Federal Government on Monday said key reforms in the mining sector and floating of N5 billion artisinal mining funds have increased the number of those engaged in that lower cadre mining mining activities to 2 million.
Speaking at the stakeholders meeting on opportunities with Artisinal Mining on Monday, Abubakar Bwari, the Minister of state for Mines and Steel Development said, “With the renewed interest in Mining brought about by the current administration’s diversification efforts, at least 2 million people in Nigeria are now directly or indirectly dependant on ASM for their livelihood.”
He remarked further that, “Most of them are poor and unemployed, living in rural areas and employing crude methods and household implements to exploit these minerals which they sell to feed their families.”
Alos speaking at the event, the miners association are calling on the federal government to adopt the Chinese loan model of 2% interest rate for 30 years in accessing loan for artisinal miners.
The group said,the model would enable their members access loan facility that would enable them formalise their artisinal mining activities, especially the loan N5bn Artisinal mining fund floated by the federal government and managed by the Bank of Industry,BoI.
Miners Association of Nigeria President, Sani Shehu said, “We are looking for intervention that is simple. In China, the loan assessment interest rate is 2% for 30 years. Unfortunately, the Chinese are here to compete with us because of the global trade laws.So if the government can adopt the Chinese model, it would be very nice.”
According to the International Institute for Sustainable Development (2018), close to 50 million people are now engaged in artisanal mining globally.
It would be noted that artisinal miners are those responsible for 90% of the country’s mineral production,which are mostly to be found mining precious minerals like gold, silver, cassiterite, coltan, lead/zinc, sapphire, emerald, tourmaline, aquamarine, gypsum, barytes, silica sand, granite, sandstones, clay, salt,aamong others.
The Minister while decrying some of the environmental problems arising from non formalising of artisinal mining operations listed them to include : lead poisoning, mercury pollution, land/soil degradation, deforestation, poor sanitation, degradation of river banks, and heavy metals pollution.
He adds further that the use of inappropriate mining methods and unwholesome mineral ore processing techniques impact dangerously on public health as they expose the general populace to heavy metal pollution and outbreak of infectious diseases such as cholera, tuberculosis, sexually transmitted diseases and drug abuse.
