Governor Ademola Adeleke has listed several achievements of his administration under the mining sector from 2022 to date, clarifying that his government did not sell any mining licence but consolidated and expanded state assets in the sector.

In a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the governor on Mining and Mineral Matters, Prof. Lukuman Adekilekun JIMODA, and issued in response to allegations that the state government has sold some mining licences, the governor slammed the Osun APC for neglecting the sector while in power, identifying some of the strategies implemented to jumpstart the sector after years of neglect.

“When the governor assumed office in 2022, he set up a Solid Mineral Committee to comprehensively study the state of mineral resources in Osun State. The findings of the committee included the shocking discovery that all our inherited licences are loaded with accumulated service charges which the last Government did not pay at all.

“The report noted that the last government could not account for revenue as floated by a company, Hoffman and Danger, where all the miners in the state were reporting to. No single payment was paid into the State Government purse.

“The functionaries of the last Government actually knew that August 9th, 2023, was the expiry date, yet they did not pay service charges nor make any preparation for conversion from exploration leases to Mining leases.

“They abandoned our assets with Segilola Resources Operating Limited, with billions of naira of assets, dividends and taxes. They denied the state of huge returns.

“The administration revived and expanded the mining sector by stopping imminent loss of inherited mining licence due to non-payment of renewal fees by the Oyetola administration”, he noted.

“Mr Governor did not sell a single Cadastral Unit in the asset inherited from the last Government. He is fully working towards converting all eight (8) joint ventures inherited from the Oyetola Government.

Speaking further on the progress recorded in the mining sector, the Special Adviser said the mining sector achieved a lot, such as securing the shareholding from Segilola Resources Operation Limited worth around Seven Billion Naira, while dividends worth 64,000 Canadian Dollars are being paid by Thor Exploration Limited every three (3) months from January, 2025 till date.

“We have also collected taxes worth N1.7 Billion as against less than N50 Million collected during the tenure of the last administration. Our Internally Generated Revenue from Alluvial Mining, Artisanal Mining and others has improved tremendously.

“The IGR we generated in April 2023 (one month) is more than the IGR generated in one year (2022) by former governor Oyetola. Governor Adeleke did not sell a single licence. The current mining sector under him is characterised by an increased IGR, environmentally friendly operation and excellent capacity building.

“The Governor paid all the accumulated service charges around April/ May, 2023 and the State Government has been paying continuously. The Government immediately commenced processes for applying for conversion of all Exploration Leases to Mining Leases. We did Environmental Auditing by NESREA as a condition for applying for conversion of Exploration Leases to Mining Leases.

“We got Consent Letters from (Paramount Rulers and Land Owners) for conversion from Exploration leases to mining leases. We also acquired Certificate to Operate Environmental Protection and Rehabilitation Programs. These three conditions took us to June/July 2023.

“We applied for conversion on 2nd of August, 2023. However, the Cadastral Units of our Exploration Leases were around 800-960 Cadastral Units. The new submission model at Cadastral Office can only accommodate a maximum of 250 cadastral units, while our Exploration Leases, which we bought from Nigerian Mining Corporation (NMC) through Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) are higher (800-960CU);

“We broke them down into three to four Mining Leases depending on the largeness of the Exploration Leases. We prepared applications for 39 mining leases across exploration leases which were about to expire. The total of 11 mining leases were accepted for processing, the remaining are pending”, the statement concluded.’