By Kayode Sanni-Arewa
The Federal Government has revoked an additional 924 dormant mineral licences with immediate effect.
The revoked mineral licences which include 528 exploration licences, 20 mining leases, 101 quarry licences, and 273 small-scale mining licenses, were disclosed to journalists by the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, during a press briefing in Abuja on Wednesday.
Recall that in November 2023, the ministry under the current administration made a revocation of 1,663 mineral licences, which was the first batch of licences revoked.
Speaking during the briefing, 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.
He added that the ministry had formulated a policy to enable those whose licences have been revoked and are interested in reinstating such licences back into the system.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.
The move comes as the ministry recently suspended all mining companies operating inside the Obafemi Awolowo University following an investigation by Channels Television.
The investigation revealed a total of 11 mining companies operated inside OAU before the announcement of the suspension by the minister.
The Mining Ministry has since put in place a special security squad, which it said would be in charge of sniffing out activities of illegal miners across the country.