The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr Olamilekan Adegbite during a visit to Governor Sule Abdullahi of Nasarawa State.
The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr Olamilekan Adegbite, has assured that the mineral deposits in Nassarawa state will be fully harnessed for economic prosperity.
He gave the assurance in Lafia on a visit to the State Governor, Mr Abdullahi Sule
Mr Adegbite said the ministry has resolved to avoid a repeat of the Zamfara experience in Nassarawa State, in which bandits were largely in charge of the gold mining emphasizing that the ministry was working with relevant security agencies to avert such an unwanted scenario.
The minister revealed that gold had been discovered along the Abuja, Nassarawa axis through the National Integrated Mineral Exploration Project, NIMEP program undertaken by the ministry.
‘We are working hard to nip these in the bud. We don’t want banditry to come to Nassarawa and Abuja on the trail of gold as it has unfortunately happened in Zamfara,’ the Federal Government had reiterated its ban on gold mining in Zamfara due to banditry. Mining was actually banned in Zamfara in April 2019, and about a few weeks ago the government had to reiterate that ban and also had to declare a no-fly zone. So we do not want a repeat of that in Nassarawa State,’ he said.
The Governor of Nassarawa State, Mr Abdullahi Sule, said the state was prepared to work with the ministry to prevent the snowballing of illegal mining in the state.
He revealed that his administration was indeed concerned about the threat of illegal mining and its associated vices.
He added that despite experiencing some form of illegal mining of gold in the area called Uke, it had still attracted some respectable companies who were mining legally in the state.
(Radio Nigeria)