19 October 2011, Sweetcrude, Abuja – Nigeria’s Mining Cadastre Office has issued a total of 12,000 mining titles leases.
The Minister, Musa Sada disclosed this in Abuja during the Council of Nigerian Mining Engineers and Geologists (COMEG) stakeholders’ forum on Compliance and Enforcement in the Extractive industries .
He said that with the new development, the plan of the government in the sector would have been realised in the next 10 years, .
Also at the occasion, the Minister of Water Resources, Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe, said Nigeria’s dream to be among the world’s 20 leading economies by 2020, otherwise known as Vision 20:2020 cannot be attained without qualified skilled miners.
She urged the council to tackle professionalism in mining.
The Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, who was represented by the Acting Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mr Emmanuel Izuegbo, said without a virile regulatory council in place, the extractive industry will be shaky.
He called on Sada to reposition the council for the accomplishment of the nation’s plan for in sector.
Earlier, the President of Nigeria Society of Mining and Geoscientists (NSMG), Akin George, called on the experts to stop quacks from sinking boreholes with reckless abandon in the country.
He also pledged that the council will ensure that the local content in the oil and gas industry is applicable to the mining sector.
