126 BENUE JOURNAL OF SOCIASL SCIENCES VOL.11 NO.1. 2025 Benue Journal of Social Sciences (BJSS) Vol. 11 No. 1, 2025, Pp.126 - 136 An Annual Publication of The Faculty of Social Sciences, Benue State University, Makurdi. © Illegal Mining and The Development of Nigeria Terhile Jude Ahoo 1 , Benjamin Gowon Ahule 2 and Donald Tarfa Ende 3 1, 2 &3 Department of Sociology, Rev. Fr. Moses Orshio Adasu University, Makurdi – Nigeria Corresponding author email - jahoo@bsum.edu.ng or ahoojterhile@gmail.com Abstract The mining sector has enormous potentials for the development of Nigeria. It can significantly improve Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product, exports, and foreign reserves. However, the sector contributes minimally to the country’s economic growth as the country reportedly loses $9 billion to illegal mining operations annually. Utilizing secondary sources of data, the review showed that illegal mining operations in Nigeria result from poverty, unemployment, corruption, illiteracy, poor management of solid mineral resources, and poor collaboration among major stakeholders in the mining sector. The consequences include decline in agricultural productivity, government revenue, increased social unrests, and environmental degradation. It concludes that key players such as the police and community leaders must come together to thoroughly address the issue of illegal mining to achieve socio-economic development in their communities and Nigeria at large. Key words: Mining, Illegal Mining, Law enforcement, Crime, Development. Introduction For decades, mining which involves the removal of minerals and metals like manganese, gold, copper, coal, iron, lead, zinc ores, columbite, tin etc from the earth has provided several continents with resources for economic development, and remains a source of employment to millions of individuals. In Europe and America, for instance, sustained economic resilience and long term prosperity are being witnessed due to the increasing mineral resource productivity (Duncan, 2020). In Africa, the abundance of minerals like platinum, gold, diamonds, chromite and vanadium among others has failed to translate to monumental socio-economic growth. Many mineral-rich countries on the continent are grappling with myriads of environmental challenges linked to illegal mining such as destruction of natural habitats, water and air pollution, soil erosion and contamination, deforestation, and resource depletion. The challenge of illegal mining activities continues to confront countries in the region. In Nigeria, although the Minerals and Mining Act (2007) confers the ownership and control of mineral resources and the processes involved in mining on the federal government, an estimated 80% of mining in the country is carried out illegally and on an artisanal basis (Reuters, 2019). The environmental effects of unlawful mining in the country include loss of biodiversity, soil erosion, formation of sinkholes, soil contamination, and desecration of ground and surface water which could potentially cause health problems eventually leading to deaths. There are also economic challenges associated with illegal mining. Nigeria reportedly lost more than N353 billion, an equivalent of 900 million US Dollars, to illegal miners between the years 2016 and 2018 (Ogbonnaya, 2020). Some security issues confronting some parts of Nigeria are attributed