Federal Government Nigeria says it lost about 50
billion dollars through illegal mining and exportation of unprocessed gold to
neighbouring countries in the last two years.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Mines and Steel
Development, Linus Awute, made this disclosure in an interview at the
Nigerian-Brazil Investment forum in Abuja.
The permanent secretary said that the activity of
the illegal miners was beyond control, saying that government had already put
in place necessary mechanism to address the problem.
According to him, government has embarked on
formalising the operations of the illegal miners so that the accruable royalty
can come to the government.
Awute had earlier in a presentation at the forum
said that a road map for the development of the mining sector had been produced
by the ministry aimed at setting out vital programmes phased into short, medium
and long terms.
The permanent secretary said that the government had
put in place a new policy that led to the restructuring of the ministry to
enhance performance and regulate the sector adequately.
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