International Journal of Advances in Engineering and Management (IJAEM) Volume 2, Issue 12, pp: 121-129 www.ijaem.net ISSN: 2395-5252 DOI: 10.35629/5252-0212121129 | Impact Factor value 7.429 | ISO 9001: 2008 Certified Journal Page 121 Curtailing Illegal Mining Operation in Nigeria Amosu C.O. and Adeosun T.A Department of Mineral and Petroleum Engineering Yaba College of Technology, Yaba. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date of Submission: 25-12-2020 Date of Acceptance: 06-01-2021 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ABSTRACT: Nigeria is endowed with significant solid mineral resources that have the potentials to attract investors and investments to boost economic growth in the country. The mineral resources range from Tin, Copper, Bauxite, Diamond and Gold to mention a few. Unfortunately, this endowment is being undermined by constant illegal mining by some persons including foreigners, believed to be sponsored by moneybags. The Nigerian government may have lost about N4 billion in three years, owing to illegal practices and corrupt activities of companies operating in the mining sector in Nigeria. Illegal mining began to gain prominence after independence in 1960. Mining rights belong to the federal government but it grants licenses for exploration, mining and sale of minerals. In the absence of effective policy, illegal mining has continued unabated and no royalties are paid to the federal government. This paper presents the loopholes and the ways to curtail the activities of illegal mining of minerals in Nigeria. KEYWORDS: Illegal, Mining, Government, Foreigners, Mining Rights, Minerals, Nigeria, License, Reform, Services, Monitoring. I. INTRODUCTION Illegal mining is the mining activity that is undertaken without permission of the state or government, particularly in the absence of land rights, mining licenses, and exploration or mineral transportation permits (Dozolme, P., 2018).Illegal mining can be a subsistence activity, as is the case with artisanal mining, or it can belong to large- scale organized crimespearheaded by illegal mining syndicates (Huerbsch B. and Spiro J., 2016)and ( Sieber N. and Brain J. 2014). Approximately 80 percent of small-scale mining operations can be categorized as illegal, on an international level (Hentschel T., Hruschka F., and Priester M., 2003). Despite strategic developments towards "responsible mining," even big companies can be involved in (partially) illegal mineral digging and extraction, if only on the financing side (Castilla O., Amancio N. and Lopez F., 2015). The mining practice that is not responsibleto the States or governmentharms the environment and ecology. In addition, the environmentally unfriendly materials and methods used in mining put the health of everyone in the community in grave danger. At the behest of their masters, the miners, working mostly in the South West and North West zones of Nigeria use diggers, shovels, hoes and axes to dig for minerals.Different from themechanized mining which involves mining and processing minerals to add value, illegal miners extract minerals, especially Tin, Diamond and Gold, in their rawest form and also smuggle them out of the country to buyers who are willing without any interception by Nigeria Customs Service securities. These Illegal and unsafe mining activities take place in rural areas, likein the towns and villages where labour is relatively cheap. The villagers are hired or employed to dig for minerals, but due to their crude methods, they sometimes experience the collapse of mines that results in several deaths. Most times, they form craters on the land from the digging they create, which are wide and deep. These formed craters or trenches become ―mining ponds‖ when it rains, which is very dangerous because of the acidic and poisonous metallic residue from the mining operations. Thedug trenches are abandonedonce mining is over. The Katsina and Zamfara Statearethe evidence of acute lead poisoning that is caused by the processing of ore, contaminating the local river where they fetch drinking water, affecting more than 3,500 children and killing over 400adults. Media reported at the time indicated that lead concentration in the atmosphere of some homes reached 23,000 parts per million which was well above the 400 parts per million threshold considered safeby Ministry of Mines and Steel Development (MMSD). Another dangerous angle to illegal mining, in the mining communities is armed conflict, banditry, crimewidespread violence and kidnapping due to gang rivalry over the resources of mining. The Inspector General of Police in Nigeria hence banned mining in Zamfara State 2 (two) years ago