Abuja
— The Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, Thursday, debunked
claims over the alleged sale of gold by the Governor of Zamfara State,
Bello Matawalle, to the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
This was
contained in a statement signed by the Head of Press and Public
Relations, Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, Etore Thomas, and
made available to Vanguard, with the subject, 'Zamfara Gold: Putting the
Facts Right'.
According to the statement, people are
seemingly portraying that some states in the country have right to
aggregate minerals resources within their domain for their use, which is
not true as all mineral resources remain on the Exclusive Legislative
list as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
The
statement also pointed that for the benefit of doubt, Section 44(3)
states "the entire property in and control of all minerals, mineral oils
and natural gas in, under or upon any land in Nigeria or in, under or
upon the territorial waters and the Exclusive Economic Zone of Nigeria,
shall vest in the Government of the Federation and shall be managed in
such manner as may be prescribed by the National Assembly." Likewise the
Mineral Act of 2007 is very clear on issue of minerals ownership and
exploitation.
According to the statement, it is in line
with this that the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development is saddled
with the responsibility for identifying the nation's solid minerals,
advising the government on the formulation and execution of laws and
regulations guiding the various stages of prospecting, quarrying, and
mining, and handling sale and consumption of solid minerals in the
country, through the issuance of permits, licenses, leases and collection of rents, fees, and royalties.
The
statement reads in part, "The attention of the Ministry of Mines and
Steel Development has been drawn to media reports on reactions of
individuals and groups to the purported news report about Zamfara State
Governor buying gold from artisanal miners in the state and selling same
to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Ordinarily, the Ministry would
have been silent but for the negative impression those views are
portraying; seemingly that states in some parts of the country have
right to aggregate minerals resources within their domain to their use.
"On
Zamfara State gold; Zamfara State has security challenges and the State
government discovered that bandits were exploiting the ignorance of the
artisanal miners, buy off their gold at very cheap price, take the gold
across the border and sell at market price and exchange for ammunitions
and guns, which was fueling banditry.
"Zamfara State government through a registered company, with a buying centre license
is now buying gold from the artisanal miners at market price. This has
no doubt discouraged the artisanal miners in the state from selling to
bandits.
"Though states through their licensed corporate bodies can buy and sell gold to any interested persons or company, it is worthy of note that CBN did not and will not buy gold from Zamfara Government.
"The
gold displayed by the Zamfara State government is called dore bars
(semi-processed gold). CBN buys gold that is processed to 99.99% purity
which is LBMA standard, tradable all over the world.
"The
Federal Government encourages state governments to be part of the
exploitation of minerals in the country by incorporating a limited
liability company with which to approach the Ministry for a license for
Mining or Buying Centres.
"Such corporate body/company must go
through normal processes for approval and issuance of license. This
license allows such company to exploit minerals in any given location
which is called Cadastre Unit."
The statement also explained
that "As part of strategies to implement policies/programmes in the
Mining Sector to broaden revenue generation and employment opportunities
in line with the economic diversification agenda of this
administration, the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development
Initiative (PAGMI) is being implemented. The components of the
initiative included but not limited to Formalization of the artisanal
miners into cooperatives This is to integrate their activities into the
economic and institutional framework that would eliminate illegality;
Registration of Buying Centres and Aggregators, to provide market access
for artisanal miners, etc.
"Like in the oil and gas sector,
revenues generated from mineral resources are paid into the federation
account, and shared among the states during the monthly meeting of
Federation Allocation Account Committee (FAAC). 13% derivation is paid
on mineral resources exploitation from minerals producing states as done
in the oil and gas sector." https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/11/ministry-of-mines-debunks-claims-over-alleged-sale-of-gold-by-gov-mattawale-to-cbn/ 
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