THE Minister of Solid Minerals, Mrs Dupe Adelaja, has said that the federal government is set to eliminate illegal mining as it takes steps to establish a small scale mining project, aimed at organising and co-ordinating activities of small miners.

A statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary to the minister, Mr Tony Okwudiafor, in Abuja, quoted the minister as saying that with the establishment of small scale mining project, it would be easy to make small mining a serious business.

She was quoted as saying at a meeting with the Deputy Governor of Plateau State, Chief Michael Botmang in Jos, Tuesday, that only a properly co-ordinated operations could guarantee the high contributions by the sector to the national economy.

According to Mrs Adelaja, the miners are being sanitised to give operators a sense of responsibility even as she stressed that mine-police were being re-introduced.

Illegal mining, she lamented, promotes social ills like youth deliquency, child abuse and spread of HIV/AIDs, among others.

She appealed for cooperation from state governments and traditional rulers in the efforts to place the sector in the front burner of the economy.

Responding, Deputy Governor Botmang assured the minister that the Plateau state government recognised the important place of the sector in the economy and was prepared to join hands in its development.