Abandoned mine sites in Kassa, Barkin Ladi in Plateau where seven miners died recently.

The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, has warned illegal miners against extracting minerals from abandoned pits without licences.

Mr Alake gave the warning while reacting to the collapse of an abandoned tin mine pit at Kassa in the Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State.

The warning is contained in a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Lara Owoeye-Wise, on Sunday in Abuja.

Illegal miners died on Wednesday evening after a mining pit collapsed on them at a mining site in Kassa community, Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State.

The minister said the tragedy could have been averted if the illegal miners formed a cooperative and applied for the necessary permit.

He said obtaining the permit would have enabled them to benefit from field training by the ministry’s Artisanal Mining Department and secure a steady stream of income.

Mr Alake commiserated with the government and people of Plateau State over the incident, urging artisanal miners nationwide to learn from the tragedy.

“The challenge before the state and the Federal Government is how to turn these potential pits of death into centres of joyful prosperity,” he said.

The minister said there were more than 4,000 mine pits dug by Amalgamated Tin Mines Ltd. alongside their successor companies, Consolidated Tin Mines Ltd. and Nigerian Tin and Allied Products Ltd.

He called on investors to partner with the government to repurpose the abandoned pits for energy, tourism and fishery projects.

Mr Alake said collaboration with the private sector remained the fastest and most proactive approach to transforming abandoned mining sites into productive assets.

He stated that the ministry had so far rehabilitated 59 abandoned mine pits.

According to him, the ministry, in a move to de-risk investment in the sector, has also inaugurated an initiative deploying advanced Geographic Information System satellite mapping and Artificial Intelligence.

He said that this would help to identify and characterise legacy tin pits.

He said the nitiative being implemented through a public-private partnership with ImPPPact Nigeria Alliance and geomatics specialist, Intomatics, was adopting Plateau State as the pilot state.

Mr Alake said the initiative would support the design and development of workflows for reclaiming the thousands of legacy tin pits across the state.

He advised prospective investors to direct enquiries to the Nigerian Mining Cadastral Office and the ministry’s Mines and Environmental Compliance Department.

He also encouraged investors to apply to the Solid Minerals Development Fund’s funding programme.

To prevent the recurrence of abandoned mine pits, Mr Alake said he had pioneered the establishment of the Environmental Protection and Rehabilitation Fund.

He said the initiative was aimed at ensuring that mining companies contributed funds that could be used to rehabilitate pits where operators failed to do so after mine closure.

“Very soon, we shall conclude discussions with the fund managers. Henceforth, mining companies must pay to the fund so that it can rehabilitate mine pits if the companies do not do so during closure,” he said.

(NAN)