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Transcript/Script((PLAYBOOK SLUG: NIGERIA MINING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
HEADLINE: Nigeria is Seeking New Opportunities for Mining Industry
TEASER: Local Nigerian communities still by aftereffects of large-scale mining ceased
PUBLISHED AT: 2/7/24
BYLINE: Timothy Obiezu
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE: Plateau State, Nigeria
VIDEOGRAPHER: Timothy Obiezu
VIDEO EDITOR:
ASSIGNING EDITOR(S): Africa Division Editors
SCRIPT EDITORS: KEnochs, DLJ
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA Original
PLATFORMS: WEB __ TV X RADIO X
TRT: 3:17
VID APPROVED BY: KE
TYPE:
EDITOR NOTES: All SOTs have been introduced so it works for radio. This story is commissioned through the Africa Division. For questions and final review, send it back to Africa Division’s senior editor, Salem Solomon, email: salesman@voanews.com, Africa Division’s executive producer, Betty Ayoub, email: bayou@voanews.com. ))
((INTRO)) [[After years of focus on oil and gas, Nigerian authorities are taking a new look at the mining industry as part of their drive to diversify the economy. But the country is still reeling from environmental damage caused by old mining operations, and the illegal mining that continues. Timothy Obiezu reports.]]
((NARRATOR))
Phoebe Gyang has been illegally digging for three years to find one of Central Nigeria’s most precious minerals — tin.
This is one site out of many in Plateau state where thousands of locals are trying to make quick cash by mining.
Gyang says she makes about $15 a week and it is worth all the risk.
((Phoebe Gyang, Unlicensed Miner)) ((Female, in English))
“If the government doesn’t want us to do it, then let them provide food or jobs for us because we cannot just fold our hands like that and watch.
((NARRATOR))
When found, the tin is washed and separated from the sand. It is then weighed, bought, smelted and sold to larger companies for use, primarily in electronics.
Nigeria has rich deposits of more than 40 different minerals, according to the country’s Geological Survey Agency, and the government wants to increase its mining operations.
But farmer Emmanuel Simon says he’s still suffering from mines that used to operate in the region.
[[Radio track: He says mining started in their village when they were children, and the farmland has been destroyed and they don’t get a harvest no matter how much fertilizer they apply.]]
((Emmanuel Simon, Farmer)) ((Male, in Hausa))
“Since we were kids, they started tin mining in our village and our farmland has been destroyed. We no longer farm in those areas and even if we did, we won’t get any harvest no matter how much fertilizer we applied.
((NARRATOR))
The wells created by the digging are often not covered and sometimes turn into large gullies that make farming impossible.
Abandoned mining ponds also pose danger to locals, especially children. Between September and October last year, more than 30 people died in mining sites in the area, according to the Plateau Indigenous Miners Association.
But authorities like Peter Gwom, Plateau State's commissioner for environment, climate change and mineral development, say the country wants to take advantage of the demand for Nigerian minerals.
((Peter Gwom, Environment, Climate Change and Mineral Development Commissioner)) ((Male, in English))
“There’s been a resurgence of mining again globally, not just here on the plateau. The demand globally has spiked due to these particular minerals used to build the new things that we use in the world today, especially computers, phones, vehicles, batteries and so on. That's why we see it so much. It’s like a gold rush. So many people are coming here.”
((NARRATOR))
Gwom says any new mining licenses will come with agreements to minimize environmental damage and create value by ensuring companies set up processing facilities here in Nigeria.
Authorities are also trying to bring the illegally operating small miners back under the rule of law.
((Peter Gwom, Environment, Climate Change and Mineral Development Commissioner)) ((Male, in English))
“The government is looking at ... we don’t want to address them anymore as illegal. We’re looking at them as artisanal miners, and we're bonding them into cooperatives and giving them tools to mine in a safe manner.”
((NARRATOR))
In the meantime, people like Gyang will say they will continue their illegal search for tin, and the money to keep their families housed and fed.
((Timothy Obiezu VOA News Jos, Plateau State Nigeria))
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