CALL FOR CHANGE
I recently got a call from a client in the UK, and she told me to help her add to the research she was writing on GROWTH and MINING in NIGERIA. The first thing I told her is how much is she willing to pay e for this service. After a series of negotiations which I would not want to disclose……I agreed to do the work even though she later told me she would be using the work for something beautiful.
While I was writing and gathering information, I started learning things I never knew within the context of the research. She later connected me with one of the directors at the NGSA as she said who also sent to me some useful information on what I eventually put together on the paper.
To my surprise after the report, She later told me to write more about gold because she had more interest in gold. So I agreed, and that marks the background of my question.
I discovered 90% of the gold deposit in this country NIGERIA is mined by artisanal miners.
Before my lesson…let me tell you what artisanal mining means…..
Artisanal and small-scale mining requires a lot of human labor and manpower and little or no machinery. These operators are mostly disorganized and lack formal mining education. They mainly scratch the surface as they cannot hit deep pockets of solid minerals and ores. Although the information gathered shows that consensus among stakeholders in the sector to organize the ASM subsector set them up in cooperatives, and equip them with the required tools to do mining better.
The question is…how does the artisanal come across the gold deposit, obviously they never got a license. I understand that there are notes to what I just mentioned. However, credit needs to be given to these miners for their hard work towards the fact-finding scope of operation engaged.
With this in view, my visit to a gold mine of recent left my jaw open. I was led to a site where illegal gold mining took place, and the havoc wrecked on the spots I was shone. I asked myself after seeing different holes that looked like bush rats where these miners work….I saw a shaft not more than 3 feet by 3 feet wide with an endless depth….of high overburden….my mind skip for fear of what could happen if they keep exposing themselves to a work like that…..
Please readers what can one do to these illegal miners, or should we say there are simply miners going out of their way to make ends meet simply because they could not afford the basic things of life? Going via the concept of who artisanal miners are, are these part of them, how can they be fished out and registered for support….
There are no bases of argument but to make possible the importance of the PAGMI initiative, and some other initiatives like the geopolitical cluster initiative of the artisanal gold miners…
I welcome ideas, explanations, and contributions…
Thanks
Comments
Post a Comment