By Luka Binniyat
Nigeria has established that at least 500,000 people are engaged in informal forms of mining, even  as the Federal Government has come out with an enticing package from the World Bank to formalise their activities.

This was made known last week by the Project Coordinator of the Sustainable Management of Mineral Resources Project (SMMRSP), Mr Linus Adie, and the Director, Artisinal and Small Scale Miners (ASM), of the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, Mr. Obiora Azubuike in Gusau last week

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, Mr. Shiek Musa Goni, also announced at the venue, that the much awaited Nigerian Mining Regulation would be out around September after it had suffered several hitches since 2008.

According to Azubuike, the 500,000 informal  miners have applied  for formalisation of their activities through 900 Cooperatives, in which 320 have succeeded in getting registered.

“But, the real number of these artisinal miners could be far, far more than 500,000”, he said, “since most of them don’t do it as full time vocation, but only seasonally, when they are free during the dry season”, he said.

Azubuike, who was speaking  after inspecting communities affected  with the recent out break of Lead poisoning, said that his department is out to ensure that every artisinal miner is registered in Nigeria.

On his part, Mr. Adie, informed journalists that there is a $50,000 grant for each registered cooperative to assist miners. “There is an effort by the World Bank to resurrect  the Nigerian Mining Industry”, he said.

“Nigeria has received a grant from the World Bank (($120 million), to reform the mining industry and this commenced around 2005, and the Grant has been very, very successful,” he said.

“We are certainly changing the face of mining in Nigeria because  bigger investors are coming in, but  we are also looking into the artisanl and small scale miners,” he went on. “The artisinal miners are certainly not illegal miners,.” he argued.
“They can be modelled to form huge source of jobs and revenue, both for themselves and for government, especially for the rural communities,” he said.

According to him, the essence of the grant is on reforming mining, saying that mining has to be done responsibly, if not, it could result to disaster, like it happened in a part of Zamfara State.

“We have the grant and we have the structure to administer this grant. The basic principle is that we want to help the artisan miners,” he said.

But, he observed that miners in Zanfara State have been shying away from subscribing to the grant, ostensibly thinking that if they registered, government would prosecute them for their illegal mining activities.

“It appear that we have to change the strategy of our sensitisation, because we are out to help them and we mean it,” he said.

“Very soon, we are going to have technical partners who are going to teach them how to mine and process their mineral safely and profitably,” he said.

“The maximum that each mining  community can have is about $50,000 (N7 million). He said that the grant has been very successful in some places, like Ebonyi State where the mining of both granite and lead are going on, in Plateau State and many other places.

“It is the your right to access this grant and you must come for it. We have a mines officer here in Zanfara who will assist you. Please assist yourselves by forming cooperatives and apply to the ministry.

We want you to make money, and we also want government to make money,” he urged.
On his part, Mr. Goni told journalists that the Nigerian Mining Regulation would be out around September this year,
“The Mining Act was passed in 2007 and the Mining Regulation was sent to the Federal Ministry Justice for authentication  about one and half years ago,”  he said He  said that by the end of last April, some problems were discovered with the mining regulation.

“We were told that it has so many legal impediments, and that it has several contradictions with the existing mining law,” he said.

Mr Goni confirmed that  two weeks ago, the Mines Ministry requested the Ministry of Justice to return the draft regulation. Meanwhile, most of the stakeholders in the sector  have requested that they also want to have their input in the regulation.

“We have already set up a new committee  made up of all stakeholders to look into the regulation, and we actually saw a lot of contradictions that it bears with the 2007 Mining Act.
“There are certain provisions in the regulations that are not even in the Act, and there are certain provisions in the regulation that are already in the Act”, he said.

“ It was a completely confusing document and that is why it has to pass through this review. We  have  given  the committee a one_week time line to finish its work and submit its report to us,” he explained.

He said that he has been assured by the Ministry of Justice that once they get it right, the regulation will be approved latest by September.

“But the absence of the regulation does not prevent mining activities. In the absence of the regulation, we have the 2007 Mining Act that has taken care of a lot issues,” he said.