Gold rush: Illegal mining booms in Niger
It was just virgin, uninhabited land, but about three months back, communities around Gadar Yargi and Kateregi villages of Katcha Local Government in Niger state, started noticing an influx of all kinds of people. Makeshift structures sprang up haphazardly, and within few weeks of the discovery of gold at the spot, 40 kilometers from Minna, […]
It was just virgin, uninhabited land, but about three months back, communities around Gadar Yargi and Kateregi villages of Katcha Local Government in Niger state, started noticing an influx of all kinds of people. Makeshift structures sprang up haphazardly, and within few weeks of the discovery of gold at the spot, 40 kilometers from Minna, a community evolved. The emerging community adopted the names of the two closest villages to it, Kateregi and Gadar Yargi. Then the standard of living of the communities around the goldmines improved, with small business recording an unprecedented boom. Crime rates within the area, according to elders, reduced drastically with the youths productively engaged, mining.
But as the people of the host communities, miners and small business owners bask in the glow of the discovery, an order announcing the stoppage of mining activities came. The order, which was said to have jointly emanated from the federal government and its Niger State counterpart, specifically asked the miners to vacate the area on or before Friday, December 2, as they are operating in breach of the law. “Our concern is about the lack of safety in the mining operations as well as the environmental challenges this kind of mining pose to the community and non-adherence to the laws governing such exploitation of the commodity,” Head of Service Ibrahim Matane told Weekly Trust. He said the worry is that the Zamfara lead poisoning saga could replicate itself here.
Matane said the miners did not have permit from any authority in the state and at the federal level before undertaking their activities. But Chairman of the miners, Aliyu Adamu Bagobiri, said representatives of the miners had met the state’s Ministry of Environment officials and a gentleman’s agreement was reached, allowing the activity. Sources at the ministry insisted that the miners were operating without license. The source added that the gold mine had remained in its present state for long because the community that owned the land said they were not signatory to the Explorative License tendered by a mining company to commence exploration there. By that, the community voided the permit.
But in spite of the “quit notice” given to the miners, the gold rush still continues. Weekly Trust discovered on a visit to the mines that several vertical shafts are still in use. A miner, Kabir Abdullahi reemerged from the shaft with a torch-light strapped to his forehead, bearing a thick stone-like object after spending hours in the ground. “There’s gold in this stone,” he enthused. “I always find my way out when I’m tired so another miner can continue,” he explained.
Abdullahi said it is easier to prospect gold during the rainy season when miners simply pick sedimentary rocks along waterways, crush and pound them, instead of digging shafts and tracing schist-beds. He noted that miners work in groups, depending on the level of understanding. “Fifty miners can work together. Miners often bore shafts creating diversions to a distance of two kilometres or more. The deeper you advance, the hotter it becomes and the shorter hours you can spend underground, therefore the more hands you’ll need.”
But in spite of the “quit notice” given to the miners, the gold rush still continues. Weekly Trust discovered on a visit to the mines that several vertical shafts are still in use. A miner, Kabir Abdullahi reemerged from the shaft with a torch-light strapped to his forehead, bearing a thick stone-like object after spending hours in the ground. “There’s gold in this stone,” he enthused. “I always find my way out when I’m tired so another miner can continue,” he explained.
Abdullahi said it is easier to prospect gold during the rainy season when miners simply pick sedimentary rocks along waterways, crush and pound them, instead of digging shafts and tracing schist-beds. He noted that miners work in groups, depending on the level of understanding. “Fifty miners can work together. Miners often bore shafts creating diversions to a distance of two kilometres or more. The deeper you advance, the hotter it becomes and the shorter hours you can spend underground, therefore the more hands you’ll need.”
The source added further that though the public refers to such activities as illegal, professionals use the word informal because activities of the miners has its own economic benefits because when investors come to the place, the ministry uses evidence of human activity in the area to convince them that there are mineral deposits in there. “Such places foster development. If you give them a year, the population would hit the roof.”
The source said the miners seem oblivious of the immense risk the exploration poses to their health and environment they operate. Some of the miners, he noted, venture underground barefoot and also without helmets.
Crudely done gold mining also exposes dangerous amounts of lead, which causes damage to the body, including the nervous and reproductive systems, as well as kidneys. It is especially harmful to young children and pregnant women, experts have said. A blood level of ten micrograms per decilitre can have harmful effects on children’s behaviour, according to scientists. Asked if they are aware of what happened in Zamfara State, where a large number of people lost their lives due to unsafe mining, one miner called Abdullahi said they are, but ruled out the possibility.
While Abdullahi said to guide against such occurrences, measures are being taken, but he did not say what there were. Another government source, a scientist, told Weekly Trust said chemicals from such activities have caused fatalities in the past. He said miners inhale mercury vapours when they heat the element in boiling pots to purify gold. Discarded into streams, mercury according to him could also build up in the fish widely consumed by villagers. He said exposure to the chemical can cause kidney problems, arthritis, memory loss, miscarriages, and psychotic reactions in humans. These considerations caused the state government to raise alarm over the development.
Murtala Umar Abba, a miner from Zamfara, said: “There are several people whose livelihoods now depend on this so-called illegal mining, as the government calls it. After several years of unemployment, I discovered these means of bettering my life but government is taking that away from me. Where do I go from here?”
Then there’s Abba, an OND graduate the School of Health Technology, Tsafe in Zamfara State, who said after graduating in 2009, he remained jobless until he received information from friends that there was gold in Niger State. “If they shut this place, what will they offer us?”
Jibril S. Danyaya, a product of the Department of Business and Management Studies, Sokoto State Polytechnic, said he embraced mining because there was no alternative. For Alhaji Adamu Abdullahi from Dutsi Local Government of Katsina State with 30 years mining experience, “We do not have any work other than this. In the cold or in the rain, we are always working in the mines to find means of feeding, clothing and educating our children.” He added: “We are all from poor families.”
Danyaya complained that areas rich in gold deposits are usually discovered by the poor but taken over by the rich. How many gold fields have official records disclosed were discovered by children of politicians or rich men?”
Bagobiri, Chairman of the miners, told Weekly Trust that he had spent over 20 years mining and has witnessed several occasions when people would discover mineral deposits but some individuals without any knowledge in mining would obtain a license and remain at the sites monitoring activities and taking over.
Those who appear to suffer the shutdown most are the food-sellers who were busy from dawn to dusk. Madam Fati, who relocated her business from Kainji in Kwara State to the site, said there were more customers at the gold mines. “I start selling food by 8am and close by 11pm. I cannot estimate my daily income but it is significant.” Madam Oluwatoyin, another food-seller from Minna said she sells food between 9am and 4:30pm and makes N10,000 daily.
Ahmadu Usman, the Mai Anguwa of Maiyawo, said the gold mines have impacted positively on the community, to the point that when the order came many women who sell food there wept when they received the news that they must leave the place. Muhammad Abubakar, a miner, said before the quit order by the government, the place was congested, but as soon as they heard that police were coming to enforce the order, they ran away.
At Gadan Yerwa, a community about two kilometres away from the mines, Baba Galadima Mai Anguwan Gwari added that arrival of the miners brought peace to the area. “There are no more robbery cases, as the youths are engaged. When there is no source of income, a community becomes a breeding ground for rascals.”
At Gada Market, Wednesday, some traders expressed displeasure over the government’s decision and said the move will bring about hardship. There, one Alhaji Bawa said for years, traders hardly sell 100 tubers in a day. But business boomed with the discovery of gold in the area. At the butchers’ section, Baba Srkin Pawa, leader of the meat-sellers, said that before the miners arrived, they could not slaughter a cow at Gada because demand was low. “We travelled to villages to buy only a cow’s thigh. On many occasions, the thigh was too much for the village. Today, we slaughter three cows.”
Weekly Trust also observed that the miners use crude extraction implements like diggers, chisels, and shovels. Eric Ugbuam, one of the miners, said they dig and pack the soil onto head-pans to the place where they sort it all out. He said gold-rich rocks are easy to identify by experienced miners. “The white and red rocks containing gold are usually covered by black ones and they are always in a long row,” he said.
On how the gold mine was discovered, Bagobiri disclosed that some Gwari women discovered some stones containing gold in the area. “They invited their husbands to the scene and they picked as many as they could and ground them with an engine and discovered they truly contained the mineral.” He said the news of the discovery soon spread to the state capital, Minna and beyond, precipitating the gold rush that has, ironically, brought progress there. Now, with the government stepping in, will there be a silver lining to this golden tale? Only time will tell.