The House of Representatives has call on the Federal Government to facilitate interaction between mining employers, examine mining policy issues and create partnerships with key stakeholders.

This followed a unanimous adoption of a motion moved by Rep. Oghene Egoh (PDP-Lagos) during the plenary session presided over by Mr Idris Wase on Tuesday, the lawmakers stated, is to come up with “modernized and conducive policies and legislative and functional” environment to facilitate real investments in gold mining.

The motion was tagged “Need to Prioritize Gold Mining as one of the Major Earners of Revenue to the Nation”, Presenting the motion, Egoh recalled that the Federal Government banned all mining activities in Zamfara on April 7.

According to him, the government also directed all foreigners operating in the mining fields to leave within 48 hours and threatened to revoke the license of any defiant mining operator.

The lawmaker stated that Nigeria had about 21.40 tons of gold deposits and there is need for many large-scale gold mining.

In his word, “Therefore there is the need for many large-scale gold mining companies, gold mining policies, state of the art geological survey.

“This includes map production and maintenance of up to date geological records; health and safety inspections and maintenance records; legal records of licenses and legal examination of new applications, among others.”

The rep said, according to reports, Nigeria lost $9 billion to illegal mining every year and many lives were lost due to mining activities that ignored environmental protection policies adding that official records showed that mining in Nigeria, however, accounted for 0.3 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Products.

He stressed that the poor records meant that “the Federal Government may not have official records of the amount of mineral deposits in Nigeria”.

“Which if ascertained, could make the mineral sector one of the largest contributors to Government’s revenues through the payment of royalties, employees income taxes and corporate taxes.”

The house expressed concern that illegal miner’s cart away billions of dollars’ worth of gold yearly, leaving Zamfara “with poor state of education and inadequate healthcare system”.

The legislature also agreed that 30 per cent derivation from gold earnings would positively boost the economy of the state if the resources were effectively managed by the government.

The green chamber also agreed that the remaining 70 per cent could go into the federation account.

The house also urged the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development to provide geological records of Gold deposits in Nigeria and further directed the Committee on Solid Minerals Development to ensure compliance