The Commissioner for Environment in Plateau State, Mr. Peter Gwom, has said that Governor Caleb Mutfwang signed Executive Order 001 of 2025 suspending all illegal mining activities across the state.
  
Gwom said that the development is aimed at protecting life and property considering the escalating threats of insecurity emanating from mining activities and unregulated mining operations.
   
While giving a press briefing yesterday at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Conference Hall in Jos, the Commissioner said that Plateau States has been at the forefront of mining activities in Nigeria since 1902.
  
The Commissioner noted that the emergence of large-scale mining industries on the Plateau was a catalyst for economic growth, serving as a backbone for industrialisation, job creation, foreign exchange earnings and infrastructural development.
   
He, however, elucidated that the Indigenisation Decree of the early 1970s and the closure of the Nigerian Mining Corporation led to the exit of mechanised mining outfits, leaving a vacuum that was subsequently filled by unregulated and illegal mining activities.
    
He said: “Over the decades, these activities have resulted in severe land degradation, environmental pollution, increased child labour, illicit drug trade, proliferation of arms, banditry, kidnappings, among other dangerous trends.” 

The commissioner posited that it is disheartening that many young people in the state are abandoning their education to engage in artisanal mining, thereby exposing themselves to exploitation, drug abuse, prostitution and life-threatening hazards.