sanpipita:


He didn't say they saved 9b, read the story again.

neither did I say they saved 9b. I think I was explicit enough

Primusinterpares:
where are the legal minners.?

i swaer...u nobgo popular

Jos is the nigeria capital of illegal mining

Afobear:
i swaer...u nobgo popular

I don't want popularity...
I prefer relevance to cheep social media 2minutes trend of "porpulrity"

At times I get "confused" on what to react to, is it the article posted or the "sensless" manner in which some folks are reacting to something this serious

These northern politicians and their political zombies are the thieves of these mineral resources.

Blue3k2:
Amazing Nigeria can grow the economy by 9 billion dollars by essentially enforcing rule of law. The mineral sector has plenty of potential especially if Nigerians process them and move up value chain. Easy example being iron, and steel.

1. It will surprise you that many of these illegal miners are actually in collaboration with foreigners (Chinese, Indians etc). What that tells you very quickly is that there is a market outside the country that receives these goods.
2. Makes me wonder what previous Ministers/Govt had been doing. Diezani left this same ministry and went to petroleum. Seems they all marked time or what? We just allowed this industry to practically go undeveloped, unregulated and free for all.
3. Fayemi is doing a thankless job. Our solid minerals industry value-chain will take a long time to fully mature. It will need commitment and painstaking sieving the wheat from the chaff to get it to fully take-off.
4. I have some fears. I hope Fayemi's team understand the terrain they are taking the fight to. Illegal miner are like smugglers. They are weaponised and very dangerous. They have opened fire on NSCDCs in the past. Fayemi's team better be well equipped. Toyota vehicles are not enough. They need weaponised vehicles, choppers and drones.

The value-chain building process is another discusssion

mapet:


1. It will surprise you that many of these illegal miners are actually in collaboration with foreigners (Chinese, Indians etc). What that tells you very quickly is that there is a market outside the country that receives these goods.
2. Makes me wonder what previous Ministers/Govt had been doing. Diezani left this same ministry and went to petroleum. Seems they all marked time or what? We just allowed this industry to practically go undeveloped, unregulated and free for all.
3. Fayemi is doing a thankless job. Our solid minerals industry value-chain will take a long time to fully mature. It will need commitment and painstaking sieving the wheat from the chaff to get it to fully take-off.
4. I have some fears. I hope Fayemi's team understand the terrain they are taking the fight to. Illegal miner are like smugglers. They are weaponised and very dangerous. They have opened fire on NSCDCs in the past. Fayemi's team better be well equipped. Toyota vehicles are not enough. They need weaponised vehicles, choppers and drones.

The value-chain building process is another discusssion

1. Yeah when they started talking about gem export being in range of 1 billion I knew something weird going on. If I didn't read mining data I wouldn't know Nigeria had gems at all.
2. t's funny nobody cares about such issues till this administration. It's all oil money.
3. Hes actually in top 3 in my opinion of biharis ministers. I think in some areas we can see development is we focus on training and Industru clusters like aluminium and steel.

Blue3k2:


Your comment senseless. Why did they buy the vehicles then? Did you not read about the arrest of illegal miners in Plataue, Niger or Kwara this year.

The worst thing that will happen to you, is trying to reason with nonentities on Nairaland.

jpphilips:


The worst thing that will happen to you, is trying to reason with nonentities on Nairaland.

Your right it's an exercise in futility. Its victim mentality at work. If you ask him how many Jonathan arrested or why did he set up mining police we get no reasonable answers. Jonathan was doing same thing he's moaning about.

Blue3k2:


Well it does reduce output because legal miners can't access mines they aren't permitted to with mining lease. The illegal ones will, won't pay taxes or take care of environment. That's cost is passed to tax payers. It's no different from illegal fishing (besides fish repopulating).

They are free to apply for mining leases. Illegal miners like Chinese fly here to smuggle. They aren't interested in paper work and taxes. Again government already doing what your asking in having illegal miners register. They're even setting up lending for them. The fact is some would rather stay under in blackmarket. (Proof: look above this comment)

Yes. But if your reasoning is correct, then all the government has to do is give legal miners the license to access those areas and problem solved. They will take over those mines and no need to spend hundreds of millions. But its not so. Secondly, its not just registering illegal mines. If the process was that straight forward, the illegal mines would have registered themselves in the beginning and won't be illegal. Its registering them cheaply and transparently. You are right that some people will always prefer a black market. But when the black market is worth $9 billion or N3.2 trillion Naira compared to a $4 - $12 billion legal market, the problem is beyond just a few people preferring black markets. It means it is cheaper - even when you include security risks that come with precious metals- both for those selling and those buying to go through illegal means than to go through legal means. When its is incredibly more cost effective to be illegal than legal, you will find more people being illegal. And that cost is controlled largely by government.