The federal government has revoked an additional 924 dormant mineral licences with immediate effect.
According to Dele Alake, minister of solid minerals development, the affected titles include 528 exploration licences, 20 mining leases, 101 quarry licences, and 273 small-scale mining licences.
In November, more than 1,600 mining titles were revoked for non-payment of statutory fees as part of sweeping reforms in the sector.
Speaking during the briefing on Wednesday, Alake lamented the high rate of licence racketeering, as well as dormant mineral licences, which he assured of the ministry’s unrelenting effort to get into the root cause, and correct the lapses.
” The notice gave all concerned parties 30 days to regularise their status, including clarifications on what caused the license to be dormant. Thus, although a total of 963 licensees were published and notified of the threat of revocation, no fewer that 39 either moved to site immediately or convinced the authorities of the challenges hindering their operations”, the minister said.
He added that the ministry had formulated a policy to enable those whose licences have been revoked and are interested in reinstating such licences back into the system.
He explained that such persons must make restitution to the Federal Government through the payment of fines.
For mining licences reinstatement, Alake fixed the fine for large-scale companies at N10m, while small-scale mining licences were put at N7.5m, and exploration licences were put at N5m respectively.
The minister gave 30 days for interested parties to come up to the ministry through the mining cadastral office or risk losing their licences.
“Investors across the globe are now free to apply for any of the affected Cadastral Units on the basis of “first come, first served. ” It is our belief that this decision will sanitise the licensing system by penalising those who have commercialised the opportunities offered by the sector into a bazaar, ” Alake said.
