FG Revokes Over 1,500 Dormant Mineral Licences

• FG Revokes Over 1,500 Dormant Mineral Licences

In an effort to compel approved mineral licence holders to invest in the economy and stimulate growth, the Federal Government has revoked 1,566 dormant licences of mineral titles.

Engr Obadiah Nkom, the director-general, Mining Cadastre Office (MCO), disclosed this on Thursday while playing host to the minister of Mines and Steel Development, Arc. Olamilekan Adegbite.

He said: “One of the target areas in our strategy is to invoke the provisions of the constitution on those who collect licenses and want to keep them without usage. I can tell you that it is on record that we have revoked about 1, 566 mineral titles in recent times in accordance with the law. We don’t expect people to be executive miners.

“We shall continue to apply that strategy of “use it or lose”. We are aware that people are out there watching to see us make mistakes in our actions, but I can tell you that MCO has been successful in virtually all the litigations against it to date. We are treading carefully in line with the constitution to avoid any embarrassment to the government.

“Another aspect of importance is that of revenue generation. I can tell you that from January till date, we have generated about N2billion, and we are still working very hard to improve on that.”

Arc. Adegbite urged his host to create more awareness about mining to encourage investors to participate in job creation and economic growth.

“I have noticed that in the presentation you have made, the application has dropped. Looking at your graph of application over the years, the one for this year as at July end seems to have dropped from what you had in the past; you had 1,075, while the total received for 2016 was 2800.

“Does that means there is low interest in mining now that this government is putting a lot of emphasis on mining as a focus for diversifying the economy? Intensify effort at creating more awareness in mining and create the right atmosphere for people to be attracted to mining so we can have more applications. As it is now, it’s obvious that at the end of this year, we won’t have what we had the previous year,” he said.