Minister Alerts On 34 Unexploited Solid Minerals

The Minister of Minerals and Steel Development, Alhaji Muhammed Sada said no fewer than 34 different types of minerals are waiting for exploitation in 500 locations across the country.

He made this known while on a courtesy visit on Governor Abiola Ajimobi in Ibadan.

The minister represented President Goodluck Jonathan at the opening ceremony of the International Conference on Mining and Geo-physics held in Ibadan.

Sada, however, emphasised that the Federal Government would not give licence to miners to exploit solid minerals in the country without the consent of the host community.

He said that the enabling law guiding the exploitation of solid minerals specified conditions under which any investor or miner should satisfy before being granted licence.

The minister added that royalty, provision of infrastructure and the safety of the environment should be settled with the host community before investors could exploit the minerals.

Sada said that government had made funds available to encourage investors in the sector.

He said that government’s action was borne of the fact that the solid minerals sector required huge financial outlay in terms of survey and provision of infrastructure which investors could not provide.

Sada, who noted the controversy between the federal and state governments concerning operations in the sector, explained that states had the right to regulate the activities of the investors operating in their domain.

He called for active collaboration of the states with the federal government for the realisation of the transformation agenda of the present administration in the sector.

Ajimobi promised that the state government would cooperate with the federal government to ensure adequate exploitation of solid minerals in the state.

The governor appealed to the Jonathan administration to focus attention on the solid mineral sector as a way of de-emphasising heavy reliance on oil revenue.