To this extent, President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the appointment of Mr. Mohammed K. Amate, as the pioneer Director-General for the Nigerian Mining Cadastre Office, after more than five years of its creation.

Disclosing the appointment at a press briefing on Friday, in Abuja, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr. Musa Mohammed Sada, noted that it was in line with government’s vision to strengthen the capacity of the Office to offer world-class service to the industry.

He said, “The importance of the Mining Cadastre Office in the solid minerals industry cannot be over_emphasized. The Office provides the confidence and security of assets essential for mining investments.

“Mining companies will simply not invest if they cannot be assured that they assets they create will be secured.”

Sada stressed that efforts to strengthen the Cadastre Office would “ensure the eradication of discretionary powers and therefore limit government interference in the issuance, suspension and revocation of mineral titles and permits, thereby making the industry investment_friendly.”

He explained that Section 5 (1) of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2007, provided for the establishment of a Mining Cadastre Office with the responsibility for the general administration of mineral titles and the maintenance of the cadastre registers.

In addition, Sada noted, the Office shall “consider applications for mineral titles and permits, issue, suspend and upon written approval from the Minister, revoke any mineral title.”

“The Office shall receive and dispose of applications for the transfer, renewal, modification, relinquishment of mineral titles or extension of areas, as well as the maintaining a chronologival record of all applications for mineral titles,” the minister added.

Sada noted that the old same system, which was carried out by the former Mines Department “was characterised by opacity, discretionary powers, and slowness and devoid of clarity.”

According to him, since the creation of the Mining Cadastre Office in October 2005, a lot has been achieved within the industry including the generation of all Mining titles and permits in the record of the Ministry.

“Also, the Ministry has procured a lot of hardware and software for effective and modern management of mining titles, as well as the revision of the geodetic network and the completion of cartographic coverage of available mineral resources in the country,” Sada noted.

He added that a computerized mining cadastre system and e_recording management system of all mining titles, SIGTIM, has been developed in collaboration with a German_based consulting firms, Messrs GAF, which introduced the SIGTIM software for the cleaning up and maintenance of computerised mining titles application database.

“This also includes the creation and maintenance of a geometric and alphanumeric database of all mineral land applications and an effective information delivery system,” he added.

Sada further noted that having created the legal framework and infrastructural needs of the Cadastre Office, government has now moved to install an institutional model that will drive the operations of the office.

He added that, “The procedures will be transparent, publicly available, non_discretionary, and will include the proper positioning of mining titles, maintenance of registries, storage of historical records in appropriate databases, records of revenues, validity dates and pending applications.”

Amate is a seasoned Mining Engineer and one time Director of Mines in the then Ministry of Solid Minerals Development.

He is a fellow of the Nigerian Society of Mining Engineers, and also a fellow of the Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society.

According to the minister, “The new DG is coming in at a time predicted to be the beginning of another super-boom in minerals commodities.

He is advised to immediately re_organise the Cadastre Office and ensure that it becomes one of the best globally.”