Sir: Bandits have focused attention on gold and lithium mining in Zamfara and Niger states. In the banditry-affected north-west and central areas, solid minerals cartel, loose criminal networks engaged in illegal gold, lithium mining and which have ties to foreign actors and facilitate trafficking. Most criminal markets for gold in Nigeria are driven by foreign demand but propped up by local actors.
Foreign networks operate like their local counterparts and have repositioned their activities in the criminal value chain through direct involvement in illicit gold mining in remote villages and forests. Powerful Northern politicians who have benefited from illegal mining in their states are sponsoring banditry in Nigeria, according to the minister of Solid Minerals.
Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, said that some influential Nigerian politicians who have benefited from illegal mining in their states have threatened his life after he accused illegal miners of engaging in banditry in several parts of Nigeria.
On the aggregate, gold constitutes 70 per cent of the minerals being mined in Niger State, followed by manganese, tantalite, talc, marble and kaolin. These mineral deposits are mined by different mining organisations (corporate and artisanal) for the benefit of the economy of the state.
However, the mining activities also pose serious negative, security environmental and health impacts. Noteworthy in the positive impacts is the provision of employment (livelihood) to the immediate communities while health complications (sometimes leading to death), soil degradation and surface and ground water pollutions have been documented as the negative impacts.
Solid minerals are mined in the mayhem of a banditry featuring more than 100 bandit armed groups, and hostilities ramping up since 2015. Vast amounts of minerals like lithium and gold are smuggled from the bandits-ravaged Zamfara and Niger states, where they enter global supply chains. These are the blood solid minerals that bandits are mining in Zamfara and Niger states.
In Zamfara State, one of the key players in this wave of criminality, are some traditional rulers, who ordinarily are supposed to be the custodians of peace in the state but have neglected those roles and have resorted to providing protection and support to the illegal miners in exchange for personal gains.
Recently, Alake emphasised that Zamfara is rich in gold, lithium, and copper, and the lifting of the ban would revitalise economic activities in the state, benefiting both Zamfara and the nation. He acknowledged that while the ban was necessary to address insecurity and protect national resources, it had also inadvertently created a vacuum that illegal miners exploited. The influx of bandits from neighbouring countries increasingly surged with proliferation of both light and heavy weapons.
Nigeria has lifted a ban on mining exploration in the northwestern state of Zamfara after a five-year suspension, the mining minister said, citing improved security. Mining activities in Zamfara, which holds huge gold, lithium and copper deposits, were suspended in 2019 following incessant bandit attacks.
Large deposits of lithium, an essential component for building batteries for electric cars, laptops and mobile devices were recently discovered in Zamfara State. The price of lithium has risen from $6,000 per tonne in 2020 to $78,000 per tonne in 2022, and it was expected to be the most valuable mineral on earth by 2040. Additionally, Nigeria’s lithium is high-grade.
Zamfara is swarming with terrorists and armed bandits following gold deposits in the state. Zamfara State has been blessed with solid minerals deposits whereby analysis has shown that the state possessed 60 out of the total country’s solid minerals deposits; so that when tapped and processed, it can add more to the nation’s economy and eventually reduce the total dependence on oil.
The current discovery of the abundant solid minerals deposits in the state, Zamfara would also be among the four oil producing states that the country would be proud of.
With the establishment of new factory coupled with new foreign investors that would be in the state to establish their companies for the solid minerals processing, rural to urban or the inter states migration of the teaming populace in the state in search of money in business would reduce.
Inwalomhe Donald wrote via [email protected]
