02 March 2016, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Federal Government says it will soon release a list of dormant mining licences and leases, ahead of their possible revocation.
A list of about 1,500 of the dormant mining licences and leases, and their owners have already been compiled by the ministry.
The owners have been given up to this week, specifically, March 1, by the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, to use the licences or lose them.
A statement from the ministry quoted Fayemi as saying a situation where four of every five mining licences issued in the country remained unused was no longer acceptable.
Speaking in Minna, Niger State, the minister said the Federal Government would no longer accept operators who failed to use their licences for the purpose they were issued.
He added that such licences would be revoked and given to genuine mining investors who were ready to make use of them.
Fayemi said that most of the land areas that were allocated as mining sites to miners had been acquired illegally.
He maintained that it was important to sanitise and reorganise the sector in order to realise the sector’s full potential as a major revenue earner.
