DEATH AND THE ARTISANAL MINERS

There is need to do more to safeguard lives

In what is becoming a recurring tragedy, seven miners lost their lives last Wednesday in Kassa community, Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State after a mining pit collapsed on them. Earlier in February, a similar incident at the Kampani Zurak community in Wase Local Government Area of Plateau State led to the death of 37 miners. That particular tragedy could have been avoided if the mining site had remained sealed after the federal government shut it down in 2017, according to a former Minister of Solid Minerals, Kayode Fayemi, who served under the administration of the late President Muhammadu Buhari.

Despite the dangers inherent in illegal mining, there is still a prevalence of the business across the country, particularly in the north. In the last one year, so many mining pits have collapsed, trapping and killing dozens of people, who are driven mainly by hunger and desperation. From Niger to Plateau and Sokoto States, far too many of our citizens are being buried alive at mining sites. But the epicentre of this tragedy is in Zamfara State where repeated scenes of funeral have not persuaded the workers to give up the dangerous business. When on one occasion nine people were buried beneath the earth, following the collapse of a mine pit, there would have been no trace of them but for the fact that there was a lone survivor who was partly buried and had to be subsequently rescued. 

Beyond the issue of the cost to the environment, the country is losing money to the tunes of billions on an annual basis. The House of Representatives ad hoc committee on illegal mining recently estimated the money lost to unregulated mining operations at $9 billion yearly. But while artisanal mining makes up about 80 per cent of all mining activities, the sector is not properly defined, despite the efforts of the current government to standardise the procedure and terms of artisanal mining. Industry experts say there is still a lot of confusion about what is illegal mining, unregulated mining and informal mining.

  Zamfara is undoubtedly the headquarters of illegal mining in the country, where armed gangs often control gold fields, fuelling violence and deadly accidents. According to the government spokesman, Mustapha Kaura, there are about 20,000 illegal miners from within and outside of the country who had taken over the mining sites in the state. Kaura expressed fear that many more mining pits would collapse due to the excessive rainfall being experienced in the state. An added concern is often the nexus between unregulated mining, banditry and other criminal activity, such as kidnappings for ransom and community unrest. Besides, as has been confirmed in Zamfara, some of the illicit revenues from the business rival state budgets.

 However, we must also acknowledge some of the reforms initiated by the current administration. These include improving mobility for field officers and organising artisanal miners into cooperatives. The challenge of the moment is how to sustain these efforts and improve them to significantly reduce the incidents of illegal mining in the country. There should also be more attention on how to properly organise the sector to attract local and foreign investors. And more importantly, there is a need for the government to emphasize better safety standards to prevent future and avoidable tragedies. In addition, there must be a coordinated and adequate emergency response systems to the challenge.