC Consortium (Nigeria/South Africa)\nNew Nigerian Development Company (Nigeria)\nProper Technologies (Nigeria)\nOctagoncorp (Nigeria)\nOnifade said a breakdown of the list revealed that 10 companies indicated interest for Ogboyaga Coal Mine (Enugu), 11 for Ogboyama Mine (Kogi), 12 for Okaba Coalfield (Kogi), 12 for Ovwupka Coalfield (Benue), 14 for Ogboyaga I Coalfield (Kogi), and 12 for Ogboyaga II Coalfield (Kogi).\n\n“Nine companies showed interest for Ezinna Coalfield (Enugu), nine for Inyi Coalfield (Enugu), 11 for Ogwashi-Azagba lignite field (Delta) and eight for Amasiodo Coalfield (Enugu),” he added.\n\nHe said 32 companies were short-listed for bidding on NMC titles but did not give details.\n\nEzekwesili and the Director-General of the Bureau for Public Enterprises, Mrs. Irene Chigbu, jointly inaugurated the committee that carried out the pre-qualification on April 21, 2006.\n\nThe pre-qualification committee consisted of members from the BPE, the MSMD and the private sector, with several representatives of civil society organisations as observers.\n\nEzekwesili said, “These short-listed companies will form the vanguard that will lead the revival of Nigeria’s mining sector.”\n\n
West African Pilot_11 April 1956_Mine Workers Return To Industrial.txt	West African Pilot	11 April 1956	1956-04-11	Mine Workers Return To Industrial	/content/West African Pilot_11 April 1956_Mine Workers Return To Industrial.txt	Mine Workers Return To Industrial Council \nJOS, April 10.- Nigerian African Mine Workers' Union has decided to return to the Minesfield Joint Industrial Council, the nego-tiating body for settling disputes between the Miners Unions and the Employers' Association.\n\nThe decision was taken at an executive meeting of the union held at Bukuru yesterday.\n\nSpeakers at the meeting criticised the General Secretary of the union, Mr P. I. Okoye, for resigning from the Joint Industrial Council without first consulting the Executive.\n\nMany of the members stressed the need for maintaining good. relations between workers and employers.\n\nThe newly-elected President, Mr Iloh, said that the union's main concern at present was to see that harmony existed in the Minesfield.\n\nIt will be remembered that Mr Okoye and the leaders of two other Miners' Unions resigned last Octo-ber from the Minesfield Joint Industrial Council soon after a breakdown in negotiations.\n
Vanguard Newspaper_29 August 2006_Bitumen Blocks Mining Corp Assets For Sale Today.txt	Vanguard Newspaper	29 August 2006	2006-08-29	Bitumen Blocks Mining Corp Assets For Sale Today	/content/Vanguard Newspaper_29 August 2006_Bitumen Blocks Mining Corp Assets For Sale Today.txt	Bitumen blocks/Mining Corp assets for sale today\n…Coal Blocks Sale Suspended\nBy Luka Binniyat\n\nABUJA – After about a month setback, the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals Development and the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), has fixed the 29th August, 2006 (today) as the date for the opening of financial bids of the two bitumen blocks and sales of properties of the Nigeria Mining Corporation (NMC).\n\nBut, the planned sales of ten Coal blocks by the two has been suspended indefinitely.\n\nThe MSMD made these known in Abuja in two separate statements from the Minister of MSMD, Professor Prof. Leslye Obiora, signed by her aides.\n\n"The August 29 date was chosen following the successful completion of the technical evaluation of pre-qualified bids in Abuja on Wednesday August 9, 2006 by a committee set up by the Minister of Solid Minerals, Professor Leslye Obiora," a statement signed by Special Assistant to the Minister of Solid Minerals, Mr. Paul C Nwabuikwu, reads in part.\n\nIt could be recalled that Obiora had said she was not satisfied with the technical bids submitted and evaluated while, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili was occupying her present post. She, then, cancelled the first evaluation done on technical bids submitted, constituted a new committee to reevaluate the bids and shifted the public bidding session.\n\nThe committee is made up of members drawn from the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, BPE, and the private sector. He quoted the Minister as saying that with the completion of the technical evaluation processes and the opening of the bids, pace is now created to pen up the industry for investment. He, however, said that the date is subject to the approval of the National Council for Privatization (NCP).\n\n42 bids were evaluated by the technical committee – seven for the bitumen blocks on offer and 35 for the properties of the Nigerian Mining Corporation.\n\nExplaining the suspension of the sales of the ten coal blocs put on offer, the Principal Secretary of the MSMD, Mr. Jimi Oyetomi, said, "The suspension will provide opportunity to address some key infrastructural issues that will, significantly, enhance the economic viability of the coal concessions."
Daily Post_13 October 2023_Borno Govt Bans Mining Activities.txt	Daily Post	13 October 2023	2023-10-13	Borno Govt Bans Mining Activities	/content/Daily Post_13 October 2023_Borno Govt Bans Mining Activities.txt	BusinessInsecurity: Borno govt bans mining activities\nOctober 13, 2023\nBy Francis Ugwu\n\nThe Borno State Government has placed a ban on all mining activities in the state, due to the fragile security situation in the state.\n\n\nThis is contained in a statement issued by the Commissioner for Information and Internal Security, Prof. Usman Tar, in Maiduguri on Friday.\n\n”The state government is working on mapping and securing the mining sites with a view to ensuring law, order and safety of lives.\n\n\n”Government is also working on a governance protocol for the mining sector in the state,” the commissioner said.\n\nTar said the state government will soon issue a code of conduct and standard operating procedures for the mining value chain to guide the sector.\n\nHe advised all stakeholders in the mining sector in Borno to abide by the ban warning that “any violation will attract the wrath of the law.”
Daily Times_21 July 1955_Federal Govt Allocates £500 000 To Mines Unit.txt	Daily Times	21 July 1955	1955-07-21	Federal Govt Allocates £500 000 To Mines Unit	/content/Daily Times_21 July 1955_Federal Govt Allocates £500 000 To Mines Unit.txt	Federal Govt. allocates £500,000 to mines unit\n\nTHE Federal Government has allocated £500,000 to speed up the work of the Mines Reclamation Unit, Sir James Robertson, Governor-General, told the Native Authority Council here during his recent visit.\nSir James said that he was happy to hear that the Federal Government was helping and that operators of the tin mining industry were giving £50,000 to help in the reclamation.\nA further £50,000, the Governor General revealed, has been allocated by the Federal Government for a resettlement scheme.\nThis, he said, would enable those farmers who have lost their land due to mining activities to resume farming in a new area.\nWhile the mining industry must bring its problems, Sir James said, it should not be forgotten that it has greatly benefited Jos Division and will continue to do so.\nWith that in mind, he said, when difficulties arise from the industry he hoped that they would set about solving them for the continued prosperity of all.
The Guardian_04 February 2025_Miner Seeks Fg Intervention Over Alleged.txt	The Guardian	04 February 2025	2025-02-04	Miner Seeks Fg Intervention Over Alleged	/content/The Guardian_04 February 2025_Miner Seeks Fg Intervention Over Alleged.txt	Miner seeks FG intervention over alleged site seizure\nBy Ernest Nzor\n04 February 2025 \n\nA miner and owner of Queensec Global Resources Ltd, Mrs. Queendalene Augustine, has called on the Federal Government to intervene in an ongoing dispute with the Enugu State government over the alleged illegal seizure of her mining site.\n\nShe also appealed to the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, to intervene and direct the state authorities to unseal her site.\n\nAugustine, who disclosed this in Abuja during a press briefing, alleged that since obtaining two valid federal mining licenses, an aide to the Enugu State governor, Sam Okoro, had persistently blocked her from commencing operations.\n\nShe accused Okoro of collaborating with another mining company, African Pit and Quarry (APQ), owned by Seun Odusanya, to illegally extract coal from her site without her consent.\n\n“To my surprise, he arranged a truck overnight using African Pit and Quarry equipment to excavate truckloads of coal and took them to a paper mill site at Eleme somewhere in Enugu and the owner of the mill was arrested after one of my colleagues, Mrs Uchechukwu Agbachi who followed it up reported it to the police,” she said.\n\nShe revealed that the matter was reported to the Zonal Mines Office in Enugu. She also petitioned the ministry, whose intervention was to barricade the site pending proper delineation.\n\nAugustine said: “Despite the intervention of the zonal office, Mr. Okoro went there, removed the barricades, and erected poles four meters into my site. When I visited the location, I was attacked by his hoodlums. My colleague, Mrs. Agbachi, was also arrested by his men on allegations of destroying government equipment and has been detained at the Enugu Correctional Centre since December 11.”\n\nShe called on the minister to rein in the Enugu State Government, arguing that their actions were undermining the Federal Government’s support for small-scale mining.\n\nShe noted that her firm, Queensec Global Resources Ltd, holds a five-year Small Scale Mining Lease (SSML) for sand, sandstone, shale, clay, and coal. She is also demanding for compensation in damages from another mining firm, African Pits and Quarry (APQ), for breach of contract.\n\nIn response to the allegations, Okoro denied any wrongdoing, insisting that Augustine had begun mining operations in an unapproved location.\n\nHe claimed she had been invited for verification but had repeatedly declined.\n\nIn this article
Daily Independence_06 December 2007_Lagos Battles Illegal Sand Miners Arrests 20.txt	Daily Independence	06 December 2007	2007-12-06	Lagos Battles Illegal Sand Miners Arrests 20	/content/Daily Independence_06 December 2007_Lagos Battles Illegal Sand Miners Arrests 20.txt	Lagos Battles Illegal Sand Miners, Arrests 20\nBy Stella Odueme \nReporter, Lagos\nLagos State Ministry of Waterfront Infrastructure Development has arrested over 20 illegal sand miners for activities contrary to the state's laws.\nThe exercise, which also included the impounding of nine trunks, was carned out in Badore/Langbasa mad in Ajah, Etti-Osa Local Government.\nCommissioner for Waterfront Infrastructure Development, Adesegun Oniru, disclosed that the arrest followed several warning, notification letters and advertisements against the illegal actions. He said those arrested would be prosecuted, adding that any organisation that engages in dredging should make available an environmental impact analysis (AIE) to the ministry According to him, the arrest of illegal dredgers was in accordance with Section 451 of the Criminal Act to prevent damages to the environment. Oniru noted that though there were places along the coastal lines in need of dredging, necessary procedures and analysis must be carried out to determine areas in which legal approval should be sourced from appropriate government ministry.\nWhile warning against illegal activities, he stressed that making a living from damaging the environment was unacceptable to the state government\n"It is obvious that sand miners are very stubborn but the present administration is determined to ensure that an end is put to all illegal activities that could threaten the environment," Oniru emphasised.\n
West African Pilot_25 October 1961_1 000 Mines Workers To Go.txt	West African Pilot	25 October 1961	1961-10-25	1 000 Mines Workers To Go	/content/West African Pilot_25 October 1961_1 000 Mines Workers To Go.txt	1,000 Mines Workers To Go\n\nJOS, Oct. 24. More than -1,000 workers on the Plateau Mines field here will lose their jobs by the end of this month, fol-lowing the decision of the Elec-tricity Corporation of Nigeria to cut down its supply to the Mines field.\n\nThe ECN had announced that it was anticipating a break down of its electricity supply to the area.\n\nMeanwhile, other private mines have also indicated that they would lay off some of their workers if they were affected by power failure.\n\nThe General-Secretary of the Miners' Union, said in Kaduna yesterday that his union had made proposals to the management with a view to averting the pro-posed retrenchment.\n
Wikitimes_15 January 2024_Despite Govt Restrictions Illegal Mining.txt	Wikitimes	15 January 2024	2024-01-15	Despite Govt Restrictions Illegal Mining	/content/Wikitimes_15 January 2024_Despite Govt Restrictions Illegal Mining.txt	Despite Govt Restrictions, Illegal Mining Is Booming in Bauchi – Children, Women at the Forefront\nJanuary 15, 2024\n \nBabaji Usman\n\nUnauthorised mining, popularly known as Illegal mining in some communities in Bauchi State, by locals including children and women, is still booming despite recent restrictions imposed by the state government.\n\nWikkiTimes’ visit to some of the local mining sites showed that the miners seemed unaware or defying the restrictions imposed by the state government that miners must get consent letters from authorities.\n\nThe villagers work all day, extracting the mined sand locally called Monoxide minerals.\n\nAbdullahi Madaki, a.k.a Timing, is a local miner and a member of the royal family of Jirr community in Bauchi Local government area.\n\nHe said with the mining in the communities, villagers were occupied and the little income improved their living. He expressed delight at the life support the locals are getting for engaging in the mining, noting that “It’s for development. It reduces the sufferings among the people.”\nSCHOOL CHILDREN TURNED ILLEGAL MINERS\n\nSeveral children of school age formed a greater percentage of the miners in the area, WikkiTimes observed.\n\nDuring the visit, children and teenagers could be seen at the site besides women and youth.\n\nOne of the children explained that he stopped attending classes for about a year. When asked if his parents were taking him to school, he said “My parents are coming here too and we are getting money from this mining.”\n\nIn April 2023, the Jirr mining site became operational with locals including children and women engaging in full-day activities to get their daily bread.\n\nHowever, the mining in the area gained momentum after the removal of the fuel subsidy last year, where locals, including civil servants, engaged in illegal mining to support the dwindling standard of living in the families.\n\nThe mining in the area got support from some dealers who bought some portions of the mining site and used excavators for the mining. This, according to the locals, helped more local illegal miners to engage in the mining activities in the area.\n\nAccording to Madaki, the local miners get an average of N1500 a day and the business has supported over 400 locals directly benefitting from the mining activities. “Some were able to buy motorcycles, some bought cows, goats, etc. while others supported their family living,” he said.\n\nHe explained that despite hosting different people in the area, the youth in the area monitor the mining sites and activities to ensure peace and avoid any intrusion of criminals, stressing that they have cordial relations with the landowners at the mining sites. \n\nCommenting on security in the area, Madaki said security agents are monitoring the mining activities in the area including the intelligence.\n\nMadaki said as a member of the royal family, he and other youths in the community monitor the mining activities to ensure peace and to avoid any trespass by the miners and possible intruders.\n\n“We monitor what is going on here, and there is no problem,” he said.\n\nAfter the extraction of the mined mineral from the site, some of the locals would move for machine processing at Bayara, a suburb of Bauchi metropolis. \n\nA kg of the extracted monazite cost N4,500, one of the operators told WikkiTimes, and that they work throughout the day non-stop for the trooping local miners comprising children and women.\n\nIn August, four illegal miners died following the collapse of a mining site in Kogo Kadage village in the Yadagungume area of Ningi Local Government Area of Bauchi State. The incident reportedly occurred when the miners were digging lead and trying to excavate it.\n\nA recent investigation by Daily Trust revealed that besides Bauchi local government, illegal mining is taking place in five local government areas of the state, including Toro, Alkaleri, Ningi, and some parts of Tafawa Balewa. More prevalent in 20 different sites in Toro where tin ore, gold, columbite, and monoxide, among other minerals, are mined.\n\nHowever, the residents of the communities expressed concern over the influx of illegal miners from Zamfara, Niger, Kaduna and foreigners to the mining communities, hence, gradually becoming a hideout for criminals.\n\nLast week, the Bauchi state government banned traditional rulers from giving consent letters to prospective mining investors in their respective communities.\n\nThe state commissioner for natural resources, Maiwada Bello, disclosed this in a statement dated January 5, 2024, saying that henceforth.\n\nIt is illegal for individuals, groups or traditional leaders to issue consent letters to any investor without obtaining clearance from the Ministry of Natural Resources.\n\n\n
Eastern Guardian_25 October 1950_New Pinning Device Increases Safety.txt	Eastern Guardian	25 October 1950	1950-10-25	New Pinning Device Increases Safety	/content/Eastern Guardian_25 October 1950_New Pinning Device Increases Safety.txt	New 'Pinning' Device Increases Safety In U. S. Mining Operations\n\nNigerian Coal & Tin Mines May Borrow Leaf\n\nNEW YORK. To increase the safety of its underground mining operations, a company in the United States is using new method of supporting its mine roofs that eliminates the customary upright lumber supports.\n\nUnder the new method, themine roof is literally "pinned" to solid rock above the working area\n\nThe system is used by the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Rail road Company, a subsidiary of the United States Steel corporation in more than 5,000,000 square feet (465,000 square me-tres) of its coal and iron mines.\n\nAs soon as workers have opened for working, holes are drilled through the overhead soft surfaces to the hard rock.\n"In the holes," a company announcement says, "a slotted bolt of strong steel is wedged.\n\n"The end of the bolt which projects below the roof level is threaded; on it is fastened by means of an ordinary steel nut a large square steel plate which is as effective in holding up the roof as an upright timber."\n\nSince the new method has been used, company officials say, there have been no accidents from fall of roof in either coal or iron mines.\n\nThey also note that the quality of products has been improved. Other benefits cited by the company are improved ventila-tion, better clearances, and less damage to equipment.\n
Eastern Guardian 16 May 1951.txt	Eastern Guardian 16 May 1951		NaT		/content/Eastern Guardian 16 May 1951.txt	A New Coal Find\n\nAT A time when great development schemes are being proposed for this country, particularly in respect of increased trade facilities, it is heartening to learn that the bowels of mother earth in and around Enugu are still yielding up coal. If properly mined and marketted, it would provide a veritable source of increased revenue for Nigeria. But there is an even greater asset.\n\nCoal is a great motive power in the development of any country. It propels the fly-wheels of industrial mills and keeps the railways going. With a net-work of railways, the trade activities of any country increase, and that of course means a corre ponding rise in personal and national wealth.\n\nThere is a possibility, therefore, that the new coal find would render the extension of N geria's rail system an immediate considera-tion and offer scope for starting vital industries like cement-making. Also, the possibility for extracting paints and fuel oils from coal should be seriously explored. Not only would these open up vistas of secondary industries, but unemploymen, would very consi-derably be reduced.\n\nWe urge on the Eastern Administration to make a close study of these suggestions and give Nigeria the full benefit of its natural resources.\n\n
The Nigerian Citizen_14 April 1950_Vast Coal Deposits In North.txt	The Nigerian Citizen	14 April 1950	1950-04-14	Vast Coal Deposits In North	/content/The Nigerian Citizen_14 April 1950_Vast Coal Deposits In North.txt	VAST COAL DEPOSITS IN NORTH\n\nIN a few years' time it is possible Π that there will be an "Enugu" I in the Northern Provinces. Surveys which have just been completed indicate there are vast quantities 1 of coal in Benue and Kabba Provinces.\n\nThese deposits in Benue alone are believed to be nearly as great as those in the Enugu coalfield.\n\nDr. C. Raeburn, former Director of Geological Survey and now Commissioner on Special Duty ad vising the Government on mineral development and chairman of the Colliery Board of Management, says: "The search for coal has been going t on for the past three years and has 1 revealed that there are thick coal seams in Benue and Kabba.\n\n"These seams are between five and 1 eight feet thick and are thus considerably thicker than the Enugu coal now being worked.\n\n"The coal is of similar quality to that at Enugu but, so far as is known, there is no dirt parting in the seams.\n\nFUNDS SOUGHT\n\n"This means it will be possible to produce a much cleaner coal. In the Benue Province seam, there are already about six to eight million tons of coal more or less in sight, which is equivalent to half the total coal mined at Enugu in the last thirty-five years.\n\n"The Development Secretary will be asking for funds to prove the deposit by drilling, and it is intended that work on the development of the seam should oe intensified.\n\n"Should the drilling prove the ton-nage expected," says Dr. Raeburn, "the opening of a new colliery will be the logical outcome."\n\n\n
Wikitimes_29 September 2023_For Exposing Terrorism Funding Illegal.txt	Wikitimes	29 September 2023	2023-09-29	For Exposing Terrorism Funding Illegal	/content/Wikitimes_29 September 2023_For Exposing Terrorism Funding Illegal.txt	For Exposing Terrorism Funding, Illegal Mining in Niger State, Police Threaten WikkiTimes Editor, Wife, Others\nSeptember 29, 2023\n\nSahabo Abdulkadir\n\nYakubu Mohammed, WikkiTimes editor and the author of an investigative report exposing terrorism funding and illegal mining in Niger State, has been on the police watchlist and his wife, colleagues and friends have been the targets of coordinated threat.\n\nHis investigation unearthed how Chinese-allied miners operating under the licenses of Eso Terra Investment Limited and Majelo Global Resources Limited plundered the country’s natural resources while allegedly bribing armed bandits faction of Dogo Gide, a notorious kingpin terrorising Niger, Zamfara, Kaduna and Kebbi states.\n\nPolice officers in Bauchi and Niger tracked his phone number including that of his wife, Nafisat. In the search for the editor, a police officer, identified as Muhammad Hamzat by Truecaller also contacted his friend, Mustapha Gangare and WikkiTimes’s reporters Usman Babaji and Rabiu Tahir Musa. The officer claimed that a signal was sent from Niger Police Command.\n\nThe police told Rabiu, Babaji and Mustapha they are “sub-targets.” The officer [Hamzat] who called Yakubu’s wife, threatened that he knew her location and could have found her if he wanted. He further pressed her to provide her husband’s whereabouts.\n\nPROFILED AS A THIEF TO HIS FRIEND\n\nWhen the officer contacted Mustapha on Thursday, he claimed the police were looking for someone who “stole” a phone and they realised he is among the sub-targets.\n\nThe officer further invited Mustapha to a meeting, but he declined, asking for an official letter stating reason for the invitation.\n\n“The police officer later said a signal was sent from Niger and that they are looking for Yakubu Mohammed,” Mustapha told WikkiTimes, noting his confirmation that the police were after the editor in relation to his work.\n\n“The police officer later said a signal was sent from Niger and that they are looking for Yakubu Mohammed,” Mustapha told WikkiTimes, noting his confirmation that the police were after the editor in relation to his work.\n\nSimilarly, when the police reached out to Rabiu, they told him they were looking for someone and he appeared as a sub-target. They would later invite him, but he is yet to honour the invitation due to the suspicious nature of the request.\n\nINVITATION HONOURED\n\nHowever, a WikkiTimes reporter, Babaji who was also contacted, has honoured the police invitation. According to the police, Babaji was invited to assist the force in finding Muhammed in connection to their investigation.\n\n“Initially, I was called by someone who identified himself as Sunusi from the Bauchi State Criminal Investigation Department (CID),” Babaji said. “He requested to know my whereabouts and claimed that I should help him with something on his phone. I clearly told him that I was uncomfortable with his request and couldn’t trust his identity.”\n\nBabaji, however, advised the officer to make his request through the Bauchi State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Ahmed Mohammed Wakil. Babaji visited the command on Wednesday, five minutes after he was again called by another officer who identified himself as Inspector Muhammad Hamzat.\n\n“It was clear, they were looking for Yakubu, whom I often speak with on my phone as my editor. That was the reason they tracked our numbers. I told them he was my senior colleague and a WikkiTimes Editor. I informed them that he has travelled out, but would honour their invitation on his return,” said Babaji.\n\n“According to the officer, the directives came from the Niger State police command on a story he did, noting that one of the complainants is based in Bauchi.”\n\nWikkiTimes has found out that Ali Arzuka, one of the actors allegedly involved in illegal mining and mentioned in the story, is based in Bauchi State.\n\nWasiu Abiodun, spokesman for Niger Police Command said he was unaware of the search warrant, “but I will find out,” he said. \n\nHowever, he noted that the police have the right to initiate a search “against any citizen.”\n\nMOHAMMED SPEAKS\n\nThe conflict reporter and WikkiTimes editor, after receiving a distress call from his wife and others, contacted the Niger State Police Command to express his displeasure over the manhunt and threats against his affiliates.\n\nMohammed was among the network of over 2,000 investigative journalists from 130 countries who met at Gothenburg, Sweden between September 19 and 22, for the Global Investigative Journalism Conference (GIJC). But Mohammed is likely to spend more weeks in the European country due to health issues he had during the conference.\n\n“I spoke to Wasiu Abiodun, the Niger State Police Public Relations Officer and Shehu Dahiru, the head of Intelligence unit in the command,” he said via a WhatsApp call. “I complained about the threats and noted that the police could be more civil in dealing with issues that concern journalists doing their works, but both officers said they were unaware of the threats.”\n\nThe head of the intelligence unit later told Yakubu that the case was being handled by the CID in Niger State. He said the Bauchi Command was contacted to follow up with the matter.\n\n“I understand the police had come after us [at WikkiTimes] several times following any investigative report,” Yakubu noted. “But this appears to be more of coordinated efforts.”\n\nHe continued: “After the investigation was published, many people including those mentioned have called me and one of them made an appeal that I take down the story, but I refused because it’s against WikkiTime’s policy. I explained that a story can only be pulled down from the website if it is proven to be false.\n\n“And so far, nobody has succeeded to do so .”\n\nMeanwhile, the Niger State government on Monday announced that it had commenced profiling all miners across the state following complaints that they were bribing terrorists to access mining sites in the state.\n\nThe state governor, Mohammed Umaru Bago, had said that banditry in the state had persisted due to unchecked mining activities in the affected communities.\n\nThe WikkiTimes investigation also pointed out that despite the presence of terror groups ISWAP and the bandits’ faction of Dogo Gide, the mining activities continued in Kurebe and other surrounding villages of the state, even after many residents deserted the axis following attacks from the military and terrorists.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Eastern Guardian_17 November 1951_Two Years Ago.txt	Eastern Guardian	17 November 1951	1951-11-17	Two Years Ago	/content/Eastern Guardian_17 November 1951_Two Years Ago.txt	Two Years Ago!\n\nTWO YEARS ago, on November 18, 1949, twenty-one coal miners at Enugu paid the supreme prize for Nigerian freedom. They shed their precious blood so that their comrades might enjoy better days, and they suffered the piercing bullets of mighty rulers to bring it forcibly home to all that this country is under the imperial rule of another nation, and that Nigerians are subject peoples.\n\nYes, without rehearsing the sad and tragic circumstances leading to that blood bath, and without reopening old wounds by describing the parts played by people like F. S. Philip who ordered the slaughter of fellow God's creatures, and other officers whose bungling and muddling up of matters cost Nigeria twenty-one lives, we wonder what lessons our people have learnt as a result of the supreme sacrifice made by these twenty-one souls.\n\nThey died that Nigerians might be one, and that they might fight as a united body for the ultimate freedom of this country. But what is the position today? After an ephemeral unity, resulting in the birth and short existence of the now dead and buried Nigeria Emergency Committee, a clique of individuals driven by egotism and tempted by false power have relegated the question of Nigerian unity into the background and are now preaching a new sermon of hate "West for Westerners only, and East for Easterners only."\n\nBut though dead, the souls of the twenty-one miners still live. They live to prick the conscience of auctioneers of Nigerian unity, they live to back up the efforts of the NCNC in its quest for a united Nigeria, and above all their souls live to remind all true patriots in this country that unless and until we achieve national freedom, our fate and fortunes may still suffer in the hands of those who wave the sceptre of power over us today.\n
Eastern Guardian_17 July 1942_Enugu Colliery & Trade Unionsim.txt	Eastern Guardian	17 July 1942	1942-07-17	Enugu Colliery & Trade Unionsim	/content/Eastern Guardian_17 July 1942_Enugu Colliery & Trade Unionsim.txt	ENUGU COLLIERY & TRADE UNIONSIM\n\nThe early Labour Councils at Enugu Colliers were formed spontaneously by the workers themselves.\n\nIn 1938, these Labour Councils were prorogued and in 1939, suggestions began to come in in connection with the formation of a recognised union.\n\nAn Ordinance was introduced in 1938 relating to Trade Unions (No. 44). as amended by Ordinance No. 35 of 1939, and since then the unions asserted their rights to exist and secured an increasing measure of recognition from the Government and their employers.\n\nIn this Ordinance, trade unionism was defined and provisions were made for its registration, providing for the principles of collective bargaining\n\nIn 1940, suggestions for the for motion of a recognised union began to materialise with only very small proportion of the workers who realised that by the formation of such trade union the workers would have "a greater opportunity of participating in the discussion about the adjustment of those parts of industry\n\nby which they are most affected." For this purpose, a free and democratic trade union was essential.\n\nThis small body of men who want ed to form the union was greatly contradicted by the old council members who did not want the existence of a trade union,\n\nIt was appreciated that in their heart of hearts the "Leaders of Councils" were anti-trade unionists.\nThat was clearly indicated in the debate during the meeting first with Major Orde Browne (Colonial Labour Adviser) on January 9. 1940, and secondly with Mr Charles Croasdale (Inspector of Labour) on February 24, 1940.\n\nCollective action naturally and' eventually led to the formation of a permanent organisation known as the Enugu Colliery Workers' Union which was officially registered in March, 1941-\n\nAs this newly formed union began to function, the anti-trade unionists began to be convinced and they lastly found the need for such a body and fought very hard and got their own organisation registered in November. 1941, under a different name which affected only surface workers (Sur-face Improvement Union).\n\nNow, the No. 2 union claims superiority over No. 1 union and finds it unwise to amalgamate with the latter.\n\nBoth unions are still in their embryo stage and without co operation and amalgamation they cannot stand and be strong.\n\nThey need advice and guidance from people who know better, to be able to stand.\n\nThis state of affairs is not conducive to the good of Enugu colliery. men.\n\nI therefore appeal to the officers and responsible men of the two unions and other trade unions to help.\n
Punch Newspaper_15 March 2006_C Nmgs Sets Path To Sustainable Mining.txt	Punch Newspaper	15 March 2006	2006-03-15	C Nmgs Sets Path To Sustainable Mining	/content/Punch Newspaper_15 March 2006_C Nmgs Sets Path To Sustainable Mining.txt	NMGS sets path to sustainable mining\nThe Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society (NMGS) has pinpointed the passage of the revised version of the Mineral and Mining Act as one of the critical factors necessary for support robust activities in the country’s mining sector.\n\nThe President, NMGS, Prof. Thomson Badejoko, at a workshop that x-rayed Nigeria’s mineral endowment and investment opportunities, said the provision of adequate and reliable geological data and the provision of infrastructural facilities such as power and effective transportation would encourage large-scale investments in the sector.\n\nApart from the government ensuring security of tenure and to clearly define roles and responsibilities of the federal, state, local governments, local community, and investors, Badejoko said it would be necessary that emphasis be laid on local consumption of minerals.\n\nHe enunciated the diversification of the energy base of the country in a way that would encourage the utilisation of coal from the abundant local resources in the country.\n\nAnalysts say the mineral assemblage in the country is quite enormous and could be intimidating in terms of wide-spread occurrence.\n\n"Unfortunately, this has not been manifested in its contribution to economic growth and advancement of the nation," said Badejoko.\n\nHarping on sustainable mining, he said mining activities, if not carefully handled, could lead to environmental degradation.\n\n“We must not make the mistake of developed mining countries of the world by neglecting the attendant degradation that goes on with the development of mineral resources. We will continue to emphasize that there must be a balance between exploitation of earth and its replenishment so that there will not only be sustainable development but that the next generations will be bequeathed what the earth can bear,” he said.\n\nThe president tasked members of the NMGS to always provide sustainable data that would be acceptable internationally.\n\nHe emphasized that as the country moves into an era of minerals development, geologists should endeavor not to compromise their integrity.\n\n“Our language must be scientific, thorough, and truthful. Over embellishment, underplaying dishonest assessments must be discouraged," he added.\n\nSenate Committee Chairman on Solid Minerals Development, Senator Cosmos Niagwan, also called on mining engineers and geoscientists to be prepared to move with the time, accept changes, develop and implement innovative ideas that would improve productivity and efficiency in the solid minerals sector.\n\nHe pointed out that prior to the discovery of oil, solid minerals such as coal, tin, columbite, lead, and gold, among others, were exported to earn foreign exchange.\n\nDespite the wakes in the sector, which later culminated in the death of other sectors after the oil boom, Niagwan said the government intended to create a competitive business environment for private sector operators.\n\nHe noted that the timing of the conference was apt, emphasizing that there was the need to present the sector in a way that would attract foreign capital.\n\nAccording to him, the "Nigeria’s Mineral Endowment and Global Perspective" should serve as a watchword in view of the repositioning and reforms ongoing in the solid minerals sector of the economy.\n\nHe said the government’s reform package for the sector would lead to increased activity and productivity that would have a positive impact on the people’s standard of living.\n\nHe described the handicaps of the current reforms in the solid minerals sector as transparency and accountability.\n\nHowever, Prof. M.A. Omar Rahman, of the Department of Geology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, said the sector, if developed, would reduce poverty and create wealth in the country.\n\n“Unlike the petroleum industry that is an enclave with little jobs to offer to the people, this is a sector that employs many people and has the potential to absorb more employment in the country,” he counselled the government.\n\nHe insisted that adequate financial support must be given to exploration, which he emphasized would lure investors into the sector.\n\nHe commended the efforts of the government of repositioning the Geological Survey of Nigeria Agency.\n\nAccording to him, this would afford the GSNA the opportunity to play its role effectively in the emerging solid minerals sector.
Nigerian Citizen_10 December 1953_Good Prospects For Coal Corporation.txt	Nigerian Citizen	10 December 1953	1953-12-10	Good Prospects For Coal Corporation	/content/Nigerian Citizen_10 December 1953_Good Prospects For Coal Corporation.txt	Good Prospects For Coal Corporation\n\nTHE newly appointed Chairman of the Nigerian Coal Corporation, Mr. C. C. Emmett, stated in Enugu that the Corporation was a property fil of Nigeria which, with the support of the people, would play an important part in the economy of the country. From what he had heard, he said, of there were good prospects for the Corporation.\n\nHe pointed out that it was his prime fir responsibility to see that cordial relations, unity and better understanding be existed between the 9,000 workers on one part and the Corporation on the other.\n\nSpeaking of the Nigerian Coal Miners' Union, the Chairman said he was happy to be the Chairman at this time when a strong Union was established and recognised by the Corporation.\n\nHe promised to prepare a negotiation machinery through which all future disputes could be settled friendly. The Chairman also promised to do his best for Nigeria to which the Nigerian Coal Corporation belongs\n
Daily Independence_06 November 2007_Gold Found In Kebbi As Youths Businessmen Make Brisk Business.txt	Daily Independence	06 November 2007	2007-11-06	Gold Found In Kebbi As Youths Businessmen Make Brisk Business	/content/Daily Independence_06 November 2007_Gold Found In Kebbi As Youths Businessmen Make Brisk Business.txt	Gold Found In Kebbi As Youths, Businessmen Make Brisk Business\n\nGold deposits, believed to be in large quantities covering hundreds of hectares of land, have been discovered at Garin Awwal village in Fakai Local Government Area of Kebbi State: The discovery is already drawing youths and business-men from both within and out-side the state to make brisk business.\nGovernor Sa'idu Usman Dakingari, who visited the area on Thursday to ascertain the authenticity or otherwise of the story based on an earlier report, confirmed the discovery.\nA press statement by the Se-nior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the Governor, Alhaji Abdullahi Idris Zuru, said Dakingari, accompanied by the Emir of Zuru, Alhaji Muhammad Sani Sami and top government functionar-ies, was led to the area by the Sole Administrator of Fakai Local Government, Alhaji Musa Dikko Kalgo, and the Chief of Fakai, Alhaji Hudu Dan Mallam.\nThe area where the rich mineral is confirmed to have been found is located on top of a hill on the outskirts of Garin Awwal village, about 35 kilometres from Mahuta, the local government head-quarters. Already, thousands of youths and businessmen from different parts of the country have flooded the area mining and transacting business. The governor inspected the area already being dug by individuals, examined samples of the rich mineral and confirmed the authentic-ity of the report on the depos-its. He said, however, that his finding is subject to further confirmation by experts in mining.\nAddressing the people of the area, Dakingari expressed gratitude to God for blessing the area in particular and the state in general with the gold deposit. With the discovery, he said he was hopeful that the economy of the people, who are mostly farmers and cattle rearers, would improve while Kebbi will join the league of gold-producing states in the country. He advised the residents already trading there to be law abiding and live in harmony and await government's further action.\nSpeaking with reporters on the development at the week-end, Dakingari said mineral resources in any part of the country are under the control of the Federal Government, adding that he would inform the Federal Government and liaise with the relevant agencies to ensure maximum benefit for the people of the state.\nEarlier, the Emir of Zuru, Alhaji Muhammad Sani Sami, had thanked the governor for the visit and commended him for showing interest on the is-sue that has potential to im-prove the economic well-being of the people of his Emir-ate.\n\n\n
The Nations_01 December 2024_French Investors To Revive Over 2000 Abandoned.txt	The Nations	01 December 2024	2024-12-01	French Investors To Revive Over 2000 Abandoned	/content/The Nations_01 December 2024_French Investors To Revive Over 2000 Abandoned.txt	French investors to revive over 2000 abandoned mining pits in Nigeria – Alake\n\nOver 2,000 abandoned mining pits in the country are to be revived under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Nigerian and French governments.\n\nNigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake disclosed this in a statement in Abuja on Sunday, following the signing of the MOU by the two countries during last week visit by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s visit to France.\n\nThe statement signed by Alake’s senior special assistant on media, Segun Tomori, said the MOU is expected to open new opportunities for the remediation of over 2,000 abandoned pits in the country through its plan to intervene in environmental rehabilitation and post-mining projects.\n\nAlake further said that the MOU has boosted President Tinubu’s efforts at repositioning the country’s solid minerals sector for international competitiveness.\n\nHe stated that both countries agreed to develop joint projects to promote and diversify the critical minerals value chain in the solid minerals sector of both countries.\n\nAccording to the statement, the two countries identified critical minerals such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt as rare earth elements that are essential to clean energy technologies.\n\nThe key component of the MOU according to the statement is the promotion of sustainable mining activities by executing projects and programmes that reduce the environmental impact of mining on carbon emissions, water consumption, and climate change.\n\nIt also includes the establishment of joint excrative and processing projects through co-financing by public and private entities to diversify and secure the supply of critical minerals and decarbonise energy projects critical to the value chain.\n\nUnder the MOU both countries agreed to collaborate on research, training and Franco-Nigerian students exchanges for knowledge and skills transfer.\n\n\nNigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Alake signed for the country while the Inter-Ministerial delegate for Critical Ores and Metals of the Republic of France, Mr Benjamin Gallezot, signed on behalf of France.\n\nBoth nations agreed to adopt international best practices in the execution of projects conceptualised to improve the conditions of the local populace affected by mining whilst placing premium on transparency.\n\nThrough regular bilateral and multilateral training, seminars, and events, administrators of institutions in the critical metals sector are expected to improve their capacity to manage the sector’s value chain.\nDescribing the deal as a boost to the efforts of the Tinubu administration to reposition Nigeria’s solid minerals sector for international competitiveness, Alake stressed that the ministry would leverage the partnership to open up the mining sector to French investors.
West African Pilot_23 May 1960_Miners Want Nov 18 Observed As Holiday.txt	West African Pilot	23 May 1960	1960-05-23	Miners Want Nov 18 Observed As Holiday	/content/West African Pilot_23 May 1960_Miners Want Nov 18 Observed As Holiday.txt	Miners Want Nov. 18 Observed As Holiday\n\nENUGU, May 22. -- The eighth annual conference the Nigerian Coal Miners Union which began las Thursday at the Colliery Welfare Hall, Udi Siding came to a close yesterday.\nIn his presidential address Mr J. E. Bassey reviewed the business of the Union during the past 12 months and said, it was a period of great struggles. He referred to the retrenchment of a large number of miners and said, in spite of this set-back, the morale of the members of the Union was still high.\nMr Bassey revealed that the Union had appealed to the Federal Government to declare November 18, a public holiday in honour of the 21 coal miners who were killed on November 18, 1949, during disturbances in the coal mines, or in alternative the Nigerian Coal Corporation should declare that day a public holiday for the workers of the Corporation.\nThe President said further that the Union was still press-ing for the removal of Mr Baron as the General Manager\nHe regretted that only very few of the recommendations of the Kaine Commission had been implemented and urge the Corporation to set up wage committee. His Union, he concluded, was still pressing for the reversion to the six-day working days instead of the five, because the present system was not in the best interest of the miners and should be abolished.
The Guardian_22 January 2018_Group Urges Miners To Involve Host Communities.txt	The Guardian	22 January 2018	2018-01-22	Group Urges Miners To Involve Host Communities	/content/The Guardian_22 January 2018_Group Urges Miners To Involve Host Communities.txt	Group urges miners to involve host communities in mining activities\nBy Charles Akpeji, Jalingo\n22 January 2018\n\nThe Africa Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD) has admonished miners in the country to carry relevant stakeholders in their host communities along to avoid crisis.\n\nCampaigns and Research Officer of the centre, Omaojor Ogedoh, said in doing so, individuals and organisations undertaking mining activities should carry relevant stakeholders along in the business.\n\nOgedoh who made this known in Jalingo, Taraba State yesterday at the Policy Dialogue on the Project tagged: Strengthening Civic Engagement and Advocacy for Effective Natural Resource Governance in Nigeria.\n\nHe lamented that miners often ignored their host communities while carrying out their mining activities.\n\nHe said: “Most times, we are always overwhelmed by the resources we are given to mine, not minding the negative effects of the mining activities to the environment.\n\nNoting that the çentre was presently carrying out pilot projects in Ekiti, Eboyi and Taraba states, he argued that formulating mining documents without carrying along the host communities was inimical to the success of the mining industries.\n\n“We must be involved as community in developing that document, Ogedoh stressed.\n\nObserving that Taraba State was endowed with abundant mineral resources, the miners, host communities and the government, he suggested, should collectively work together to create a conducive environment for mining to thrive in the country.\n\nSpeaking, Programme Director of the centre, Monday Osasah, said the conceptualisation of the project was one of the centre’s effort to ensure engagement between the communities and miners.\n\nHis words: “The policy dialogue is created to bring citizens and other stakeholders together to examine the content of public policies and implement them with a view to examining the implementation and impact of the policies.\n\n“The objective of the policy dialogue is to provide platform for interaction and make suggestions towards resolving issues mitigating again.”\n\nIn a paper titled: Assessment and Community Development Agreement: The Challenges of Compliance of Mining Activities in Taraba State, a lecturer with the state College of Agriculture, Karshie Edward, urged the Community Development Agreement (CDA) to respect communities’ social structure such as the elders, women and youths groups during negotiation for effective compliance.\n\nHe said: “There is an urgent need to integrate the rural host communities in the relevant processes, believing that their involvement should be in the areas of impact identification, evaluation and prediction of impact mitigation measure."\n
Punch Newspaper_15 March 2006_A Results On Nigeria’S Gold Deposits Promising – Ecophonix.txt	Punch Newspaper	15 March 2006	2006-03-15	A Results On Nigeria’S Gold Deposits Promising – Ecophonix	/content/Punch Newspaper_15 March 2006_A Results On Nigeria’S Gold Deposits Promising – Ecophonix.txt	Results on Nigeria’s gold deposits promising – EcoPhonix\nStories: Abner Godwin\n\nEcoPhonix Nigeria Limited, a mining and exploration company, said on Friday that results so far obtained from laboratory tests have shown significant gold deposits in commercial quantity in Binin Gwari, Kaduna State.\n\n"We have sent some samples for laboratory test in Ghana, and the result that we got is very promising for the deposits," said the Site Manager, EcoPhonix, Mr. Ovie Odoko.\n\nGlobal uncertainties have pushed the price of gold to record levels, reaching $548.75 per ounce on Tuesday.\n\nAnalysts are bullish on gold, with $2000 per ounce in sight as demand continues to rise, and governments hedge against inflation.\n\nEcoPhonix has announced that it would invest over N150 million on gold exploration in Binin Gwari, adding, “We are looking at having between three and four mining sites before commencing operations by 2007.”\n\nExperts said the results by EcoPhonix were remarkable, as studies by geologists on the gold belts in Nigeria, based on data from the Department of Geology, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, have confirmed over 30 gold deposits spread across North-West and South-West of the country.\n\n"What we need now," said EcoPhonix in its exploration report, “is to put efforts into this sector and see what comes out of it by developing exploration to production scale.”\n\nHe said, “We are targeting a depth of 25 meters and we hope to go to a depth of 120 meters before we begin mining,” he added.\n\nNigeria’s gold has continued to attract international investors in recent times.\n\nAngloGold Ashanti Limited has indicated that it would send a delegation to explore data on the available gold.\n\nThe company said if the results prove right, it would be part of its $600 million investment in Nigeria, which would result in jobs to unemployed youths.\n\nAngloGold’s Managing Director, Mr. Neville Nkoaku, said, "We are going to look at the prospects of gold in Nigeria; it is part of an exploration programme; and if there is a possibility of commercial gold deposits, we will develop it."\n\nApart from AngloGold, other mining companies, including Northern Financial Advisors Limited of South Africa and BHP Billiton, among others, have equally indicated interest in the sector.\n\n
Wikitimes_16 November 2023_For Exposing Terrorism Funding Illegal Mining.txt	Wikitimes	16 November 2023	2023-11-16	For Exposing Terrorism Funding Illegal Mining	/content/Wikitimes_16 November 2023_For Exposing Terrorism Funding Illegal Mining.txt	For Exposing Terrorism Funding, Illegal Mining in Niger, WikkiTimes Faces N10bn Lawsuit\nNovember 16, 2023\n\nYawale Adamu\n\nA Chinese mining company operating in Niger State, Ming Xin Mineral Separation Nigeria Limited and their collaborators, Ali Arzuka and Ibrahim Usman Adam have dragged WikkiTimes, an accountability digital newspaper to court, demanding N10 billion compensation following an investigation into illegal mining and terrorism funding in the state. \n\nWikkiTimes publisher Haruna Salisu Mohammed and the editor, Yakubu Mohammed were named in the suit as defendants.\n\nThe plaintiffs in a suit instituted at Bauchi State High Court prayed the court to compel the outlet to pull down the story and tender an apology for what they described as “malicious publication”.\n\nIn a court writ served on WikkiTimes, the plaintiffs claimed that an audio recording where one of them, Adam, confirmed speaking with Dogo Gide’s mother was doctored. They maintained that the people of Kurebe, the area of their major operation, had absolved them of paying ransom to bandits in a newspaper publication.\n\nThe case has been scheduled for a hearing on December 14, 2023.\n\nSetting the Record Straight \n\nEarlier in September, WikkiTimes investigated how the miners operating under the licences of Eso Terra Investment Limited and Majelo Global Resources Limited, pay bribes to bandits to gain access to natural resources at Kurebe and other surrounding communities in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State.\n\nWikkiTimes investigation showed how they bribed the armed bandits faction of Dogo Gide [a terror kingpin wreaking havoc in Kaduna, Kebbi, Zamfara and Niger] to have access to the mining sites in the banditry-ravaged area. The companies continued operating in the communities despite a government ban on mining activities in the north-central state.\n\nLocal miners told WikkiTimes that terrorists loyal to Dogo Gide had been bribed several times to provide safe access to the mining sites. According to locals, the terrorists received a protection fee of N3 million weekly in addition to the gift of motorcycles.\n\nWikkiTimes got an insight into the companies’ collaboration with the terrorists through an exclusively obtained audio conversation where Adam, one of the plaintiffs, confessed that they had to dialogue with Dogo Gide’s mother before operations could begin at the sites.\n\nThough WikkiTimes’ investigation established their connection with the terror group, Adam and Arzuka have denied funding terrorism and illegally operating in the area.\n\nTherefore, the two individuals together with a Chinese company, Ming Xin, that was not accused of wrongdoing in the WikkiTimes report have filed a lawsuit against the newspaper.\n\nIn their prayers, they asked the court to declare the investigation as “defamatory” to their characters and reputations.\n\nApart from the N10 billion demanded, the plaintiffs are asking the court to order a payment of N10 million for legal costs. The plaintiffs also prayed the court to order a retraction of the investigation with an apology “to be published on WikkiTimes website, Daily Trust and two other national dailies as well as two international magazines.”\n\nThreats Against WikkiTimes Editor\n\nYakubu Mohammed, the author of the investigation who is also the editor of WikkiTimes and his family have been threatened by police operatives in Niger and Bauchi states.\n\nPolice officers in Bauchi and Niger tracked his phone number including that of his wife, Nafisat and have been harassing the couple. A police officer, identified as Muhammad Hamzat also contacted the editor’s friend, Mustapha Gangare and WikkiTimes’s reporters Usman Babaji and Rabiu Tahir Musa. The officer claimed that a signal was sent from Niger Police Command to arrest the editor, but failed to formally invite him or the publisher.\n\nAt the time, the two journalists were in Sweden attending the Global Investigative Journalism Conference (GIJC).\n
Eastern Guardian_05 July 1950_The Enugu Tragedy & Workers.txt	Eastern Guardian	05 July 1950	1950-07-05	The Enugu Tragedy & Workers	/content/Eastern Guardian_05 July 1950_The Enugu Tragedy & Workers.txt	The Enugu Tragedy & Workers\n\nTHE NATION has shown its reaction to the shooting of the twenty one miners at the Iva Valley. No matter what our detractors may say about it, the fact is that the people have realised themselves as never before. But more than all others, the shooting of those unarmed miners has a significance for the workers of Nigeria.\n\nThose workers died while trying to establish a democratic economic system in a country where few roll in luxury while the many are victims of abject and chill penury. They died so that those to come after them may live abundantly. And that is where our workers come in.\n\nTrade unionism in Nigeria has been subjected to many failings and failures. This may be due to diverse factors but whatever they were, let's hope that from now onwards, Nigerian workers would realise that their fate is in their hands. Let them now be able to know the wheat from the tare.\n\nThe twenty one miners shall have made a vain sacrifice if the labour fraternity of this country does not stand firm. Let the blood of the victims of November 18 tragedy bind for ever more the workers of this country.\n\n
Nigerian Mining Com_05 September 2024_Illegal Mining Zamfara Governor.txt	Nigerian Mining Com	05 September 2024	2024-09-05	Illegal Mining Zamfara Governor	/content/Nigerian Mining Com_05 September 2024_Illegal Mining Zamfara Governor.txt	Illegal Mining: Zamfara Governor Dauda Lawal Faces Accusations of Financing Banditry\n\nThe Centre Against Banditry and Terrorism (CABT) has criticised Zamfara State Governor, Dauda Lawal, for allegedly financing banditry and illegal gold-mining operations for personal profit.\n\nAt a press conference, CABT Executive Director Yakubu Dauda accused Governor Lawal of paying over N1.3 billion to notorious terrorists, including Kachalla Dogo Gide, Bello Turji, and Ado Alero, to further destabilise gold-rich communities.\n\nThe coalition called for a thorough investigation into terrorism sponsorship in the North West and demanded the prosecution of all individuals linked to insecurity in Zamfara and the region. Dauda also urged anti-corruption agencies to verify the transactions, freeze relevant accounts, and bring those involved to trial for terrorism financing.\n\n“Contrary to the lies told in the approval, Governor Lawal’s main motive is to sustain his profit from illegal mining activities which is his sole business. The funds paid to the terrorists seem to have been for them to unleash more mayhem on communities with gold deposits especially since there has been an uptick in attacks in the aftermath of the payments,” the statement said.\n\n“For context, the funds transferred to these terrorists were done solely at the discretion of Governor Lawal. There is nowhere in the approval that states that this criminal enterprise was undertaken with neighbouring states or the federal government.\n\n“The expenditure of this amount for arming terrorists and mobilising subversion of the Nigerian state did not pass through the Zamfara State House of Assembly as well if only to secure its rubber stamp approval.\n\n“It is worrisome that Governor Dauda Lawal and the Zamfara State Government have not cleared the air on this criminal payment to terrorists since the leak of that document. Governor Lawal’s silence is an acceptance of culpability.\n\n“This must now attract consequences because the evil he perpetrated in Zamfara affects the whole of Nigeria.”\n\nCABT lauded the Minister of State for Defence, Dr. Muhammad Bello Matawalle, for his efforts in reviewing the ongoing anti-banditry and counter-terrorism operations in the North-West region, expressing optimism that the banditry problem would soon be resolved.\n\nThe coalition said his review of the ongoing anti-banditry and counter-terrorism operations in the North-West region has reassured us that the banditry problem will one day be a thing of the past.\n\n“The Centre Against Banditry and Terrorism (CABT) terrorism can only end if we all join hands to take the war to the sponsors of the terrorist gangs. We demand a full investigation of those behind the sponsorship of terrorism in the North West,” the statement said.\n\n“We expect that Mr President will issue an Executive Order to accelerate the naming and prosecution of all persons connected with the insecurity in Zamfara State and the North-West to rid that part of Nigeria of terrorism.\n\n“We urge the anti-graft agencies to confirm the transactions in the document, freeze all accounts associated with the listed beneficiaries, and put the recipients on trial for terrorism financing.”\n\nTHE FULL TEXT BELOW\n\n*BEING THE TEXT OF A PRESS CONFERENCE HELD IN ABUJA ON THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 5, 2024 BY CENTRE AGAINST BANDITRY AND TERRORISM ON THE COLLAPSE OF THE SECURITY SITUATION IN THE NORTHWEST OF THE COUNTRY OCCASIONED BY THE REVELATION THAT THE GOVERNOR OF ZAMFARA STATE, DAUDA LAWAL, IS PAYING BANDITS AND OTHER SUBVERSIVE ELEMENTS TO UNDERMINE SECURITY IN THE REGION AND BY IMPLICATION ACROSS NIGERIA.\n\nProtocols,\n\nGentlemen of the press, you must by now be familiar with a distributed released in the public domain showing the approval by Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal that authorised payment of the sum of One Billion, Three Hundred and Seventy-Eight Million Naira (N1,378, 000,000) to terrorists, bandits and other subversive elements that are responsible for the insecurity, killings and kidnappings plaguing the north-west and other parts of Nigeria.\n\nContrary to the lies told in the approval, Governor Lawal’s main motive is to sustain his profit from illegal mining activities which is his sole business. The funds paid to the terrorists seem to have been for them to unleash more mayhem on communities with gold deposits especially since there has been an uptick in attacks in the aftermath of the payments.\n\nFor context, the funds transferred to these terrorists were done solely at the discretion of Governor Lawal. There is nowhere in the approval that states that this criminal enterprise was undertaken with neighbouring states or the federal government. The expenditure of this amount for arming terrorists and mobilising subversion of the Nigerian state did not pass through the Zamfara State House of Assembly as well if only to secure its rubber stamp approval.\n\nJust to be clear, Governor Lawal paid the “BANDITS KINGPINS” as follows: (1.) Kachalla Dogo Gide = N200,000,000 (2.) Kachalla Bello Turji = N200,000,000 (3.) Ado Alero N200,000,000 (4.) Kachalla Halilu Sububu N150,000,000 and (5.) Gwaska Dan Karami N150,000,000.\n\nHe also paid subversive elements, who he described as “MEDIA PROMOTERS” as follows: (6.) Sahara Reporters N100,000,000 (7.) Jackson Ude = N158,000,000 (8.) Bashir Hadejia = N100,000,000 (9.) Shuaibu Mungadi = N50,000,000 (10.) Tijjani Lamaran N50,000,000 (11.) Danbilki Kwamanda = N20,000,000.\n\nWe want to note a few other things immediately. Firstly, the approval had this clause, “implement the project” which left us wondering. What project? The payment cannot be “the project” since the payment is meant to get the terrorists to commit to certain deliverables. What are these deliverables? Secondly, is the directive for the “state ministry of finance to release the said amount for distribution to the beneficiaries listed above as a matter of urgency.” Since this approval was from July 2, 2024, the funds have been disbursed to these criminals.\n\nKachalla Dogo Gide\n\nKachalla Dogo Gide is a vicious terror kingpin linked to the abduction of 137 students from elementary schools in Kaduna State sometime this year. He is also one of the suspected masterminds of the attack on a Kaduna-bound train and runs the biggest kidnap-for-ransom franchise in Nigeria.\n\nKachalla Bello Turji\n\nKachalla Bello Turji is a bloodthirsty notorious terrorist and bandit kingpin who has left a trail of death in the northwest. Turji led a bandit gang in the 2022 Zamfara massacres that killed hundreds of people including women and children.\n\nBashir Hadejia\n\nBashir Hadejia is in the custody of security agencies being investigated for allegedly masterminding the August 2024 #EndBadGoernanceInNigeria violent protest in the north of the country. Hadejia was arrested for treason, subversive activities against the Nigerian government, trans-border gun-running, heist and other transnational crimes.\n\nJackson Ude\n\nUnited States-based fugitive, Jackson Ude, a self-acclaimed investigative journalist and promoter of the infamous blog pointblanknews.com, has been running pro-terrorist propaganda for the group. Known for regularly blackmailing and extorting, high profile Nigerians, Ude recently attempted to spin a narrative to exonerate Bashir Hadejia following the latter’s arrest.\n\nSahara Reporters (Omoyele Sowore)\n\nSahara Reporters’ publisher, Omoyele Sowore, is not new to controversial payments. He has been accused in the past of accepting funds from foreign interests to undermine the sovereignty of Nigeria. Sowore has become a permanent fixture on the ballot for presidential elections, a position he uses for leverage since he spins his arrests for subversive activities as a clamp down on the opposition.\n\nThese are brief profiles of some recipients of Governor Lawal’s N1.35 billion. These are persons who have declared it their life mission to bring Nigeria down. These are persons whose actions and activities have led to the spilling of the blood of innocent Nigerians. Payments to these persons have made citizens despondent.\n\nIt is worrisome that Governor Dauda Lawal and the Zamfara State Government have not cleared the air on this criminal payment to terrorists since the leak of that document. Governor Lawal’s silence is an acceptance of culpability. This must now attract consequences because the evil he perpetrated in Zamfara affects the whole of Nigeria.\n\nWe are only fortunate by the ray of hope offered by the Minister of State for Defence, Dr Muhammad Bello Matawalle, through his visit to the Nigerian Army’s 8th Division Headquarters in Sokoto State. His review of the ongoing anti-banditry and counter-terrorism operations in the North-West region has reassured us that the banditry problem will one day be a thing of the past.\n\nGentlemen of the press, the Centre Against Banditry and Terrorism (CABT) terrorism can only end if we all join hands to take the war to the sponsors of the terrorist gangs. We demand a full investigation of those behind the sponsorship of terrorism in the North West.\n\nWe expect that Mr President will issue an Executive Order to accelerate the naming and prosecution of all persons connected with the insecurity in Zamfara State and the North-West to rid that part of Nigeria of terrorism.\n\nWe urge the anti-graft agencies to confirm the transactions in the document, freeze all accounts associated with the listed beneficiaries, and put the recipients on trial for terrorism financing.\n\nYakubu Dauda\n\nExecutive Director.
The Guardian_01 February 2005_Govt Approves New Management Outfit.txt	The Guardian	01 February 2005	2005-02-01	Govt Approves New Management Outfit	/content/The Guardian_01 February 2005_Govt Approves New Management Outfit.txt	Govt approves new management outfit for mining firm\n\nThe Federal Government has conceded the management of Nigeria Iron Ore Mining Company (NIOMCO) to Global Infrastructure Holdings Ltd.\n\nA statement issued at the weekend in Abuja by the Ministry of Power and Steel says that the new manager will operate the mines, maintain the equipment and plants and pay royalties to the Federal Government.\n\nNIOMCO, located at Itakpe, Kogi State, has the potential of producing billets, the core raw material needed by Ajaokuta Steel Company for the production of liquid steel, iron rods, and a host of other steel products.\n\nThe move, according to the statement, is to ensure an uninterrupted supply of iron ore to the Ajaokuta Steel Plant.\n\n"Federal Government’s move stems from the basic belief that not only should steel be manufactured locally, but that even the raw materials used in its production be sourced locally," the statement adds.\n\nGlobal Infrastructure Ltd in 2004 also entered into a concessional agreement with the Federal Government to manage the Ajaokuta Steel Plant.\n\nThe NIOMCO agreement would be strictly supervised by the Power and Steel Ministry, which would set up a monitoring unit for that purpose.\n\nThe government, since the inception of Ajaokuta Steel Company two decades ago, established NIOMCO as the primary source of raw material for the steel company.\n\nMeanwhile, the Geological Department of the state Ministry of Commerce and Cooperatives will soon produce a directory of mineral resources in Ogun State.\n\nThe state director of Geology services, Mr. Steve Ipinmwa, said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) last week in Abeokuta that the directory would provide necessary information for investors to tap the massive natural resources in the state.\n\nHe disclosed that the department, established in September last year, then had 80 geologists, each working on specific schedules.\n\nIpinmwa stated that the department’s major achievement in the last three months was the preliminary report on clay deposits in Ogun State.\n\nHe pointed out that the report, sent to Europe, was now the basis for a Spanish ceramic company’s interest in establishing its company in the state.\n\nIpinmwa said that his department was also working on laterite deposits and its suitability for building at a cheaper cost.
The Guardian_02 October 2024_‘Support Mining Reform Critical To Mitigating.txt	The Guardian	02 October 2024	2024-10-02	‘Support Mining Reform Critical To Mitigating	/content/The Guardian_02 October 2024_‘Support Mining Reform Critical To Mitigating.txt	‘Support, mining reform critical to mitigating environmental degradation’\nBy Ernest Nzor\n02 October 2024 \n\nDr Chinenye Onyeabor is a Lecturer in Environmental Geochemistry and Mineral Exploration at the Department of Geology and Mining, University of Science and Technology, Enugu. In this interview with ERNEST NZOR, Onyebor explores the impact of artisanal mining on Nigeria’s economy, environment, and healthcare.\n\nWhat led to the rise of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) operations?\nMining in Nigeria has a long history, starting in the colonial era when mineral extraction expanded significantly. Mining activities have spread nationwide, documented in the official Mining Cadastral records. The socio-economic impact has been profound, affecting both large-scale and artisanal operations. Often, established mining companies did not integrate local populations, leading to indigenous communities taking over abandoned mining sites as a means of livelihood. For instance, in Niger State, mining companies abandoned sites due to insecurity, prompting locals to continue mining despite a ban. Traditional small-scale mining practices also predate commercial operations, as seen in Abakaliki’s galena mining for cosmetics before 1940.\n\nThese mining activities have transformed landscapes and economies but also introduced challenges like health risks, school dropouts, insecurity, and increased poverty. Understanding this history is essential for developing a balanced and sustainable approach to the mining sector.\n\nWhat factors are considered when classifying mining activities as artisanal?\nArtisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) operations often face inefficiencies such as outdated techniques, low recovery rates, and poor productivity. They lack social security, environmental consideration, and capital. ASM operators often struggle with legal knowledge, local cultural practices, and inadequate government support. In Niger State, for instance, miners self-identify as “unharmonised” rather than illegal, reflecting a complex relationship with formal mining regulations.\n\nBased on your experience, what are the major challenges faced by ASM?\nASM operations face numerous challenges, including physical dangers like rock falls and inadequate ventilation. Accidents are frequent due to outdated equipment and unsafe practices. Financial struggles result in minimal income and neglected safety measures. The inefficiency in exploitation and processing leads to poor recovery rates and low productivity. Environmental and health issues, such as mercury exposure and pollution, are prevalent. Additionally, lack of legal knowledge and support exacerbates these issues, as does the disconnect between formal policies and the realities of ASM operators.\n\nGiven these challenges, do ASMs stand a chance of legalisation, economic improvement, and sustainability?\nDespite challenges, ASM plays a crucial economic role, providing livelihoods for millions. For example, ASM contributed significantly to Zimbabwe’s gold production. Addressing the sector’s challenges and differentiating local ASM from illegal foreign operations is vital. Effective support and formalization can mitigate environmental degradation and enhance socio-economic benefits. International projects like MMSD, CASM, and the Minamata Convention focus on translating adverse impacts into economic benefits. However, sustainable development requires integrating ASM into mainstream mining with government support and proper regulations.\n\nWhat are the current major environmental concerns in the sector?\nNigeria’s mining industry faces severe environmental challenges, including drainage issues, pit lakes, mercury and cyanide pollution, heavy metal poisoning, and river siltation. These concerns must be addressed to ensure the sustainability of mining operations.\n\n\nWhat are the best mitigation and sustainability plans for ASMs?\nAssistance to ASMs should focus on community development and mutual benefits. Effective strategies include: Establishing policies for poverty alleviation, a favourable business environment, and sustainability. Implementing transparent legal frameworks and ensuring political will. Encouraging cooperatives for accountability and fairness. Providing security, infrastructure, and social services to mining communities.\n\nOffering capacity-building programs, affordable financing, and credit facilities. Developing a regulatory framework that balances environmental and socio-economic needs. Promoting collaborative efforts between government, ASM operators, and communities. Monitoring and evaluating interventions to guide policy decisions.\n\nThe introduction of advanced mining and processing plants and public-private ventures can enhance productivity and benefit communities. Proper management and investment in local processing facilities can reduce child labour and support development.\n\nWhat are your proposals for effective environmental and mining policy formulation? \nFor sustainable development, it is essential to upgrade, legalise, and support ASMs to benefit all stakeholders. Upgrading their capacity and bringing processing facilities closer to mining communities will enhance social well-being and productivity. Prioritising the needs of local communities and integrating ASM into mainstream mining with effective policies will contribute to socio-economic growth and sustainability.
Nigerian Mining Com_05 June 2024_Bandits Frustrate Rescue Operations.txt	Nigerian Mining Com	05 June 2024	2024-06-05	Bandits Frustrate Rescue Operations	/content/Nigerian Mining Com_05 June 2024_Bandits Frustrate Rescue Operations.txt	Mining News\nBandits Frustrate Rescue Operations for Trapped Miners After Mine Collapse\n\nRescue efforts for approximately 30 artisanal miners trapped in a collapsed mining pit in Niger state, Nigeria, have been hindered by threats from armed bandits.\n\nThe incident occurred on Sunday in the village of Galkogo, Shiroro district, where the miners were working for a local company. Abdullahi Baba Ara, head of the Niger State Relief Agency, reported that security personnel halted the deployment of rescue teams due to bandit threats.\n\n“Our deployment to the area was halted by security personnel due to bandit threats,” Ara explained.\n\n“Over 30 miners are trapped in the collapsed pit,” Ara confirmed. “Seven have been rescued with severe injuries, and efforts continue to save the others.”\n\nThe Shiroro district is among several areas in Niger State plagued by banditry, with frequent raids, lootings, and kidnappings. Despite challenges, rescue teams have managed to save seven miners with severe injuries, and efforts continue to rescue the remaining trapped individuals.\n\nHowever, the exact number of miners trapped remains uncertain due to the difficult terrain and limited equipment.\n\nThe area is known for mining gold, tantalite, and lithium. Notably, the Niger state government had banned mining in Shiroro, Munya, and Rafi districts last year due to security concerns.\n\nNevertheless, artisanal miners have continued to operate in the area, driven by economic necessity after bandit attacks displaced many from their homes and farms.\n\n
The Guardian_29 January 2024_Court Remands 41 Suspects Over Alleged.txt	The Guardian	29 January 2024	2024-01-29	Court Remands 41 Suspects Over Alleged	/content/The Guardian_29 January 2024_Court Remands 41 Suspects Over Alleged.txt	Court remands 41 suspects over alleged mining of Oyo govt’s gold\nBy NAN\n29 January 2024\n\nAn Iyaganku Chief Magistrates’ Court in Ibadan on Monday ordered the remand of 41 illegal miners in Agodi Correctional facility over alleged mining of gold, property worth N1.248million belonging to Oyo State Government.\n\nThe defendants, of undisclosed address pleaded guilty to the charges against them.\n\nThe Chief Magistrate, Mrs O. O. Ogunkanmi, who did not take the plea of the defendants, ordered that they should be remanded at Agodi Correctional facility pending the outcome of the case file at the Oyo State Ministry of Justice.\n\nOgunkanmi, thereafter, adjourned the matter until Feb. 6 for hearing.\n\nThe News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the police accused the defendants of conspiracy and illegal mining.\n\nThe defendants: Babangida Salihu, 25, Adamu Sanni, 39, Abdulaziz Lawal, 18, Mamman Ibrahim, 50 and 37 others were arraigned before the court on the two counts.\n\nThe Police Prosecutor, Insp Sikiru Opaleye, told the court that defendants and others at large allegedly conspired together to commit the offence.\n\nOpaleye said the defendants on Jan. 25, allegedly extracted 24.96 grams of gold from an illegal mine at Onipanu village, Ilaju, Ibadan, unlawfully and concealed it without the consent and authority of Oyo State Government.\n\nThe prosecutor put the value at N1. 248 million, from the land that belongs to Oyo state government\n\nOpaleye said the offence contravened Sections 516 and 396 of the Criminal Code Laws of Oyo State 2000.
Nigerian Mining Com_29 January 2025_Lawyer Urges Nigerian Government.txt	Nigerian Mining Com	29 January 2025	2025-01-29	Lawyer Urges Nigerian Government	/content/Nigerian Mining Com_29 January 2025_Lawyer Urges Nigerian Government.txt	Mining News\nLawyer Urges Nigerian Government to Act on Military’s Alleged Role in Illegal Mining\n\nThe Nigerian government has been urged to respond to serious allegations made by Senator Adams Oshiomhole, a former national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), regarding the involvement of senior military officials in illegal mining operations across the country. Oshiomhole accused both serving and retired military officers of backing foreign miners, particularly Chinese operators, in exploiting Nigeria’s mineral resources with impunity.\n\nSpeaking on Sparkling FM’s morning discussion programme Let’s Talk Nigeria, legal expert and notary public Leonard Anyogo insisted that the federal government must not ignore such a grave accusation from a serving senator. He argued that the claims should be thoroughly investigated to maintain public trust in the country’s governance and security institutions.\n\nA widely circulated video shows Oshiomhole speaking on a panel, where he alleged that high-ranking generals were enabling illegal mining activities. According to him, these individuals had “weaponised the processes,” allowing foreign miners to extract resources worth billions of dollars without any resistance. He further claimed that these miners operate freely, using helicopters to transport the minerals while avoiding scrutiny.\n\nOshiomhole also revealed that during his tenure as APC national chairman, he brought the issue to then-President Muhammadu Buhari, urging him to hold the implicated generals accountable. However, he stated that Buhari failed to take any action, raising concerns about whether different laws apply to the powerful and the ordinary citizens.\n\nAnyogo reiterated that the allegations were too significant to be overlooked. He called on the Public Prosecution Commission to publicly name the officers involved, arguing that transparency was necessary to restore faith in Nigeria’s legal and economic systems. He also stressed that addressing the issue promptly would help attract direct foreign investment and improve Nigeria’s international standing.\n\nThe allegations have sparked outrage among the public, with several callers on the radio programme demanding immediate government intervention. Many also challenged Oshiomhole to disclose the names of the accused officers, insisting that accountability should not be selective.
Daily Times_28 October 1955_Mine Strikers Trek 11 Miles To Protest.txt	Daily Times	28 October 1955	1955-10-28	Mine Strikers Trek 11 Miles To Protest	/content/Daily Times_28 October 1955_Mine Strikers Trek 11 Miles To Protest.txt	MINE STRIKERS TREK 11 MILES TO PROTEST \nDemonstration against their employers\n\nTHOUSANDS OF striking minefield workers have trekked eleven miles from Bukuru to Jos in a demonstration against their employers. Normal business was brought to a complete standstill and traffic was held up in Bukuru when the first batch of demonstrators started out. \nA spokesman of the strikers said they were demonstrating against "tightfisted, greedy employers."\nThe demonstrators carried placard bearing slogans like Away with slave labour in the minefield, and "Equal pay for equal labour."\nThe first group of demonstrators gathered in the market square Bukuru and were joined by others from the neighbouring villages of Rayfield, Karina, Sabon Gida, and Angla Di\nAt Anglo Jos, headquarters of the Gold and Base Metal Mines, several thousand strikers from Delimi camps belonging to the Base Metal Group joined the demonstrators. \n\nPOLICE LORRIES\nThe procession of demonstrators was one mile long. The eleven-mile trek was without incident, except that two demonstrators were over-come by heat and fainted.\nTwo police lorries headed the long procession of demonstrators.\nYesterday, the demonstrators re-turned to Bukuru in two long columns.\nA report alleged that police had to use tear gas to disperse strikers who clashed with non-strikers at Delimi.\nTwo strikers were also alleged 10 have been injured in the incident and taken to hospital. The Nigeria Mining Employers\n
Daily Independent_06 December 2007_Lagos Battles Illegal Sand Miners Arrests 20.txt	Daily Independent	06 December 2007	2007-12-06	Lagos Battles Illegal Sand Miners Arrests 20	/content/Daily Independent_06 December 2007_Lagos Battles Illegal Sand Miners Arrests 20.txt	Lagos Battles Illegal Sand Miners, Arrests 20\nBy Stella Odueme\nREPORTER, Lagos\n\nLagos State Ministry of Waterfront Infrastructure Development has arrested over 20 illegal sand miners for activities contrary to the state’s laws.\n\nThe exercise, which also included the impounding of nine trucks, was carried out in Badore/Langbasa road in Ajah, Eti-Osa Local Government.\n\nCommissioner for Waterfront Infrastructure Development, Adegunk Oniru, disclosed that the arrest followed several warnings, notification letters and advertisements against the illegal actions. He said those arrested would be prosecuted, adding that any organization that engages in dredging should make available an environmental impact analysis (AIE) to the ministry.\n\nAccording to him, the arrest of illegal dredgers was in accordance with Section 451 of the Criminal Act to prevent damages to the environment. Oniru noted that though there were places along the coastal lines in need of dredging, necessary procedures and analysis must be carried out to determine areas in which legal approval should be sourced from the appropriate government ministry.\n\nWhile warning against illegal activities, he stressed that making a living from damaging the environment was unacceptable to the state government.\n\n“It is obvious that sand miners are very stubborn but the present administration is determined to ensure that an end is put to all illegal activities that could threaten the environment,” Oniru emphasized.\n\n
The Guardian_29 January 2024_Court Remands 41 Suspects Over Alleged[1].txt	The Guardian	29 January 2024	2024-01-29	Court Remands 41 Suspects Over Alleged[1]	/content/The Guardian_29 January 2024_Court Remands 41 Suspects Over Alleged[1].txt	Court remands 41 suspects over alleged mining of Oyo govt’s gold\nBy NAN\n29 January 2024\n\nAn Iyaganku Chief Magistrates’ Court in Ibadan on Monday ordered the remand of 41 illegal miners in Agodi Correctional facility over alleged mining of gold, property worth N1.248million belonging to Oyo State Government.\n\nThe defendants, of undisclosed address pleaded guilty to the charges against them.\n\nThe Chief Magistrate, Mrs O. O. Ogunkanmi, who did not take the plea of the defendants, ordered that they should be remanded at Agodi Correctional facility pending the outcome of the case file at the Oyo State Ministry of Justice.\n\nOgunkanmi, thereafter, adjourned the matter until Feb. 6 for hearing.\n\nThe News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the police accused the defendants of conspiracy and illegal mining.\n\nThe defendants: Babangida Salihu, 25, Adamu Sanni, 39, Abdulaziz Lawal, 18, Mamman Ibrahim, 50 and 37 others were arraigned before the court on the two counts.\n\nThe Police Prosecutor, Insp Sikiru Opaleye, told the court that defendants and others at large allegedly conspired together to commit the offence.\n\nOpaleye said the defendants on Jan. 25, allegedly extracted 24.96 grams of gold from an illegal mine at Onipanu village, Ilaju, Ibadan, unlawfully and concealed it without the consent and authority of Oyo State Government.\n\nThe prosecutor put the value at N1. 248 million, from the land that belongs to Oyo state government\n\nOpaleye said the offence contravened Sections 516 and 396 of the Criminal Code Laws of Oyo State 2000.
West African Pilot_23 June 1960_Nigerian Coal May Be Exported To.txt	West African Pilot	23 June 1960	1960-06-23	Nigerian Coal May Be Exported To	/content/West African Pilot_23 June 1960_Nigerian Coal May Be Exported To.txt	Nigerian Coal May Be Exported To Japan\n\nTHE Federal Minister of Finance. Chief F. S. Okotie-Eboh has indicated that it might be possible in the future to ship Nigerian coal to Japan.\n\nThe Minister who was speaking at an exclusive interview at his Marina residence in Lagos yesterday, said he would resume discussion with the Japanese Minister of Commerce, during his four weeks tour of Europe, Asia and America which commences tomorrow.\n\nChief Okotie Eboh disclosed that the Nigerian Minister of Commerce and Industry had previously had conclusive discussions on the matter.\n\nGUARANTEE\n\nThe Minister also explained the loan policy of his Government. "My Government's policy" he stated, was to obtain loans "for self-renumeration of industries and undertakings."\n\nChief Okotie-Eboh rejected the suggestion that Nigeria's investment and savings overseas should be released to finance development projects. It was the Minister's view that any attempt to tampered with these render Nigerian currency worthless overseas, and that as these assets serve as guarantee to foreign investors, to withdraw them would hamper the flow of foreign capital to Nigeria.\n\nDuring his official tour. the Minister hopes to discuss the possibility of Czechoslovakian industrialists establishing a factory for the manufacture of bicycle tyre, tubes, rubber, and canvas shoes in Nigeria.\n\nChief Oketie-Eboh expressed dissatisfaction with the trade relations between Nigeria and certain Asian and European countries. These countries, he regretted, imported more goods into Nigeria than Nigeria exported to them. One of the objects of his present mission was to explore the possibilities of balancing Nigeria's trade with Japan, Czechoslovakia, Germany. etc.\n\nAsked about the significance of the presentation of licences to two American banks. Chief Okotie-Eboh replied that it would "stimulate interest in Nigeria" in the "American business circle,"\n
West African Pilot_17 August 1942_Forced Labour Wages & Diet.txt	West African Pilot	17 August 1942	1942-08-17	Forced Labour Wages & Diet	/content/West African Pilot_17 August 1942_Forced Labour Wages & Diet.txt	Forced Labour Wages & Diet\n\nTHIS country should be ashamed if it endorses what appears at page 1059 of the current "Gazette" under the signature of "J. J. Emberton, Administrative Director" as a subsidiary legislation defining scale of wages and nature of ration for conscripted workers in the mines of the Northern Provinces.\n\nFor labour (piece work or otherwise) deemed rea-sonable by the Administrative Director mine workers are to be paid the munificent sum of 5/6d per week (for a completed six day task). Where ration and fuel are supplied, the mine workers are entitled to the gratui-tous sum of 2/6d per week.\n\nThe weekly ration consists of 8lb guinea corn or 28 lb yams, 2 lb meat, 24 oz. salt, 14 oz. butter or 1 pint ground nut oil or 1 pint palm oil, sufficient firewood for cooking. The weekly fuel supply consists of 6d worth of firewood for warmth.\n\nWe wonder whether in fixing the wages of miners and determining their ration the Administrative Direc-tor bothered to read the report of labour conditions in West Africa which was submitted by Major Orde Browne, particularly the section dealing with nutrition?\n\n\nWe also wonder whether he has bothered to read Lord Moyne's despatch with reference to raising the stand-ard of living of Colonial peoplos? If so, then it is a tragedy.\n\nIndeed, it is our considered opinion that the intro-duction of forced labour in Nigeria, in connection with our mining industry is uncalled for. since it is obvious that there is no labour shortage. The necessity for the utility of forced labour, apparently, in order to increase the output of tin, is thus seen to be demonstrable.\n\nWe appreciate that Government might be nervous, realizing the strategic position of Nigeria, so far as contain particular raw materials and minerals in connection with the war effort are concerned, and Govern-ment might be apprehensive that the mines will not attract free labour. The reason for such apprehension is obvious: sweated labour, moagre wages, and challenging conditions of work, in the past.\n\nBefore September 1, 1941, wage-earners were paid five pence per day in Plateau Provinco. Certainly, that is not an attractive wage for labour in the mines, voluntary or forced. Now that such labour is made compulsory the wage scale has been "raised" to 5/61 por week without ration, or 2/6.1 per week with ration\n\nWe respectfully submit that Government should pay all conscripted workers in the mines, a minimum wage of 2/- per day for such compulsory labour, with-cut ration, and 1/- per day with ration, in order to enable the mine workers to procure a balanced diet, for purposes of nutrition. This will also raise their standard of living. That is a statesman-like way of looking at this problem of forced labour, either in peace-time or war-time.\n\n
The Guardian_15 December 2023_Solid Minerals Defence Ministry Partners.txt	The Guardian	15 December 2023	2023-12-15	Solid Minerals Defence Ministry Partners	/content/The Guardian_15 December 2023_Solid Minerals Defence Ministry Partners.txt	Solid minerals, Defence ministry partners to secure mining environment\nBy Ernest Nzor, Abuja\n15 December 2023 \n\nThe Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake and his Defence counterpart, Abubakar Badaru, on Friday, put the finishing touches on plans to secure the mining environment in the country.\n\nSpeaking during a courtesy visit to the Minister of Solid Minerals Development Dele Alake, Badaru, noted that the parley is in furtherance of collaboration to secure mining sites, across the country, reiterating the resolve of the President Bola Tinubu administration to wipe out the activities of illegal miners and attendant banditry associated with it.\n\nBadaru said: “The country needs to make huge revenue from mining, but insecurity is bedeviling the industry. That is why the minister is pushing so hard for us to provide serious protection around the mining areas.\n\n“That is why we always discuss to see how we can protect the mining environment, bring lasting peace to the country, so that mining will flourish and the country will earn the much-needed foreign exchange from the sector.”\n\n\nResponding to the proposed new security architecture, the Defence Minister restated that plans are underway for clearance operations at flashpoints as a prelude to the deployment of the specialized mining police.\n\nOn timelines for clearance operations, Badaru revealed that preparations have reached an advanced stage, citing collaboration with the solid minerals ministry to get the data of all mining sites in the country to enable coordinated security operations.\n\nIn his remarks, Dr. Alake, read the riot act, for the umpteenth time, to illegal miners and their sponsors, declaring that their days are numbered, as the Federal government is committed to bringing the full weight of the law to bear on those that do not desist from these nefarious activities.
Eastern Guardian_24 April 1951_Enugu Coal Worker Kills Six People Including His Wife.txt	Eastern Guardian	24 April 1951	1951-04-24	Enugu Coal Worker Kills Six People Including His Wife	/content/Eastern Guardian_24 April 1951_Enugu Coal Worker Kills Six People Including His Wife.txt	Enugu Coal Worker Kills Six People Including His Wife\n\nHe Has Been Arrested & Caged\n\nENUGU. Three people died on the spot and three others died in hospital as a result of matchet wounds inflicted on seven individuals by Timothy Aguguam here recently.\n\nThe seventh casualty-a small girl is still in hospital and it is not known whether she would recover from her wounds.\n\nTimothy Aguguam, a native of Mbieri in Owerri Province, is a shot fire man in the employ of the Nigerian Coal Corporation at Iva Valley.\n\nHe had suspected his wife of being unfaithful, but the matter was amicably settled between him and his wife by a delegation from their home town.\n\nNot satisfied, however, with his wife's later behaviour which aroused more suspicion, he recently attacked his victim, including his wife, whose corpse have been removed to the mortuary and are awaiting post-mortem examination.\n\nTimothy Aguguam has been arrested and remanded in custody, while the police is conducting an investigation into the matter.\n
The Guardian_27 August 2024_Niger Lifts Ban On Mining As Adamawa Tasks.txt	The Guardian	27 August 2024	2024-08-27	Niger Lifts Ban On Mining As Adamawa Tasks	/content/The Guardian_27 August 2024_Niger Lifts Ban On Mining As Adamawa Tasks.txt	Niger lifts ban on mining as Adamawa tasks monarchs on menace\nBy Guardian Nigeria\n27 August 2024 \n\nThe Niger State government has conditionally lifted the ban on mining.\n\nActing Governor Yakubu Garba made the pronouncement yesterday while inaugurating an 18-man task force on illegal mining to tackle environmental degradation in Minna.\n\nHe noted that since the inception of the administration, the government has been disturbed by the menace of illegal mining in parts of the state.\n\nGarba regretted that despite several efforts to fight the phenomenon, compliance had been very low.\n\nThe Acting governor stressed that the mining industry is crucial for economic growth, but lamented that illegal mining had negatively affected the environment, hence the decision to suspend mining activities some months back.\n\nHe said out of the 880 registered mining firms, consisting of 578 companies and 302 cooperatives in the state, only about 261 reported to the Ministry of Mineral Resources for profiling.\n\nSecretary to the State Government (SSG) and chairman of the task force, Abubakar Usman, on behalf of others, expressed gratitude for the opportunity to serve and pledged to deliver.\n\nThe Commissioner for Mineral Resources, Sabo Yahaya is Co-Chairman, while the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mohammed Yunusa Nahauni, is serving as the secretary.\n\nOther members are the Commissioner for Homeland Security; Commissioner of Police; Director of DSS, Commandant of NSCDC, Commandant of Vigilante, all the 25 council chairmen, secretaries of all the eight Emirate Councils, representatives of State Assembly, Judiciary, among others.\n\nEQUALLY, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State has charged district heads to be vigilant against illegal miners, who pose significant security risks, and announced plans to introduce legislation to curb the nefarious activities.\n\nHe also pledged to enhance the welfare and working conditions of traditional rulers, citing the need for clear role definition and improved support.\n\nDuring a meeting with the district heads at the Government House in Yola, Fintiri emphasised the crucial role of monarchs in maintaining peace and security at the grassroots.\n\nHe acknowledged that their efforts are often hindered by poor pay and undefined job roles.\n\nAs part of his reforms, the governor plans to engage the district heads in workshops to enhance their capacity and address the challenges they face.\n\nLed by Mustafa Mohammad Sanusi, the district heads expressed gratitude for the governor’s commitment to their welfare, and pledged support for his policies.
The Guardian_28 June 2019_‘Nigeria Losing Huge Revenue From Illegal.txt	The Guardian	28 June 2019	2019-06-28	‘Nigeria Losing Huge Revenue From Illegal	/content/The Guardian_28 June 2019_‘Nigeria Losing Huge Revenue From Illegal.txt	‘Nigeria losing huge revenue from illegal mining, inefficient policies’\nBy By Oluwatosin Areo\n28 June 2019 \n\nActivities of illegal miners as well as ineffective implementation of policies in the solid minerals sector may be costing the country huge revenue and slow-paced development.\n\nWhile the officials did not disclose the estimated loss in the industry due to its current state, counterpart West Africa states lost $2billion in 2017.\n\nExperts said increased illegal mining and unhindered encroachment by Artisanal and Small scale Miners (ASM) are the biggest challenges facing the sector.\n\nThey noted that there is still a long way to go due to the cost of mining, artisanal mining that foster black market gold, inefficient government regulations and policies.\n\nSpeaking during the Gold West Africa Conference with theme: “The future of African Gold- Developing the West African Gold Economy”, organised by Kian Smith Gold Refinery and the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, the experts noted that harmonisation of regulations, implementation of stability measures, tax free carry, and license duration would boost the sector.\n\nPermanent Secretary, Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Abdulkadir Muazu, said Nigeria has a lot of dormant gold site, but with good policies and regulations can broaden the nation’s revenue base.\n\nIn Nigeria, gold production started in 1913, was at its peak in 1933/1934 and declined during 2nd World War period, from which it never recovered.\n\nIndeed, over 20 old mines have been abandoned since the 1940s, which leaves gold mining an artisanal activity.\n\nHe mentioned that collaborations with private sector would address this challenge and help convert the small miners into some viable enterprise.\n\nLauding efforts of Kian Smith, he noted such collaborations would promote and partner the likes of Khan Smith Initiative to unlock and develop potentials in the gold value chain.\n\n“We then move from exploitation to value addition then finance. This action in the value chain will drive maximum benefit potentially available in core mining sector.\n\n“Gold mining is a high risk sector. It has long maturation and dominated by informal men but has the potential to take people out of poverty and create more employment. In doing this, we need to ensure that we protect our environment and the small miners or labourers to prevent exploitation at the expense of their health or that of their children,” he added.\n\nOn the need for the conference, Vice Chairman, Kian Smith Gold Refinery, Nere Teriba, said the inaugural meeting would reposition stakeholders in the region at this critical time.\n\nShe noted that despite the decline in world gold mine production, West Africa’s gold production has been increasing.\n\n“For the region to truly benefit from this lucrative resource, it will be imperative that a vision and action plan is mapped out that ensures empowerment and sustainability, while creating an enabling environment for West Africa gold producing and trading countries to become stakeholders in global gold market,” she added.\n\nMeanwhile, Vice Chancellor, Ahmadu Bello University, Prof. Ibrahim Garba said West Africa is an emerging gold exploration investment hotspot due to its huge source of gold, iron ore, bauxite, diamonds, phosphate and uranium.\n\nDirector of Operations, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Dauda Yakuba, stressed that the critical sector of the gold value chain is the refinery; until it plays her role, there would be no monetary gain.\n\nYakubu said the regulatory body have adopted, trained and certified companies to meet up with international standard.\n\n“There is need to harmonise standards that would facilitate community traded goods for conformity assessment. We have a lot of work to do especially on the value chain. We need technology boost quality and quantity; also strengthen the value chain by training the ASM, with proactive government for policies enforcement,” he added.
The Nations_01 December 2024_French Investors To Revive Over 2000 Abandoned Mines.txt	The Nations	01 December 2024	2024-12-01	French Investors To Revive Over 2000 Abandoned Mines	/content/The Nations_01 December 2024_French Investors To Revive Over 2000 Abandoned Mines.txt	French investors to revive over 2000 abandoned mining pits in Nigeria – Alake\n\nOver 2,000 abandoned mining pits in the country are to be revived under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Nigerian and French governments.\n\nNigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake disclosed this in a statement in Abuja on Sunday, following the signing of the MOU by the two countries during last week visit by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s visit to France.\n\nThe statement signed by Alake’s senior special assistant on media, Segun Tomori, said the MOU is expected to open new opportunities for the remediation of over 2,000 abandoned pits in the country through its plan to intervene in environmental rehabilitation and post-mining projects.\n\nAlake further said that the MOU has boosted President Tinubu’s efforts at repositioning the country’s solid minerals sector for international competitiveness.\n\nHe stated that both countries agreed to develop joint projects to promote and diversify the critical minerals value chain in the solid minerals sector of both countries.\n\nAccording to the statement, the two countries identified critical minerals such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt as rare earth elements that are essential to clean energy technologies.\n\nThe key component of the MOU according to the statement is the promotion of sustainable mining activities by executing projects and programmes that reduce the environmental impact of mining on carbon emissions, water consumption, and climate change.\n\nIt also includes the establishment of joint excrative and processing projects through co-financing by public and private entities to diversify and secure the supply of critical minerals and decarbonise energy projects critical to the value chain.\n\nUnder the MOU both countries agreed to collaborate on research, training and Franco-Nigerian students exchanges for knowledge and skills transfer.\n\n\nNigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Alake signed for the country while the Inter-Ministerial delegate for Critical Ores and Metals of the Republic of France, Mr Benjamin Gallezot, signed on behalf of France.\n\nBoth nations agreed to adopt international best practices in the execution of projects conceptualised to improve the conditions of the local populace affected by mining whilst placing premium on transparency.\n\nThrough regular bilateral and multilateral training, seminars, and events, administrators of institutions in the critical metals sector are expected to improve their capacity to manage the sector’s value chain.\nDescribing the deal as a boost to the efforts of the Tinubu administration to reposition Nigeria’s solid minerals sector for international competitiveness, Alake stressed that the ministry would leverage the partnership to open up the mining sector to French investors.
West African Pilot_11 June 1966_Nigerian Coal Corporation.txt	West African Pilot	11 June 1966	1966-06-11	Nigerian Coal Corporation	/content/West African Pilot_11 June 1966_Nigerian Coal Corporation.txt	NIGERIAN COAL CORPORATION\n\nNo. 37/A/917\n\nEnugu.\n\n6th June, 1966.\n\nTender for the Purchase of Scraps\n\nThe Nigerian Coal Corporation invites tenders for the purchase of the following scraps from Okpara Mine. Onyeama Mine, Ribadu Mine and the Colliery Head Office:-\n\nOld Tubes.\n\nOld Wire Ropes.\n\nOld Rails.\n\nOld Lorry Bodies.\n\nOld Tyres -Head Office.\n\nOld Batteries -Head Office.\n\nTenderers are required to state the tonnage that they are willing to take and the rates that they can pay.\n\nThe scraps can be inspected at the mines provided prior appointments are made with the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Corporation.\n\nEach tender must be enclosed in a sealed envelope and marked "Confidential" "Tender for the Purchase of Scraps" and addressed to the Secretary, Nigerian Coal Corporation, P.M.B. 1053, Enugu, to reach him not later than the 27th of June, 1966.\n\nTenders may be forwarded by post or deposited in the Tenders Box at the Corporation's Head Office.\n\nThe Chairman of the Tenders Board does not bind himself to accept the lowest or any tender.\n\n(A. I. OBEYA)\n\nSecretary.\n\n
Punch Newspaper_26 August 2021_Ebonyi Tragedy Time To Embrace Geoethics.txt	Punch Newspaper	26 August 2021	2021-08-26	Ebonyi Tragedy Time To Embrace Geoethics	/content/Punch Newspaper_26 August 2021_Ebonyi Tragedy Time To Embrace Geoethics.txt	Ebonyi tragedy: Time to embrace Geoethics\n26th August 2021\nBy \nGreg Odogwu\n\nAfrica is still very far from development unless we totally drop the inane idea of attributing everything to the supernatural. It is high time we began to look downwards towards our human potential, instead of upwards to unseen beings who are expected to solve our problems for us. When unfortunate incidents occur, instead of just painting them with the one-stroke “mystery” label, we should take an inventory, learn from our mistakes and make amends in order to prepare for future occurrences.\n\nThe recent unfortunate tragedy in Ebonyi State is a case in point. A fortnight ago, a commercial vehicle carrying about 11 passengers plunged into a mining pit in Enyigba community, in Ikwo Local Government Area. According to media reports, an eyewitness, Akachukwu Offia, a lecturer with the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike Ikwo, the mining pit into which the bus lunged was owned by a mining company stationed nearby. He said no help was forthcoming from the mining company despite appeals from him and other commuters.\n\n“A vehicle fell into a pit. Driving from Abakaliki a little distance away from a mining company some minutes ago, I observed a white car driving along the same direction. And suddenly, the car fell into one of the mining pits full of water very close to the road. It was like a dream to me while I followed the car a little distance away from behind.\n\n“I quickly stopped other vehicles from both sides to observe the true position of the accident and while we observed more closely, we discovered much wave of the water due to the fall but could not sight the car nor the passengers. I quickly rushed with another private car owner to the mining company to report the accident and seek urgent rescue but the rest were more of protocols which could not render an immediate help. Who were the passengers in the car? Whose relatives were they? How could we recover their dead bodies after about 40 minutes of no immediate solution. And when shall that particular pit and others close by be covered with earth? I was shocked and also wept at the ugly sight. May the LORD repose their souls, Amen.”\n\nIt was important to fully quote the narrative according to an eyewitness in order to properly situate the event in realtime. This is because when the Executive Governor of the State, Dave Umahi, came to the scene, he had a different angle entirely. The News Agency of Nigeria reported that the governor described the accident as “mysterious”.\n\nIn my mind, going by eye witness accounts, mysterious is not a word that should even be seen or heard in the matter. This is a clear open-and-close case of irresponsibility. A mining company dug a 20-metre pit for its mining operation without considerations for the environmental and social impact. To add salt to injury, the pit is along a major highway, where the governor and other elected and unelected public officers ply every day. Among them are staff of the state Ministry of Solid Minerals, who collect monthly salaries.\n\nA sitting governor now hears about the unfortunate accident which attracted national attention because of its sheer horror; hurries to the site to see the vehicle submerged in dirty water; sees the mining company seated comfortably around the corner; and still has the courage to look up to heaven and ask God why He decided to take the life of these commuters!\n\nThis is gross irresponsibility; both on the side of the governor and on the side of the owner of the mining company. It is also an indictment on our society. If it were in saner climes, the moment is enough to trigger a national outrage against irresponsible mining. Citizens would have raided the guilty company on that road, and shown them what it meant to take the lives of the citizens for granted.\n\nMedia houses would have taken up front page editorials to condemn irresponsible mining. The Federal Ministries of Mines and Environment would have called out the company owners. They would have withdrawn their license until they reviewed their outrageous ecocide. Civil society organizations would have utilized the opportunity to educate rural people, especially in resource rich areas, about Social and Environmental Impact of resource utilization.\n\nBut, sadly, nobody moved a finger. The Ebonyi tragedy became another of many Nigerian tragedies that are now too numerous to count. As a matter of fact, many people saw it as another road accident, which it was not. Therefore, because Nigerians have already given her a ready cover, the government of Ebonyi State hid under the mourning mode, and waved away the real environmental issues. Nigerians followed the cue, and moved on to other calamities!\n\nTo be fair, the Ebonyi governor later acknowledged that the mining company was to blame. Hear him: “My Chief of Staff, who doubles as the Commissioner for Solid Minerals, Chief Samuel Okoronkwo, should ensure the identification of all pits dug for mining purposes. We would identify those who dug the pits and commence their re-claiming by August 23. Our roads are being destroyed by these miners who take our minerals away at night, aided by our people and some unscrupulous security agents.”\n\nBut the question is, where has the government been for the past 20 years, as the mining pit on that road was reportedly to have been in existence. Is it now that the government is realizing that the state is under an environmental siege? What is to be done?\n\nThe answer is Geoethics, an emerging discipline, mostly known in the West. But because of the kind of ecological rascality we see in our clime, Nigeria and other resource-rich African countries should be the ones championing it. Our future is endangered because of the irresponsible activities of those who are taking our natural resources without properly applying the plugs to ensure that we are not drowned by our own kitchen sink.\n\nBy definition, Geoethics consists of research and reflection on the values which underpin appropriate behaviours and practices, whenever human activities interact with the Earth system. It deals with the ethical, social and cultural implications of geoscience knowledge, education, research and practice, providing a point of intersection for Geosciences, Sociology, Philosophy and Economy.\n\nIn 2017, the International Association for Promoting Geoethics came up with a seminal document “White Paper on Responsible Mining”. As I witnessed the Ebonyi incident, it dawned on me that the IAPG paper was actually written for a time like this. If only our political leaders knew what is good for their people, this is the time to take the initiative and lead the other nations of the world towards responsible mining. Indeed, we need it more than Europe.\n\nIt proclaims, “Mining cannot choose locations that are logistically, socially, environmentally or politically optimal, appropriate or ‘friendly’. This means that companies may have to deal with circumstances that could pose ethical challenges including: the relationship with local communities, position in the landscape/environment, relationship with local and national governments, weak governance and associated increased risk of corruption and bribery. It is necessary to deal with these challenges in a responsible way. This also means that geoscientists and engineers will need to build their capacity and skills on how to deal with local communities and related social issues.\n\n“There is no doubt that mining can bring positive benefits to the host countries but these can come at a cost to the environment and local communities if relationships, resources and operations are not managed properly. The fundamental aim must be equitable distribution of the benefits of development and minimization of the negative impacts on people and the environment. Responsibly navigating this field requires a strong ethical compass.”\n\ngregodogwu@yahoo.com 08063601665
The Guardian_02 June 2024_Fg To Establish 6 Mineral Centers To Boost.txt	The Guardian	02 June 2024	2024-06-02	Fg To Establish 6 Mineral Centers To Boost	/content/The Guardian_02 June 2024_Fg To Establish 6 Mineral Centers To Boost.txt	Mining: FG to establish 6 mineral centers to boost sector\nBy NAN\n02 June 2024 \n\nThe Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake, says plans are ongoing by the Federal Government to establish six mineral centres in the six geo-political zones.\n\nAccording to Alake. the aim is to boost the sector.\n\nAlake said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.\n\nHe said that the plan was part of the President Bola Tinubus administration’s commitment to diversify the country’s economy, by developing key sectors such as the solid minerals industry.\n\n“Another one is the creation of six minerals centres in each of the six geo-political zones.\n\n“We have our minerals all over the country and we cannot concentrate the mineral processing centres in one centre, and as we speak those plans are ongoing in the zones”, he said.\n\nAccording to the Minister, the centres are also part of the government’s commitment to promote value addition to its minerals, aimed at facilitating multiplier effects on the economy.\n\nNAN recalls that minister had announced that no licence would be granted to mining companies to operate without presenting a comprehensive plan for value addition such as processing and refining.\n\nAlake said that investors in the past extracted raw mineral resources from Nigeria without adding value to them, which he described as a great loss to the country’s economy.\n\n“Lithium is one of the finest qualities in the world, and it has other associated minerals like nickel, cobalt, and copper.\n\n“So when an operator takes an ounce of our Lithium out of Nigeria, perhaps he declares Lithium.\n\n“ But when he gets to his host country, he now has other associated minerals to his gain and to the loss of Nigeria.\n\n“So our major policy which we enacted is that, henceforth, we would no longer approve application from an investor that does not show us a concrete plan for local value addition.\n\n“Which means processing here to add local value addition, and this will generate a multiplier effect like local employment, technology and skills transfer,” he said.\n\nHe said that the move was in line with plans to locally produce Electric Vehicle’s (EVs) batteries in Nigeria, which major ingredient is Lithium.\n\n“Our objective here is to begin to produce EVs batteries which the ingredient is Lithium and other associated minerals, ” he said.\n\nThe Minister said that the local value addition policy had also been widely accepted by other African countries aimed at developing their local economies.
Daily Independent_06 November 2007_Gold Found In Kebbi As Youths Businessmen Make Brisk Business.txt	Daily Independent	06 November 2007	2007-11-06	Gold Found In Kebbi As Youths Businessmen Make Brisk Business	/content/Daily Independent_06 November 2007_Gold Found In Kebbi As Youths Businessmen Make Brisk Business.txt	Gold Found In Kebbi As Youths, Businessmen Make Brisk Business\nGold deposits, believed to be in large quantities covering hundreds of hectares of land, have been discovered at Garin Awwal village in Fakai Local Government Area of Kebbi State. The discovery is already drawing youths and businessmen from both within and outside the state to make brisk business.\n\nGovernor Sa’idu Usman Dakingari, who visited the area on Thursday to ascertain the authenticity or otherwise of the story based on an earlier report, confirmed the discovery.\n\nA press statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the Governor, Alhaji Abdullahi Idris Zuru, said Dakingari, accompanied by the Emir of Zuru, Alhaji Muhammad Sani Sami and top government functionaries, was led to the area by the Sole Administrator of Fakai Local Government, Alhaji Musa Dikko Kalgo, and the Chief of Fakai, Alhaji Hudu Dan Mallam.\n\nThe area where the rich mineral is confirmed to have been found is located on top of a hill on the outskirts of Garin Awwal village, about 35 kilometres from Mahuta, the local government headquarters. Already, thousands of youths and businessmen from different parts of the country have flooded the area mining and transacting business.\n\nThe governor inspected the area already being dug by individuals, examined samples of the rich mineral and confirmed the authenticity of the report on the deposits. He said, however, that his finding is subject to further confirmation by experts in mining.\n\nAddressing the people of the area, Dakingari expressed gratitude to God for blessing the area in particular and the state in general with the gold deposit. With the discovery, he said he was hopeful that the economy of the people, who are mostly farmers and cattle rearers, would improve while Kebbi will join the league of gold-producing states in the country.\n\nHe advised the residents and individuals already trading there to be law-abiding and live in harmony and await government’s further action.\n\nSpeaking with reporters on the development at the weekend, Dakingari said mineral resources in any part of the country are under the control of the Federal Government, adding that he would inform the Federal Government and liaise with the relevant agencies to ensure maximum benefit for the people of the state.\n\nEarlier, the Emir of Zuru, Alhaji Muhammad Sani Sami, had thanked the governor for the visit and commended him for showing interest on the issue that has potential to improve the economic well-being of the people of his Emirate.\n\n
Daily Post_14 August 2021_Bus Fully Loaded With Passengers Plunges Into Pit In Ebonyi.txt	Daily Post	14 August 2021	2021-08-14	Bus Fully Loaded With Passengers Plunges Into Pit In Ebonyi	/content/Daily Post_14 August 2021_Bus Fully Loaded With Passengers Plunges Into Pit In Ebonyi.txt	Bus fully loaded with passengers plunges into pit in Ebonyi on August 14, 2021\nBy Godwin Aliuna\n\nTragedy occurred in Ebonyi State at the weekend as a minibus conveying eleven passengers plunged into a mining pit located at Enyigba community in Ikwo Local Government Area of the state.\n\nDAILY POST gathered that the bus,which was fully loaded with passengers, took off from the popular motor park known as Ochi-Udo motor park located along Afikpo road in Abakaliki, capital of the state.\n\nThe number of passengers are yet to be identified at the time of filing this report, although it was further gathered that the occupants are majorly Ikwo indigenes who were returning home from the capital city, Abakaliki.\n\nA reliable source told DAILY POST that the bus reached Enyigba community where people were mining and the driver lost control of the steering and it plunged into a pit filled with water.\n\nAn eyewitness who equally spoke with DAILY POST, said the occupants of the bus are still inside the mining pit, adding that up till now, “the bus is yet to be recovered due to the level of water inside the pit.”\n\nMeanwhile, all efforts to reach the spokesperson of the Ebonyi police command, DSP Loveth Odah for confirmation at the time of filing this report were fruitless.
Eastern Guardian_26 January 1945_Arbitration Court Sits In Enugu Town Over Colliery Workers Labour Deadlock.txt	Eastern Guardian	26 January 1945	1945-01-26	Arbitration Court Sits In Enugu Town Over Colliery Workers Labour Deadlock	/content/Eastern Guardian_26 January 1945_Arbitration Court Sits In Enugu Town Over Colliery Workers Labour Deadlock.txt	Arbitration Court Sits In Enugu Town Over Colliery Workers Labour Deadlock\n\nENUGU. \n\nMr Harold William Longe of Castleton Elliot and Company Limited, London, was the arbitration officer, appointed by His Excellency, to preside over the colliery dispute arbitration which took place in the harbour office on Wednesday, January 10\n\nThe dispute is between the colliery, workers on one side and the man ger representing the board of management on the other\n\nOther people who attended the arbitration meeting were Mr PH Cook, Labour Officer, Lagos, 42 representatives of the colliery workers, Mr LN Mbanefo Solicitor and spectators.\n\nPrevious to this Mr Longe and the Commissioner of Labour had been conducted round the mines by Mr Ude, president and spokesman of the Colliery Workers' Union,\n\nThe depositions began at 9 am, after a short address by Mr Longe\n\nThe bone of contention between the workers and the manager is the word "contract" expressed by the manager in the new proposed scheme to affect the workers.\n\nTo the workers "contract" means something more than could be easily discerned by the workers.\n\nMr Mbanefo demanded an ex-planation from the manager which he eventually explained in Ibo\n\nThe word contract in English being then explained to convey a more agreeable meaning in the Ibo translation of the word than was-formerly believed the linguistic mis understanding was soon overcome\n\nThe manager then added that he meant that minimum wages will be paid as usual but will be on the average production.\n\nThis was agreed upon by the workers.\n\nNext was the question of wages in which both parties also agreed upon three shillings and sixpence and two shillings and sixpence per day for pickmen and tubmen respectively\n\nNo agreement was reached on other matters the manager being opposed to the subsequent points raied by the workers,\n\nThe result of the arbitration if it succeeds will affect workers' daily hours of work, promotion, grades, allowance, pension, gratuity, sick-pay, expenditure on materials, quarters, termination of appointment and other conditions of service.\n
The Nigerian Citizen_10 December 1953_Forced Labour.txt	The Nigerian Citizen	10 December 1953	1953-12-10	Forced Labour	/content/The Nigerian Citizen_10 December 1953_Forced Labour.txt	Forced Labour\n\nM. Abdu Anace (Niger) : To ask the\n\nCivil Secretary:\n\nIf he would explain briefly the circum-stances and conditions under which forced labour could be applied to a community without the prior permission of the Government?\n\nAnswer: The conditions and circumstances under which Forced Labour may be employed are set out fully in Chapter VI of Cap. 99 of the Laws of Nigeria as amended by Ordinance No. 34 of 1950 to which the Honourable Member's attention is invited.\n
The Associated Press_12 December 2024_In Nigeria’S Lithium Boom Many.txt	The Associated Press	12 December 2024	2024-12-12	In Nigeria’S Lithium Boom Many	/content/The Associated Press_12 December 2024_In Nigeria’S Lithium Boom Many.txt	In Nigeria’s lithium boom, many mines are illegal and children do much of the work\n\nTAIWO ADEBAYO\nUpdated 1:50 PM GMT+1, December 12, 2024\n\nNASARAWA, Nigeria (AP) — Dressed in a faded pink dress, 6-year-old Juliet Samaniya squats under scorching skies to chip at a jagged white rock with a stone tool. Dust coats her tiny hands and her hair as she works hour after hour for less than a dollar a day. The landscape around her is dotted with active and abandoned mineshafts, farmland that may soon be cleared in search of more rich ore, and other mine workers — many of them children.\n\nJuliet should be in school, her mother, Abigail Samaniya, admits. Instead, she spends her day mining lithium, a mineral critical for batteries needed in the global transition to clean energy, to earn money that helps sustain her family.\n\n“That is the only option,” Abigail Samaniya said.\n\nThe International Labour Organization estimates more than 1 million children work in mines and quarries worldwide, a problem particularly acute in Africa, where poverty, limited access to education and weak regulations add to the problem. Children, working mostly in small-scale mines, work long hours at unsafe sites, crushing or sorting rocks, carrying heavy loads of ore, and exposing themselves to toxic dust that can cause respiratory problems and asthma.\n\nThe growing demand for lithium has created a new frontier for mining in mineral-rich Nigeria. But it has come with a steep cost, exploiting its poorest and most vulnerable: its children. Their work often provides material for Chinese businesses that dominate Nigeria’s laxly regulated extractive industry and are often blamed for illegal mining and labor exploitation.\n\nThe Associated Press recently traveled to the deep bush of Pasali, near the federal capital of Abuja in Nasarawa state, to follow and interview miners operating illegal mines, including the one where Juliet works. AP also witnessed negotiations and an agreement to purchase lithium by a Chinese company with no questions about the source of the lithium or how it was obtained.\n\nThat company, RSIN Nigeria Limited, did not respond to repeated requests for comment. But in a statement to AP, the Chinese embassy in Abuja said Chinese mining companies in Nigeria “operate in line with local laws and regulations.”\n\nNigeria has laws requiring basic education and prohibiting child labor, but enforcement is a challenge with many illegal mines in hard-to-reach areas. Corruption among regulatory and law enforcement officials is also a problem. The government said it’s pursuing reforms that would toughen laws. Earlier this year it also launched a “corps of mining marshals” to combat illegal mining, but activists say it’s too soon to tell if that program is helping.\n\nHow Nigeria’s illegal mines work\n\nLithium mining began in Pasali a decade ago, transforming a remote and slumbering community into a bustling site for small-scale illegal mining, said Shedrack Bala, a 25-year-old who began working in the mines at age 15 and now owns his own pit. Dozens of mines now dot the area, all unlicensed.\n\nThe mining methods are primitive and dangerous. Miners use chisels and heavy hammers to break through rocks, descending several feet into dark pits. In some old but still viable mines, they crawl through narrow passages snaking between unstable mud walls before starting to dig. For new mines, the ground is blasted open with dynamite.\n\nBashir Rabiu, now 19, started in these pits as an underage worker. AP journalists watched as he wriggled around at the bottom of a pit, where miners can be at risk if dynamite explodes prematurely. They also face danger of suffocating in narrow tunnels that connect pits, or burial from wall collapse — all fates Rabiu has seen befall other miners.\n\nRabiu hauled up raw lithium ore and passed it to Juliet and five other children, all younger than 10. Wearing rubber slippers and dust-stained shorts and shirts, the children hunched over heaps of rubble and chipped away with crude stone tools to extract valuable fragments. Once sorted, the minerals were bagged to begin their journey from Pasali to the global supply chain.\n\nA team of six children can sort and bag up to 10 25-kilogram bags of lithium-rich rock a day. When the AP visited, they did 22 kilograms (about 48.5 pounds) in one hour. For working from early morning to late evening, the children typically share 4,000 naira (about $2.42), according to Bala and others who use them. They said it is enough money to cover meals at the children’s homes.\n\nIn Juliet’s group, only she and a 5-year-old boy named Zakaria Danladi had ever attended the local elementary school. Zakaria stopped when he was orphaned. Juliet was pulled out because her family couldn’t afford to send both her and her 11-year-old brother, and his education took precedence, her mother said.\n\nBasic education is supposed to be free in Nigeria, at least in government schools like the one in Pasali. But hidden fees often put it out of reach of the poorest families. For example, in Pasali, a Parent-Teacher Association levy of 5,000 Naira (about $3) is charged per term, parents said. For Juliet’s family and others, even this amount is too much. About 63% of Nigeria’s population lives in poverty.\n\nSule Dantini, the schoolmaster, said his classes have become virtually empty with only three pupils turning up when he spoke with AP in early December. “I used to have up to 300 pupils, but attendance has been very poor because of mining.” He denied the school charges fees.\n\nMiners say they have no trouble finding buyers\nNigeria is Africa’s top oil producer, but it also has deep mineral resources including granite, limestone, and gold, and it’s seeking to tap those to reduce its reliance on petroleum exports. Yet much of this wealth — including lithium — is siphoned off through unlicensed mines that cost the nation billions of dollars and drive insecurity, according to a parliamentary probe this year.\n\nThe illegal mining thrives on informal networks of buyers and sellers who operate without much fear of the government. Aliyu Ibrahim, a lithium merchant in Nasarawa, owns unlicensed mines and also buys lithium ore from other illegal sites. At his warehouse, he told AP that his business flourishes by paying officials to look the other way. Ibrahim said he then sells his lithium in bulk to Chinese companies.\n\nIbrahim said he knows that children are working at his mines and others he buys from, but he said many of the children are orphans or poor.\n\n“It is dangerous, but the work helps them survive, while the government has abandoned poor people,” he said.\n\nSome of the bush miners avoid middlemen like Ibrahim and sell directly to Chinese companies or Chinese nationals.\n\nAP accompanied miners from Pasali illegal mines to Chinese-owned RSIN Nigeria Limited, where a sales agreement was reached without questions about the source of the minerals or the conditions under which they were extracted. Sellers were asked to leave samples to test for lithium content. A price list from the buyers offered 200,000 naira (about $119) for a metric ton of minerals containing up to 3% lithium.\n\nChina’s citizens and companies are frequently in the spotlight for environmentally damaging practices, exploitative labor and illicit mining in several countries. Nigeria has seen multiple cases of illegal mining arrests and prosecutions involving Chinese nationals in recent months. Experts say the materials are exported in a variety of ways, including shipping with false documentation or concealment within legitimate shipments.\n\nThe Chinese embassy’s statement to AP said its government has a zero-tolerance policy toward any illegal mining activity or illegal labor by Chinese companies operating abroad.\n\nPhilip Jakpor, a Nigerian activist, said his nonprofit Renevlyn Development Initiative has documented widespread child labor practices across Nasarawa state.\n\n“Revenue generation seems to have trumped the need to protect human rights,” Jakpor said. “We expect those operating in the upper spheres of the supply chain to adopt responsible models that prevent abusive conditions in mineral extraction.”\n\nJuliane Kippenberg, associate director of children’s rights at Human Rights Watch, said global demand for lithium is expected to grow rapidly in coming years and it’s imperative for governments to protect human rights and press corporations to do the same.\n\nSegun Tomori, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Mining and Solid Minerals Development, said ongoing reforms such as amending the Minerals and Mining Act are aimed at minimizing the use of child labor. Tomori also said social safety programs such as school feeding initiatives are being revamped to keep children in school and combat child labor. He also cited the program to add mining marshals announced this year to clamp down on illegal mining.\n\nAbigail Samaniya, 6-year-old Juliet’s mother, said she hopes her daughter will someday escape the mine.\n\n“I still want her to go to school, have a better life, work in an office, not a mine forever,” she said.\n\n
Punch Newspaper_16 February 2006_Obasanjo Declares 2007 Minerals And Mines Year.txt	Punch Newspaper	16 February 2006	2006-02-16	Obasanjo Declares 2007 Minerals And Mines Year	/content/Punch Newspaper_16 February 2006_Obasanjo Declares 2007 Minerals And Mines Year.txt	Obasanjo declares 2007 minerals and mines year\nBy Luka Binniyat\n\nABUJA – President Olusegun Obasanjo has declared 2007 as the Year of Minerals and Mines (MAMY '07), even as ₦730 million has been approved by the government for the establishment of 10 newly established Solid Mineral and Steel Development offices across the six geo-political zones of the country.\n\nAlso, the Solid Mineral Bill will be passed into law later this month by the Senate, after the House of Reps had passed the legislation in June last year.\n\nThese were some of the revelations made by the Minister of Solid Mineral and Steel Development, Professor Lesley Obiora, while briefing the Press in company of the Minister of State for Mines and Steel, Dr. Bawa Bwari.\n\nShe said that President Obasanjo would officially launch the MAMY '07 year next week in Abuja, noting that part of the activities will be the renaming of the Nigerian Institute of Mining and Geosciences, Jos, Plateau State, after its first set of students began classes on January 16, 2007.\n\nThe minister told the Press that as a matter of government’s seriousness to revive the solid mineral sector, an initial ₦130 million had been appropriated by the National Assembly last year for the rehabilitation of eight offices spread over the country and later an additional ₦640 million for the construction of 14 new ones.\n\n"This is a demonstration of the fact that we want the people to feel our presence since mining is a field activity and rural-based," she said.\n\nThe budget also appropriated the sum of ₦2 billion for the establishment of a minerals data bank that will minutely be operated like that of NNPC, based on world-class transparency.\n\n"We want to give you as much access as we give ourselves, so that no miner is shortchanged in the process. That is why we are restructuring our data collation and storage facilities from the Colonial System to the GIS-based one, which will be available to every stakeholder in the sector," she stated.\n\nThe minister also praised the leadership of the Nigerian Mining Cadastre Office and that of the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency.\n\nShe said the Geological Survey office has completed the mineral survey of 44% of the country, a development that holds great promise for private investors.
The Guardian_07 February 2024_‘We Need To De Risk Mining Sector For Improved.txt	The Guardian	07 February 2024	2024-02-07	‘We Need To De Risk Mining Sector For Improved	/content/The Guardian_07 February 2024_‘We Need To De Risk Mining Sector For Improved.txt	‘We need to de-risk mining sector for improved investment flow’\nBy Kingsley Jeremiah\n07 February 2024 \n\nAdeyemo Titilope, the Managing Director of GeoCardinal Limited, in this interview with KINGSLEY JEREMIAH, delves into strategies for fostering the growth of Nigeria’s mining sector amid mounting pressure on oil revenue.\n\nThere is advocacy for a national mining company as a way of getting more from the mining sector. What’s your opinion on this?\nThe National Assembly is currently considering a bill to establish a special-purpose vehicle at the national level, limiting the influence of certain entities. This move aims to create a more open environment for private companies, encouraging widespread participation and investment. \n\n \nThe goal is to involve everyone in the mining sector, reminiscent of the past Nigerian Mining Corporation, which, despite inefficiency, laid the groundwork for such initiatives.\n \nCapacity building is identified as a critical need, as many individuals lack clarity on their objectives within the sector. Notably, successful mining companies often involve foreign investors, who bring capital, technology, and expertise. Indigenous efforts have struggled due to limited access to capital and expertise.\n \nGovernment policies, such as requiring the processing of resources like lithium before export, aimed to stimulate the development of a value chain within the country. This approach witnessed in the last administration’s policies, aimed to create jobs and positively impact the entire value chain. But right now, a lot of people are still exporting the raw materials even through the ports.\n \nNigeria’s mining laws are lauded as among the best globally, partly due to the influence of Obiageli Ezekwesili, who drew inspiration from Canadian laws. This reflected a commitment to establishing a robust legal framework that aligns with international standards and facilitates sustainable and inclusive growth within the mining sector.\n \nThe government needs to address the inherent risks in the mining sector, like the de-risking undertaken in the oil industry. Unlike oil exploration, where government and individual partnerships are crucial to mitigate the financial impact of unsuccessful wells, the mining sector lacks de-risking mechanisms.\n \nExploration in mining is a 50/50 proposition, with potential business collapse if desired outcomes aren’t achieved. Government intervention is essential to de-risk the sector, encouraging exploration by generating accurate data through well-supervised initiatives. Supporting institutions like the Nigerian Meteorological Centre financially can ensure the robust generation and supervision of relevant data.\n \nWith de-risking measures in place and reliable data available, entrepreneurs can then access funds from institutions like the Bank of Industry. However, a notable absence is the lack of mining desks in commercial banks, hindering direct engagement with the banking sector due to perceived risks associated with mining ventures. To truly foster growth, there’s a need for comprehensive de-risking strategies, government support, and collaborative efforts involving financial institutions in the mining sector.\nOil and gas are waning, and attention is coming to solid minerals, especially those for clean energy. Where do you see Nigeria in this? \nWe are incredibly fortunate to be in Nigeria, a land we believe is blessed by God and governed as a Republic under divine influence. One notable advantage we possess is the widespread availability of resources. With clean energy elements such as lithium, graphite, and copper are found in various states, except for the Niger Delta region, which I’m not entirely certain about regarding clean light. In Kwara, Abuja, and Nasarawa, we know these resources exist, but the crucial factor is understanding their quality. For us to engage in international commerce and leverage these resources effectively, it becomes imperative for the government to invest in assessing and documenting the quality of these valuable elements. Lithium and graphite, being principal components of clean energy, hold immense potential for economic growth and global collaboration.\n \nHowever, without accurate data on their quality, it becomes challenging to negotiate and establish their worth in the international market. Consider the analogy of a well in Nasarawa. Just as oil wells provide quantifiable data on expected yields, the government needs to take a similar approach in assessing the quality and quantity of our solid mineral resources in each state. This will not only enable us to understand the value of the resources but also establish a basis for sustainable development. \n\n \nDrawing a parallel with the oil industry, where barrels are meticulously tracked, the same level of precision should be applied to our other valuable resources. This entails continuous monitoring, quantifying the extraction, and maintaining a record of the depletion over time. Additionally, the government should take a proactive role in assigning a cost value to these resources, ensuring that the wealth generated directly benefits the specific state.\nGovernment is reportedly struggling to finance basic operations. Don’t you think the private sector should take on this role? \nThe challenge persists in the mining sector, with nearly two decades of consistent efforts. The government must treat this matter seriously, even if it involves seeking loans for development and establishing a trust fund dedicated to the sector. Initiatives like geographical scan, resembling a peek into the land’s potential, have been introduced, emphasising not just revenue collection but a balanced return in terms of resources.\n \nLike the success achieved in the health sector, where strategic investments eliminated the need for health tourism, focusing on responsible resource utilisation in the mining sector can yield substantial benefits. Just as Abacha foresaw the importance of a well-equipped National Hospital to curb health tourism, the government needs to recognise the parallel need for a robust approach in the mineral sector.\n \nThe commitment to generating accurate and comprehensive data is paramount. The analogy to the health sector draws a clear parallel – just as national hospitals need to meet international standards, the mining sector’s success hinges on the government’s dedication to building a solid foundation of reliable data. Reflecting on Abacha’s foresight, it becomes evident that without a serious commitment to gathering data, the full potential of the mineral sector cannot be realised.\n\nAre the skills here to develop the sector, especially now that the world is focusing on solid mineral resources for clean energy? \nThe lamentable state of skill development, particularly in the solid mineral sector, falls below acceptable standards, with even individuals within the ministry lacking the necessary technical know-how. The private sector, exemplified by companies like Emirate Lithium, recognises the potential and importance of the sector, prompting them to seek investments from international platforms like the New York Stock Exchange. They bring in expertise from America and Germany to develop their sites, acknowledging the magnitude of the task. While the private sector strives to contribute, individual efforts, no matter how substantial, might fall short in unleashing the true potential of the solid mineral sector.\n\n \nTo address this, the government must take a proactive role in development. Allocating funds to specific zones, such as the southwest, with a substantial budget ranging from N20 billion to N50 billion, can be a step in the right direction. This strategic approach allows for focused development, ensuring that allocated funds are substantial enough to make a meaningful impact. The government must move beyond sporadic disbursements, like the N40 million to Nasarawa, and implement comprehensive plans that address the root issues. \n \nMere token amounts risk being insufficient, ending up merely sustaining immediate needs without fostering the long-term growth and development the sector requires. In essence, for the solid mineral sector to thrive, the government needs to shift its approach, focusing on sustained and substantial investments, strategic development plans, and fostering partnerships to bring in the required expertise. This will not only elevate the sector but also position Nigeria as a formidable player in the global solid mineral market.\nThere has always been an issue between the state and the federal governments on the management of solid minerals. How does this issue affect the development of the sector?\nThe concept of federalism, akin to the American model, holds promise for the solid mineral sector in Nigeria. The 2007 law designates mineral ownership to the federal government, granting states the authority to establish sub-national companies as special-purpose vehicles. This empowers states to apply for licenses within their regions, fostering localised control over mining activities.\n\n \nHowever, some states have not fully embraced this opportunity, perhaps opting for shortcuts. The law provides a clear framework for states to establish companies, like Osun’s Segilola Company or Kaduna’s mining development company, as special-purpose vehicles. These entities can then apply for licenses within their state, enabling them to manage and even sublet mining operations responsibly.\n \nUnder this framework, Nasarawa state government, for instance, has the legal authority to acquire mines in Zamfara, as permitted by law when operating through their own company. \nSimilar to the petroleum industry, where restrictions are not confined to specific states, the solid mineral sector allows states like Rivers to establish their companies and apply for resources in other regions, such as gold in Osun state. The challenge arises from a perceived reluctance or greed on the part of some states to fully leverage this framework. In contrast, the experience in Osun highlights the success of embracing this model, allowing the state to control resources in various regions, from Zamfara to Kaduna, Ebonyi, and Kogi. Ultimately, adhering to the established legal pathways can mitigate conflicts and noise, fostering a more harmonious and efficient development of Nigeria’s solid mineral resources.\n\nDo you think federal allocation is impacting how states improve their revenue from the sector?\nUnfortunately, the reliance on federal funds often influences the development trajectory of states, and leadership choices play a crucial role. Opting for a younger leader with innovative ideas can potentially diversify economic activities, such as cultivating crops like cocoa or rubber in agriculture.\n \nHowever, positive strides are being made, as seen in Nasarawa’s proactive approach. By fostering partnerships with foreign governments and establishing new lithium processing companies through signed agreements, Nasarawa is paving the way for significant improvements in the next few years. This initiative promises enhanced liquidity for the state and sets a promising example for others to follow.\n\n \nStates like Oyo, Adamawa, and Niger are also actively engaged in various initiatives, with Niger making notable progress in the lithium sector, given its significant occurrences. While copper occurrences are limited in Nigeria, discoveries in Plateau and other areas indicate potential areas for development.\n \nEncouragingly, if more states emulate the proactive strategies employed by Nasarawa and others, there’s a collective opportunity for widespread economic growth and development across the nation. The key lies in fostering effective partnerships, diversifying economic activities, and tapping into the full potential of the resources each state possesses.\nSome mining companies have cited the issue of multiple taxations as a critical challenge. What is your take? \nThe absence of a clear structure contributes to challenges such as overlapping duties and confusion within the boardroom. A defined structure is crucial to delineate responsibilities; for instance, if one is focused on current affairs and another on energy, there should be no overlap. The issue of multiple taxations is caused by the absence of a nationally recognised structure. \n \nThis makes it unclear what taxes apply to the mining industry. Establishing a clear and nationally recognised structure would alleviate these issues. It should involve identifying the specific nature of taxes applicable to the mining sector and streamlining the process. The Federal Inland Revenue, as a national entity, could then uniformly expect and enforce the necessary taxes. A structured approach would bring clarity, reduce confusion, and foster a more efficient and effective environment for the mining industry.\n\n\nDo you think we are dealing with community and environmental crises from mining activities? \nThe current administration in Nigeria is addressing issues in the mining sector, particularly focusing on community development engagement. Recognising the importance of fostering peace within communities, the administration has reviewed and emphasised the need for proper engagement. However, challenges arise in areas with intense poverty, where funds intended for local communities end up being redirected to urban areas, leading to potential unrest.\n \nSimilar challenges persist in environmental issues, especially in the mining sector. Some companies neglect proper reclamation procedures, violating laws that mandate the restoration of mined areas to their original state. The law is clear about the obligation to set aside funds for reclamation during the mining process, yet there is a lack of oversight and enforcement.\n\nEstablishing a special bank to monitor and secure these funds could ensure compliance. The law requires mining companies to present plans for decommissioning and to allocate funds for reclamation throughout the mining operation. Unfortunately, some areas, like Jos and Abuja, bear witness to unaddressed environmental consequences, with large holes and pits left untreated.\n \nThe challenge lies in enforcing existing laws and ensuring that mining companies adhere to regulations, not only for community development but also for environmental preservation. A collective effort involving government oversight, adherence to laws, and public awareness is essential to prevent further environmental degradation and community discontent in the mining sector.
West African Pilot_27 March 1956_Insurance Policy For Miners.txt	West African Pilot	27 March 1956	1956-03-27	Insurance Policy For Miners	/content/West African Pilot_27 March 1956_Insurance Policy For Miners.txt	Insurance Policy For Miners\n\nTHE HOUSE of Representatives must have been shocked when Hon. F. O. Mbadiwe, NCNC Member for Udi, disclosed that there was hardly a month that one or two coal miners would not die through accidents. And yet the corporation authorities did not think it fit to insure the lives of miners against accidents!\n\nPeople who go several hundreds of feet beneath the earth surface to dig mines should be given adequate protection and if and when the inevitable happens, their dependants should be compensated for the loss of their bread-winners. At present, no such provision is made and so the miners die unnoticed leaving their dependants to the mercy of starvation.\n\nWhy should the authorities always wait to be told before they do the right thing? They know what obtains in the United Kingdom but they want workers to prostrate before them to beg for their rights. It is sheer wickedness.\n\nArrangements should be made forthwith to insure the lives of workers engaged in mining, electricity and other essential industries that involve great risks. The Federal Minister of Labour should see to this and force it upon employers of labour in those industries.\n
The Guardian_16 July 2021_Stakeholders Advocate Collaboration For.txt	The Guardian	16 July 2021	2021-07-16	Stakeholders Advocate Collaboration For	/content/The Guardian_16 July 2021_Stakeholders Advocate Collaboration For.txt	Stakeholders advocate collaboration for revenue growth in mining sector\nBy Kingsley Jeremiah, Abuja\n16 July 2021 \n\nMinister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adebgite, Executive Secretary, Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, and other stakeholders have called for the need to drive more revenue from the nation’s mining through industry collaboration and transparency.\n\nThe stakeholders also stressed the need to drive the Federal Government’s commitment to economic diversification through the sector as well as limiting capital flight through targeted approaches to develop existing mineral resources in the country.\n\nAlthough the country is blessed with many solid mineral resources, development of the resources remained dismal albeit improved earnings from the sector.\n\nNEITI had earlier disclosed that Nigeria generated N79.96bn from the solid minerals sector in 2019. The earning was the highest in five years. The figure, which represents accruals to the Federation and other subnational entities, represents a 15 per cent increase when compared to the N69.47 billion that was achieved in 2018.\n\nAdegbite had noted at a meeting with key management staff of the extractive company in Abuja, that a number of initiatives were being developed to unlock mining potential, including addressing issues around artisanal miners.\n\nWhile the global barite market was valued at $1.4 billion in 2019, and projected to reach $2.4 billion by 2027, Adegbite noted that Nigeria has been on track with the development of the resources.\n\n“The Ministry of Mines and Steel Development in its bid to develop the value chain of mineral resources in the country and achieve its Presidential mandate to prioritise and develop seven strategic minerals in the Mining Roadmap is set to launch its made-in-Nigeria Barite soon.\n\n“The Ministry has succeeded in achieving the development of barite from extraction, milling and bagging stages to support local industries, as well as for export, adding that Nigeria bagged barite has “Proudly Nigeria’ as its logo,” Adegbite said.\n\nAdegbite had noted that the import of resources was leading to capital flight to the detriment of local industries that have the capacity to develop the nation’s huge deposits of barite, including the development of the value chain of other mineral resources across the 774 local government areas.\n\nAdegbite disclosed that the Ministry has been working at updating and upgrading its ICT infrastructure to enable it to link the 10 agencies in the Ministry so that all data of royalties paid and funds received would be properly monitored and uploaded to the Ministry’s server for online real-time accessibility.\n\nOrji, who noted that the improvement witnessed in the revenue from the mining sector could get better with collaboration, said the agency would perform better with necessary support from the ministry, especially in the area of data exchange.\n\nCommending the Minister, Orji said efforts made through roadmaps, extant acts and regulations were not jettisoned by the current ministry under the new minister.\n\nOrji said: “recent reports showed phenomenal revenue growth in the industry. But we feel that more can be achieved by working together and sharing information and data.”
West African Pilot_18 March 1948_Nigeria Can Still Mine Many Minerals.txt	West African Pilot	18 March 1948	1948-03-18	Nigeria Can Still Mine Many Minerals	/content/West African Pilot_18 March 1948_Nigeria Can Still Mine Many Minerals.txt	NIGERIA CAN STILL MINE MANY MINERALS\n\nKADUNA, March 16. - The known economic minerals in Nige-ria and Cameroons which can be profitably mined are cassiterite (i.e. tin), coal, columbit, galena, gold, sphalerite, tantalite and wolframite.\n\nMinerals which might be poss-ible economically to mine in the future are beryllium, diato mite fluorite, harmatite, kaolin. lignite limestone, mica, monazite phos phatesm rutle, salt, silver, talc topaz and zircon.\n
West African Pilot_20 August 1942_Nigerian In England Decries Forced.txt	West African Pilot	20 August 1942	1942-08-20	Nigerian In England Decries Forced	/content/West African Pilot_20 August 1942_Nigerian In England Decries Forced.txt	Nigerian In England Decries Forced Labour In Nigeria\n\nLONDON (BM). The following observations on forced labour in\nNigeria were written by Mr Magnus Williams of Nigeria, now serving on the Royal Air Force, "Somewhere in England."\n\nNo loyal Nigerian will fail to sympathize with Great Britain in the loss of 60% of her tin supply through the loss of Burma, Malaya, etc.\n\nThat the position is serious is obvious and if we must make good tbis loss, Nigeria must redouble her efforts in her tin output.\n\nBut, in spite of this state of affairs, it is a crying shame that forced labour should be the last resort to repair the deficiency.\n\nFor many years, the Nigerian tax-payers have been paying royal-ties to the Niger Company, Limit ed\n\nFor years the Nigerian farmer bas been the victim of price manipulation by those who have formed "ring" to exploit him.\n\nNow Nigerians are to be forced to work in the mines owned by capitalists who for many years have been drawing fat dividends from the sweat of Nigerians of the North. Nigerians ought to ask the Government what will happen to the profits which the "owners" of the mines will make.\n\nWhat about the royalties too?\n\nThey ought to be told what they are fighting for and to tell them that they are fighting for survival will be mere platitude.\n\nSurely there is more in life and more to life than mere existence and survival.\n\nHow you live, what you live for, the quality of your living, are more important than the fact that you are living.\n\nThe pre-war policy of Colonial Administration was one of short-sightedness, otherwise there would\n\nhave been no necessity to force Natives to work in the mines.\n\nThe miners in England, in spite of the present calamity, went on strike because of inadequate wages and have forced the hands of the - Government to ameliorate their pitiable condition\nThe African may be less articulate and less well organized, but HE KNOWS. \n\nYes HE KNOWS and he asks:\n\n"Is there no balm in Gilead? "Is. there no prophet there?" In the House of Commons debate\n\non June 24, the Government was criticised sharply by Rev. Forensen, Dr Haden Guest, Mr Creech-Jones and others about this labour con scription, and yet some people at home applaud it.\n\nGovernment was also oriticised for excluding Colonies from the terms of the Atlantic Charter, and yet some people at home still live in a fool's paradise by thinking we are inelad ed.\n\nIf we are to be forced to work in the mines to help intiste tin out pat, we ought to be given some thing categorical to labour ani fight for.\n\nwas present in the House of Commons debate of June 24 and Members of Parliament were sctual ly confessing their sins of the past and advocated a change of heart and attitude to the African, and yet some Africans still delude them selves that alt is well.\n\nWe, who are in England at the present time, know that all is not well and that there is something definitely wrong with Colonial Administration.\n\nThe appointment of Lord Swinton to an important post in West Africa was also criticised and a Member of Parliament even went further to opine that it might be because the noble Lord is a friend of the Prime Minister-\n\nSo far for this at present as we are watching developments and eventa with the eyes of an eagle.\n\nBritish Government has promised sfeguards for the labourers who are to be forced to work in the Nigerian tin mines\n\nWe shall win this war by God's special grace in spite of our present reverses, and after victory, what next?\n\nWill the African revert to the old squalor?\n\nWill the labours of the African\nfarmer be the subject of price manipulation by the "ring"?\n\nWe have always stood by Britain in her hour of trials\n\nWe fought in the last war and are doing so now.\n\nExploitation and vested interests have swollen to such size and power in Africa that they seem themselves as the permanent controllers of the destiny of the Africvn.\n\nWe need a concerted energy to repair the deficiency in tin output, but for heaven's sake, the powers that be must reckon with the African in the post-war world.\n\nThe doctrine of survival will not feed the empty stomach.\n\nEngland too ls fighting for survival, yet she is asking for more, and frantic efforts are being made to give her people more.\n\nWhy must not the African have more?\n\nWill the powers that be hear?\n\nWill they learn a lesson from the verdict of history?\n\nWill they read the writing on the wall?\n\nI pause.\n\nEDITOR'S NOTE: We have taken the liberty to edit Mr Williams contribution for it appears that he labours under the misapprehension of thinking that we in Nigeria, welcome forced labour in the mines and think that the Atlantic Charter is applicable to us, in Nigeria,\n\nMr Williams and those of his ilk must read between the lines and appreciate that we have Defence Regulations and Press Censorship laws of a nature undreamt of by them, ere they left there shores.\n\nTheir public pronouncements must therefore be guarded and tactful, if these must be published in Nigeria without endangering and Involving Nigerian Newspapers within the toils of the law.\n
Eastern Guardian_20 Jue 1950_Commission S Great Faux Pas.txt	Eastern Guardian	20 Jue 1950	NaT	Commission S Great Faux Pas	/content/Eastern Guardian_20 Jue 1950_Commission S Great Faux Pas.txt	Commission's Great Faux Pas\n\nTHE FITZGERALD Commission of Enquiry into the Enugu mass killings is not perfect, for it belongs to the order known as homo sapiens, and as such it is not perfect, nor do we or should we expect it to be so. It is not surprising therefore that the very thing the commission has criticised Nigeria's labour for has been contravened by the august body.\n\nThe commission it will be recalled, went out of its way to denounce the mixing of industrial with political issues. Yet, rather than confine itself therefore to the issue at stake, and an issue for which by the way it attacked the bad judgment of the Chief Commissioner Eastern Provinces, the commission dilated and side tracked by devoting a large portion of its report to politics in Nigeria and proceeded to suggest a formula through which the legitimate nationalist aspirations of the people of this country can be curbed thereby showing its prejudice towards Nigerian autonomy.\n\n"Vocal extremist’s," "extravagant claims" and "subversive activities" were terms applied by the Fitzgerald set-up to describe nationalists, their demands and their methods. The commission did not stop at that. It assumed the toga of an Anti Political Commission by suggesting to Government ways and means of stultifying the growth of nationalism, which by the way, called by any other name, is still nationalism.\n\nThe terms of reference of the commission as far as we know are to find out the causes of the unrest in Eastern Nigeria last year. Politics had nothing to do with it. But unfortunately the British will continue to confuse nationalism with politics, with, of course, a very much ulterior motive.\n
Eastern Guardian_26 June 1950_Enugu Board Keeps Mum.txt	Eastern Guardian	26 June 1950	1950-06-26	Enugu Board Keeps Mum	/content/Eastern Guardian_26 June 1950_Enugu Board Keeps Mum.txt	Enugu Board Keeps Mum\n\nTHE GHOSTS that haunt the Iva Valley also taunt the minds of the populace of the grim City of Coal, a people made psychic overnight by the darkest hour in the history of those who go down to the earth in search of "black gold," making them remember not to forget forever and aye the reason for their crossing the last frontier between life and death.\n\nNo man living in the billy metropolis in the making can escape the shadows of the supernatural forces: shadows projected from "over there" in the great beyond to "over here," for today Enugu is a ghost town, a haunted community, a domain of the supernatural.\n\nWe dare say that comrades of those who fell in the Iva Valley of death still see them with their tools going to work as usual. Or sometimes, down there on the coal face, they see a familiar figure near them and take it for granted, only to realise afterwards that the figure was among the victims of the "purge." And we dare say that the lonely wife often wakes up in the middle of the night to see the familiar beloved husband beside her, even though he belongs now to another world.\n\nAnd we dare say that sometimes the children wake up screaming because of daddy. Yes, Enugu is haunted. Haunted by the coho of the last gun fire ringing from Iva Valley. That was why when the Chairman of the Township Advisory Board wanted questions and discussions on the Fitzgerald Report everyone kept mum. None wanted it. Dreams and nightmares hardly warrant such a talk about a report borne out of tragic deaths.\n\n