Eric Biame is a director with Maad Mining and Exploration Limited, Jos, Plateau state. The professional geologist and miner who also trained in minerals engineering at the Nigerian Institute of Mining and Geosciences, Jos, has tasked the federal and state governments on the need to increase their tempo for the sector’s. development even as he rated the Mining Cadastre Office as the best performing agency in the sector. Biame spoke with FRANCIS ADINOYI KADIRI
As an active participant in the sector for many years, what is your assessment of the performance of the present administration in the area of mining?
The Jonathan administration has made commendable effort, as it has shown the realization that the solid minerals sector is critical to national development. Last year, the administration finally recovered the Ajaokuta Steel Company which I applauded as the right thing. ASCO had undergone two concessions under previous administrations which all failed to get the place working. The zero duty on imported mining equipment is also another laudable incentive that is boosting investment in the mining sector. However, government should do much more to increase the sector’s contribution to the GDP by 2015 and in the process, create three million jobs as it promised.
The sector can create huge numbers of jobs and add to the country’s revenue if the right things are done consistently. It is such qualities that foreign investors are on the lookout for.
Would you say the miners, especially the artisanal and small scale miners have benefitted from the various policies of the administration?
Common people are yet to benefit. They have not been made to feel the positive effects of the policies. The sector is still at the early stage of policies implementation. Efforts should be concentrated in seeing that policies are properly implemented so that the impact would felt in every aspects of national life, not only with the upper or common people.
Which areas do you think should receive increased attention from government?
I strongly advice that rapid attention be given to artisanal and small scale miners who have been the bedrock of the sector since the collapse of modern large scale mining over 30 years ago, since their level of operations require low level, easy to acquire technology in order to fast track impact of mining policies on local people.
Mining activities have the potential to provide additional incomes to rural families. In Jos, between planting and harvesting periods, when farming activity is very low, people pick up their diggers and shovels and head for stream courses to mine cassiterite and columbite and earn some extra cash.
What in your opinion are the most disturbing constraints to the development of the mining sector?
The most important constraints has been overcome, I mean the neglect of this sector for over 30 years by governments in the past, following the discovery of oil and the oil boom years. The key to diversifying the Nation’s economy is the mineral sector because minerals provide the things we need. I am of the opinion that the federal government equates the mineral sector with the oil sector. Government should give it the same attention in terms of spending. In fact the solid minerals sector deserves greater attention than oil, because solid minerals supply additives for oil exploitation. For example, bentonite and barite are used to explore and drill oil wells.
Solid minerals provides us with lead to batteries, galvanized (zinc) and aluminium roofing sheets; limestone and gypsum are used to make cement; phosphate is used in fertilizer production. Solid minerals are also used in producing high tech electronics such as mobile phones which is made up of more than twenty different minerals which go into its manufacture from iron, copper, tin, columbite, tantalite, silver, lithium and ion batteries. Surgeons’ surgical knives and tool are made from tantalum alloys which are inert to human tissues so you don’t get infected. Minerals even show up even in interesting stuff like the marble grits in some toothpaste which acts as abrasives in cleaning the teeth.
It is interesting to note that mining, unlike the oil sector can be carried out at micro scale otherwise called artisanal, small, medium, large and even mega scales. This means that people across different levels of society can find an entry point into the mining and minerals industry. It is not reserved for the rich but extends to people at all levels of society.
All through human economic history, mining and agriculture feature as the two main primary industries. The mining of metals made it possible for man to thrive in agriculture when he learned to use iron to make ploughs.
Would you say the present administration is doing enough to develop the sector?
The government is just starting to get to end of policy formulation stages. When implementation is in progress, then we can comment. For example there is the Automotive policy for the steel sector; a policy we believe will be a catalyst for the development of the sector. Government seems to be following some sort of a road map where you go from exploration, development, mining, processing then marketing in other words, these things are interlinked as you make sure you have steady continuous supply of raw material input and infrastructures.
What is your evaluation of the performances of the regulatory agencies in Nigeria’s solid minerals sector?
I would score them average, with a few bright sparks like the Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office. The MCO recently changed the conditions for getting community consents, insisting that the land owner and resident are the most important persons to sign and give consent to anyone seeking to explore or mine on the land.
This decision is very correct because in the past, there are situations when traditional rulers signed and leased swathes of land to certain individuals and companies without consulting the actual resident land owners who in all fairness must be factored in for due compensation since exploration and mining activities could disrupt his use for that land mainly farming.
I suggest that there must be some form of advocacy so that local communities become empowered before they go into these community development agreements (CDA) with prospective mining companies by having legal advice and representation, so they are not short changed and at the same time have realistic expectations from the CDA. Perhaps the solid minerals development fund could consider setting aside fund for poor communities to pay legal aid experts in mining and extractive industry matters and perhaps recoups their fees from successful CDA’S. A poorly implemented CDA can be a potential source of conflict between miners and their host communities, and can lead to break down of law and order. Such scenarios must be avoided as much as possible in Nigeria, a country which is doing its best to attract foreign investors. The news of conflicts could have great negative effect consequences on the investment drive.
