Niger and Zamfara are among the few states in the North-west and North-Central regions, endowed with huge deposits of minerals and other natural resources, and for years, several communities in the two states have been into local mining as their second source of livelihood, after farming.
Weekend Trust investigations revealed that the two states are endowed with several minerals, including talc, gold, ball clays, silica, sand, marble, copper, iron, felspar, lead, kaolin, casserole, columbine, mica, quartzite, and limestone, among others.
Participation in the local mining in those communities has become the norm among the people, as every household is actively engaged in one aspect of mining or the other, depending on the capability or economic status of the family.
Each household engages in the activities, ranging from digging the pits, stone grinding, thrashing, or washing the sand in search of natural resources, particularly gold. Very few among the locals serve as agents of the major gold dealers.
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Residents conduct mining locally, taking their gold and other minerals to places like Lagos, Port-Harcourt and sometimes to countries like Ghana and Benin Republic, among others, for onward sale to major dealers. On some occasions, the dealers visit the two states to buy gold and other minerals directly from the miners or through their agents.
The link between gold mining and banditry
Until the emergence of banditry in the two states, local mining had been taking place in several communities in Niger and Zamfara states without much negative impact, apart from the major hazard of mining pits’ collapse.
Even after the incidents of banditry started in the two states, initially, there was no link between the mining activities and the violent act. While the criminals were kidnapping for ransom, engaging in cattle rustling and carrying out attacks on villages and towns, the residents on the other hand, concentrated on mining and farming as their sources of livelihood.
In Zamfara State, Weekend Trust gathered that the link between banditry and mining emanated from the miners, who developed the habit of killing one another in the course of their activities.
Alhaji Yusuf Bello, a local miner in Mutunji village, Maru Local Government, told Weekend Trust that, “Sometimes when a miner gets expensive gold, his colleagues connive and kill him in order to take away the gold. You know they carry Dane guns for protection because most of the mining sites are located in remote areas.
