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.
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.
