Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State has appealed to the Federal Government
to consider revoking all the dormant licences or leases to the mining fields in
the state and re-award them to the state government to operate.
Gov. Ugwuanyi
assured that the state government has the capacity and glut of investors who
are eager and well equipped to commence mining operations in the state.
The governor spoke when the Minister of Mines and Steel
Development, Dr. Fayode Fayemi, the ministry’s Minister of State, Hon. Bawa
Bwari Abubakar, and other top officials of the ministry paid him a courtesy visit
at the Government House, Enugu.
The Minister and his team were in Enugu State on an
inspection tour of mining sites as well as to interact with mining stakeholders
in the state, with a view to revitalizing the solid mineral sector in line with
the diversification policy of the government.
Gov. Ugwuanyi while
appreciating the federal government’s initiatives on reviving the solid mineral
sector, frowned at the unpleasant situation in the mining industry in the state
basically caused by “the nonchalant and uncooperative attitude of owners of
mining leases and licenses for solid minerals in Enugu State”, who he said “are
virtually unknown to the state government”.
He disclosed that Enugu State is richly endowed with solid
mineral resources such as coal, limestone, sandstone, lead, zinc and gas, regretting
that despite these endowments the state has, paradoxically, gained so little
from their existence especially after the collapse and eventual winding up of
the Nigeria Coal Corporation.
“Your Excellency, I am sure you are aware that, apart from
coal, Enugu State is endowed with other minerals such as limestone, sandstone, lead
and zinc and gas. It must however interest you to know that mining leases or
licenses for most of these minerals -covering almost every part of Enugu State
- were awarded and have been held for years by companies that have shown little
or no interest whatsoever in exploiting or extracting the minerals.
“We are compelled to describe them as ghost miners because
not only are they not doing anything at all, they are unknown to the State Government
and have not been seen anywhere near the mine fields”, Gov. Ugwuanyi lamented. Earlier
in his remark, Dr. Fayemi who appreciated Gov. Ugwuanyi’s
transformational agenda in Enugu State informed the governor that they were on a nation-wide tour of the country’s mining assets, particularly as it affects the South Eastern region.
transformational agenda in Enugu State informed the governor that they were on a nation-wide tour of the country’s mining assets, particularly as it affects the South Eastern region.
He added that another
aim of the tour was basically to look at the abandoned coal mines in the state
such as Onyeama and Okpara mines, with a view to revitalizing them, saying that
coal and other mineral resources are very important to the federal government
for power generation and economic recovery.
By Chinenye Chinwe
