The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, has warned that mining firms breaching community development agreements (CDAs) risk losing their mining titles as the federal government tightens enforcement.

Mr Alake gave the warning on Friday in Abuja, at the opening of the ministry’s two-day ministerial retreat.

The retreat focused on the theme: ‘Accelerating Solid Minerals Sector Transformation: Delivering on Ministerial Mandate Through the Seven Priority Areas’.

Mr Alake said he had directed the permanent secretary to submit a list of companies that had failed to sign or implement their CDAs, as stringent sanctions would soon be imposed on defaulting operators.

“I asked the permanent secretary to provide me with a list of companies that have failed to sign or execute their community development agreements.

“He has done so, and we are going to take very drastic measures very soon,” Mr Alake said.

He stated that compliance with CDAs was a statutory requirement aimed at ensuring mining host communities benefit directly from mineral development.

The minister urged staff of the ministry and its MDAs to consolidate on achievements recorded under the seven priority areas by developing fresh initiatives for the sector.

“I want to charge every one of us to introspect, reflect and come up with initiatives that will take us beyond those seven items in our agenda,” he said.

He said the ministry had recorded notable progress in reforms, investment promotion, mining security, digitisation, revenue generation and institutional strengthening.

Mr Alake, however, said greater emphasis should be placed on measurable outcomes and sustainable economic impact, noting that the solid minerals sector had become a pillar of President Bola Tinubu’s economic diversification agenda.

The minister reiterated the government’s commitment to developing domestic mineral processing industries instead of exporting raw mineral resources.

He said the inauguration of a lithium processing plant in Nasarawa State on Thursday, with a daily processing capacity of 6,000 metric tonnes, demonstrated the government’s commitment to driving value addition in the minerals sector.

He said Nigeria was determined to leverage its critical minerals to facilitate industrialisation, including the local manufacture of electric vehicle batteries and other high-value products.

Mr Alake emphasised the importance of institutional effectiveness as key to delivering the ministry’s mandate and sustaining ongoing reforms.

He commended the staff for their contributions in repositioning the solid minerals sector and urged them not to relent in their efforts.

In his remarks, the chairman of the Senate committee on solid minerals, Sampson Ekong, urged increased funding and stronger collaboration to accelerate reforms and unlock the full potential of Nigeria’s solid minerals sector.

Mr Ekong, however, expressed concern about inadequate budgetary releases to the sector, despite its enormous economic potential, and called for increased funding to translate ongoing reforms into measurable outcomes and accelerate sectoral growth.

“What we need now is to speed up the process of harvest through meaningful and impactful budget implementation,” he said.

The retreat is a strategic platform to review progress, refine implementation strategies and align the ministry’s activities with presidential and ministerial priorities.

The seven priority areas include establishing the Nigerian Solid Minerals Corporation, pursuing strategic joint ventures with reputable mining multinationals, and collecting big data on priority minerals, alongside a national solid minerals database.

Others are the integration of illegal miners into artisanal cooperatives, the reconstitution of the Mines Surveillance Task Force and Mine Police, and a comprehensive review of mining licences.

The remaining priorities are the optimisation of the Mining Cadastre System and the establishment of six mineral processing centres to promote local value addition.

(NAN)