In an attempt to position the Solid materials sector for economic consolidation and international competitiveness, the federal government yesterday announced a new regime of rates and charges for its various services; 268 items of the Ministry’s services are affected in the new rate regime.
The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, said that the new rates which takes immediate effect, comes on the heels of the introduction of qualitative measures, human and technological capacity upgrades implemented in recent times to raise the level of technical efficiency of the services in the sector.
He further said the new regime which also includes royalties and penalties are designed to improve the traffic of transactions and develop infrastructure to cope with the resurgence of business interests in the sector.
In arriving at the new rates, the Minister said a committee of the Directors of Departments and Directors-General of agencies under the ministry was charged to work out new rates to justify government’s’ investment in the service infrastructure and to cope with the expected meteoric spike in the traffic of applicants besieging the regulatory machinery. All critical stakeholders in the sector were involved in the process before arriving at the new rate regime.
The Minister listed the major highlights of the new rate regime to include: applicants seeking for mining leases, N3 million; reconnaissance permit, N300,000; exploration license, N600,000; small scale mining license, N300,000; quarry lease, N600,000 and water user permit, N300,000.
Still, he said the annual service fee is now N31,500 per cadastral unit for the first time, small-scale mining attracts N260,000; quarry lease, N500,000 and mining lease, N1.25 million.
“Penalties for late renewal of mineral licenses: reconnaissance permit, N600,000; exploration license, N1.5 million; mining lease, N3 million and quarry lease, N1.5 million.
“Royalty rate per standard weight of minerals will now cost 100 percent more. Baryte, with N42,000 as market value per tonne, attracts N2,100 royalty; Coal, with N100,000 per tonne, attracts N3,000; Gold, with N1,081,200 per ounce as market value, attracts N36,436 royalty per tonne; Lead/Zinc concentrate, with N480,000 per tonne as market value, attracts a royalty of N14,400 per tonne.”
Others are “Lithium Ore (Lepidolite) at the current market value of N600,000 per tonne attracts N18,000 royalty per tonne; Lithium (Kunzite) at the current market value of N3 million per tonne attracts N90,000 royalty per tonne; and Lithium ore (Spodumene) at the current market value of N316,667 per tonne attracts N9,500 royalty per tonne.
“The license to manufacture explosives now costs N20 million; modifying explosives costs N10 million; and the sale of explosives for mining costs N500,000.
“Investors willing to obtain a license to refine gold will pay N5 million, and a permit to operate a mineral processor costs N100, 000.
“Mineral resources map of Nigeria will cost N500,000, and the geological map of Nigeria now costs N300,000.”
