By Olamilekan FAWAS
The President, Miners Association of Nigeria (MAN), Mr Sani Shehu, has advised members to use their mining titles as stipulated by the Nigeria Mining Act to avoid revocation by the authorities.
Shehu gave the advice on Sunday in Abuja.
He said that the recent revocation of about 1,400 mining titles was due to failure by the miners to meet the specification of the 2007 Mining Act.
The Mining Cadastre Office recently revoked more than 1,400 mineral titles in line with the provisions of section 155 of the Nigerian Minerals and Mining (NMMA) Act, 2007 and the Regulations made pursuant to it.
Prior to the revocation of the titles, the cadastre office issued a notification to all mineral title holders to update necessary information on their titles, renewal of licences and leases,
payment of annual service fee.
Others include, submission of periodic operational report and commencement of full operations on allocated sites else they face the ‘use-it or lose-it’ policy which is in line with the provisions of the NMMA 2007,
The cadestre office also stated that it would take appropriate action, to recover any outstanding fees or commitments due to the Federal Government from the affected miners.
According to him, the association cannot do anything to assist affected members.
He said that some of its members had formed the habit of acquiring several mining titles without putting then to use.
The president said some titles were revoked because the affected members supplied false information on their mining titles forms.
However, he also noted that the affected members would have used their titles if adequate capacity, funds, personnel and logistics were available.
Shehu appealed to the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development and Bank of Industry (BoI) to fast track the release of the N30 billion mining intervention fund meant for miners.
