The Minister of Solid Minerals Development and Chairman of the Africa Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG), Dele Alake, on Tuesday, advocated the establishment of a Mine Emergency and Community Recovery Fund to provide immediate assistance to victims and communities affected by mining disasters across Africa.
Alake also signed the Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration (CIEAD), designed to provide political assurance for the coordination of bilateral and multilateral projects across the continent.
The minister, disclosed this at the third AMSG High-Level Roundtable on Critical Minerals Development, held on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York, United States, on Monday, the minister also proposed an African safety facility to formalise artisanal mining and promote co-operatives in member countries.
The event was chaired by Nigeria’s Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, and attended by African ministers responsible for mining and other stakeholders in the sector.
The minister lamented the tragedy of mine collapses in Africa, citing huge losses in Congo and the Central African Republic and the recent cases of detained suspects of illegal mining who died in Nigeria.
He said: “Each time one of these tragedies occurs, I have had the painful responsibility, as the chairman of this Group, of conveying our condolences. But condolences, however sincere, cannot be the limit of continental solidarity.
“Behind every casualty figure is a family that has lost a breadwinner, a child who may no longer return to school, a household pushed deeper into poverty and a community left to cope with a disaster for which it was never equipped.”
He praised artisanal and small-scale miners for supporting millions of livelihoods across the continent and supplying minerals to domestic and international markets, urging governments to formalise rather than criminalise them.
He added, “If AMSG can mobilise governments, financiers and investors around the billion-dollar mineral corridors, we should also be capable of mobilising expertise and resources to prevent miners from entering unsupported pits without geological guidance, basic safety systems or credible emergency response.”
He said the declaration will facilitate predictable regional infrastructure and processing investment and encourage governments to collaborate on continental projects.
Earlier, Vice President Shettima called on AMSG to champion African industrial development by co-operating with foreign companies and governments based on shared values and mutual gains.
Stating that no foreign government can protect the interests of African countries better than the countries themselves, Vice President Shettima said Africa’s mineral resources must be used to modernise the continent and provide better living conditions.
The third AMSG High-Level Roundtable on Critical Minerals also featured discussion sessions involving experts from regional agencies, international institutions, and captains of the mining industry.
Chief Executive Officer of the Africa Finance Corporation Samaila Zubairu commended the AMSG, arguing that African countries can no longer wait to industrialise if they must feed, house and clothe a billion people in the next 24 years.
To confront the challenge, Zubairu said African governments must collaborate across regions as unilateral efforts cannot cope with the proportion of the problem.