The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, has warned illegal miners to adopt safer, legally approved practices following the collapse of a mining pit in Kassa, Plateau State.
Alake said the tragedy could have been avoided if the miners had formed a cooperative and obtained the necessary permits, which would have also enabled them to access field training and other support from the ministry’s artisanal mining department.
In the statement made by the Special Assistant on Media to the Minister, Lara Owoeye-Wise, the minister, who commiserated with the Plateau State Government and the families of the victims, urged artisanal miners across the country to learn from the incident and embrace safer and legally approved mining practices.
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He said the Federal Government was also seeking private-sector partnerships to transform abandoned mine pits into productive assets for energy, tourism and fisheries.
“The challenge before the state and the Federal Government is how to turn these potential pits of death into centres of joyful prosperity,” Alake said.
According to him, more than 4,000 abandoned mine pits were dug by Amalgamated Tin Mines Limited and its successor companies, Consolidated Tin Mines Limited and Nigerian Tin and Allied Products Limited.
He said the ministry had so far rehabilitated 59 abandoned mine pits, adding that collaboration with the private sector remained the fastest way to convert the abandoned sites into productive economic assets.
To accelerate the reclamation process, Alake said the ministry had launched a strategic initiative involving advanced Geographic Information System (GIS) satellite mapping and Artificial Intelligence.
The initiative, being implemented through a public-private partnership with ImPPPact Nigeria Alliance and geomatics specialist Intomatics, is using Plateau State as a pilot to locate and characterise the legacy tin pits and develop reclamation workflows.
The minister urged interested investors to approach the Nigerian Mining Cadastral Office and the ministry’s Mines and Environmental Compliance Department for enquiries, while also encouraging them to explore funding opportunities through the Solid Minerals Development Fund.
Alake further disclosed that he had initiated the establishment of an Environmental Protection and Rehabilitation Fund to prevent the recurrence of abandoned mine pits.
He said the fund would require mining companies to contribute towards the rehabilitation of mine sites where operators fail to carry out proper closure.
“Very soon, we shall conclude discussions with the fund managers. Thenceforth, mining companies must pay to the Fund so that it can rehabilitate mine pits if the companies don’t do so during closure,” he said.
The minister called on investors to see the abandoned mine sites not only as environmental liabilities but as opportunities for new economic activities and sustainable development.
