The Director General of Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office, situated in the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, Engr. Obadiah Simon Nkom, has said that they will continue with the revocation of mining licences even though 3400 titles have been revoked within one year already.
Nkom explained the reason for the stern position by his office in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, at the ongoing sensitisation workshop for mining stakeholders in the South-South on the adoption of the electronic Mining Cadastre System – eMC+.
He said they do not want title holders to hold the country to ransom, adding that they complied with all procedures before revoking any license.
“You can’t get a licence and keep it in the house forever. You must meet up with your obligations.
“We have revoked 3400 mining licenses. We have the principle of ‘get a licence and use it’. If you do not use it, you risk it being revoked.
“The affected miners did not comply with provisions of the Act, which are clearly spelt out for all to see. There is a security of tenure of license.
“We don’t just wake up to revoke. The law specified that we give 30 days notice through a registered letter and also gazette it. We ensure that we exhaust all procedures leading to revocation of licences so that title holders do not blame us.”
According to Nkom, the mining sector holds abundant wealth for the country as each of the 774 local government areas has abundant mineral resources.
He spoke about the essence of the sensitisation on the eMC+.
“The electronic mining Cadastre system which has been computerized and is now migrated to an online system, so that miners and anybody else anywhere in the world does not need to physically come to the office to submit applications. There are quite a number of other benefits from the latest innovations,” he said.