The Kaduna State government has registered more than 1,000 miners to check illegal operators and document active miners in the state.
The state commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, Mrs Amina Sijuade, disclosed this in Abuja, yesterday, on the side line of the just concluded African Gemstones and Jewellery Exhibition and Seminar (AGJES) 2017.
Sijuade said those registered were from Birnin Gwari local government area, where gold mining activities were being conducted by large numbers of artisanal and small scale miners on a daily basis.
She said that the registration that started this year would avail the state government the opportunity to document their names into the state’s database.
According to her, the state government is planning to expand the registration to other local governments to check illegal operators and document active miners in the state.
“Addressing illegal mining in Kaduna State requires huge resources; we are currently operating database for all our mining operators in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development.
“We are setting up a taskforce that will go round to verify who is active miners in our state and this will make us to discover illegal miners that we can engage with and organise them into cooperatives, ” he said.
She said organising them into cooperatives would help them to access the opportunities available for small scale miners in the states, at the Federal and from the development partners.
The commissioner urged title holders from the federal government to acquaint themselves with the state government before operating in Kaduna.
She said that the Kaduna state government has opened up a line of engagement with title holders operating in the state for easy discussion and forums about their activities and challenges.
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