Henceforth, owners of licenced units of land mined by illegal miners stands the risk of losing their land titles.
This is the reaction of the government to another mine collapse as a result of illegal mining in Niger state which claimed three lives on Thursday.
The minister of solid minerals development, Dr Dele Alake, said preliminary investigations have showed that the collapsed mine was in the area under Exploration Licence 43113 of JURASSIC MINES Limited in Adunu village, Paikoro local government area of the state.
An exploration licence is given to an applicant to confirm if the site is suitable for the proposed mineral exploration, but does not authorise the applicant to engage in mining.
While reviewing the role of the ministry in response to the event, Alake noted that the ministry received reports of the accident at about 4.45 pm on Thursday indicating that three people had died when a tunnel collapsed on them while illegally mining gold on the site.
The ministry, he said, promptly mobilised its mine officers and headed to the area around 6.15 pm when the officials were informed that three men were killed and were already buried.
“At the time of the visit, work had stopped at the site; only onlookers were seen. The coordinators of the site were taken and officials returned to Minna at about 8.30 pm. The owners of the company were contacted by phone, but they claimed ignorance of happenings on the site; so were summoned to the office in Minna, the state capital,” he said.
