In a recent development, the Federal Government has revoked 924 inactive mining licenses, according to them this firms are alleged to have facilitated a black market for acquiring mining titles.
Dele Alake the Minister for Solid Mineral development stated on Wednesday that they have revoked licenses comprise 528 exploration licenses, 20 mining leases, 101 quarry licenses, and 273 small-scale mining licenses.
Alake said that this measures needed to be implemented so as to stop “license racketeering,” that is a process where companies or individuals acquire titles of mineral-rich areas and then sell them to the highest bidders.
Alake also announced that these licenses are now open for new investors to apply on a “first come, first served” basis.
“By creating a secondary, black market to pawn mineral licences, the unsuspecting and unwary investor is misled into believing that he can only obtain licence by patronizing the black market. This discourages investment,”
“We believe that this decision will sanitize the licensing system by penalizing those who have commercialized the opportunities offered by the sector into a bazaar” Alake stated.
The Minister also stated that for the owners whose licences were revoked and still want them back that they have to pay the sum of N10m within 30 days to retrieve their operational licence.
