Federal Government has revoked another 924 more dormant licenses after adequate notice of 30 days to concern parties.
The Minister of Solid Mineral Development Dr Dele Alake announced this in Abuja at news briefing and said the revocation followed due process.
Dr Alake said the recent revocation was the second since the present administration assumed office and was part of its efforts to reposition the solid mineral sector.
“In line with the constitutional provisions,we ensure that adequate notice was given to the concerned parties through the official Gazette of the Federal Republic of Nigeria No.227, which was published on December 27,2023. This notice gave all the concerned parties 30 days to regularized their status , including clarifications on what caused the license to be dormant. Thus, although a total of 963 licensees were published and notified of the threat of revocation, no fewer that 39 either moved to site immediately or convinced the authorities of the challenges hindering their operations”, the Minister asserted.
The Minister Dr Dele Alake notified the public that the licenses were revoked after failure of the operators to pay the statutory royalty to the federal government.
The Minister who noted that license racketeering by owners had been a challenge and had hindered serious prospective buyers from the business maintained that such practices put the country in bad light.
Following the development, Dr Alake gave 30 days ultimatum restitution with fine ranging from 10million, 7.5 million and 5 million before restatement depending on the type of licenses.
“For revoked Mining Licenses, a fine of N10m applies; N7.5m for Small Scale Mining License (SSML) while N5m for Exploration License (EL). They will be required to make the payments within 30 days to qualify for consideration, “he emphasised.
The revocation according to the Minister would give opportunity to interested investors to apply for the affected cadastral unit on the basis of first come, first serve.
RN
