The Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office (MCO, also written NMCO, and often called the Nigerian Mining Cadastre Office) is the single door to Nigeria’s mineral titles. Under section 5 of the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act, 2007, it is the sole agency responsible for administering mineral titles. It receives and processes applications, issues titles, keeps the registers, and handles renewals, transfers and revocations. Whether you want to explore for gold, quarry granite for construction or mine lithium-bearing pegmatites, your application goes through this office.

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Since November 2022 that process has run online on the eMC+ electronic mining cadastre. The rules sit in the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act, 2007 (NMMA) and the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Regulations, 2011. They reward applicants who file complete, well-placed applications quickly. They are harsh on holders who stop paying: more than 2,800 titles were revoked across two exercises in 2023 and 2025. We follow the process from registration to grant, using the office’s own guidance and the text of the Act. If you are comparing Nigeria with other countries, our guide to mining cadastre portals by country sets the systems side by side.

“In Nigeria, the application first received in the proper form has priority over all later applications.”

What the Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office does, and the agencies around it

The NMMA separates the job of granting titles from the jobs of inspecting operations and policing environmental compliance. The Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office sits at the centre of the licensing side. Its functions under section 5 include processing applications, issuing mineral titles, keeping the cadastral registers and receiving applications for transfers and renewals. Under section 6 it keeps separate registers for each type of title. Under sections 7 and 8 it keeps a priority register that records the date and time each application arrives.

The office works within the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development. The Minister approves major decisions, including revocations, on the MCO’s recommendation. Alongside the Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office you will deal with several other bodies:

• Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA), sometimes listed as the Nigeria Geological Survey Agency: a parastatal of the same ministry that produces geological maps and reports and runs geoscience programmes such as the National Integrated Mineral Exploration Project (NIMEP). Under section 43 of the Act, title holders must give NGSA a complete set of the geoscience data they collect.
• Mines Inspectorate Department: supervises reconnaissance, exploration and mining operations for compliance with the Act (section 17).
• Mines Environmental Compliance Department: approves the Community Development Agreement and oversees environmental obligations before mining starts (section 71).
• State and community stakeholders: landowner consent is needed before a title is granted over their land (section 100). Community agreements come before mining.

The Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office runs six zonal offices in addition to its headquarters: in Borno (North-East), Plateau (North-Central), Kaduna (North-West), Enugu (South-East), Benin (South-South) and Ibadan (South-West).

The six mineral titles issued by the Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office

The NMMA provides for six types of title. They follow the usual project life: survey a region, explore a defined block, then mine it, with quarrying and small-scale mining as separate routes. The table summarises the maximum area, term and eligibility for each, from the Act and the office’s FAQ.

The caps fall steeply. An exploration licence can reach 200 km², four times a mining lease at 50 km², while a quarry lease stops at 5 km² and a small-scale mining lease at 3 km² (our artisanal and small-scale licence guide compares that with other countries). Most exploration companies apply for far less than the maximum, because every unit adds to the fee.

Understanding the cadastral unit

Every Nigerian title is built from cadastral units (CU). The Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office defines one CU as about 0.2 km², or 20.25 hectares, which is a cell roughly 450 m × 450 m. You don’t draw a free-hand boundary. You select whole cells on the grid. This affects three things: how big your title can be, how much your processing fee is, and how much annual service fee you pay every year.

The calculator turns an area into cadastral units, checks it against the cap for the title, and prices the processing fee from the office’s published schedule. For exploration licences it adds the annual service fee at the rates published for the 2023 revocation exercise, which are the latest per-unit figures we could source.

Exploration licence renewals

An exploration licence can last up to seven years in total: the first three years plus two renewals of two years each. Renewal isn’t automatic. Section 62 ties it to compliance with the minimum work obligations and the other requirements of the Act. A title with no work done, or with fees in arrears, is a title at risk.

If you are weighing up which cells to apply for, you can get a satellite read on the area first. Draw it on mining.farmonaut.com (Map Your Mining Site), or send the coordinates through our mining query form for a quote.

Applying on eMC+: the Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office online portal

Nigeria’s electronic mining cadastre, eMC+, was built by GAF AG and launched in November 2022. It runs at nigeriaminingcadastre.gov.ng/eMC. It replaced paper-heavy filing with an online workflow, although the Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office still asks applicants to bring coordinates to an office for a formal availability check. The office’s own apply-now page sets out five steps:

1. Register an account on the eMC+ portal.
2. Log in to start a new application or review an existing one.
3. Gather the documents required for your title type.
4. Complete the application forms and upload every document.
5. Submit for processing once all requirements are met, and track progress online.

Fees are paid through Remita, the federal government’s payment platform. When you submit an application or renew an annual service fee, eMC+ generates a Remita Retrieval Reference (RRR) code and emails it to you. You pay against that code. Keep every RRR and receipt, because your application’s place in the queue depends on a complete, paid filing.

The eMC+ portal has been intermittent at times. If it times out, try again later rather than looking for an unofficial copy. For a West African comparison, see our guide to Minerals Commission Ghana licence types and fees.

Searching the Nigeria mining cadastre before you apply

The public side of eMC+ lets you view the cadastre map and search existing titles. Used properly, this search answers most of the questions you need to settle before paying a fee:

• Is the ground already held? Existing titles appear on the Nigeria mining cadastre map with their boundaries and title numbers.
• Who are the neighbours? Note the title numbers and holders around your target cells. Neighbouring activity is useful geological and commercial context.
• Does the vendor’s title exist? If you are buying into a project, match the title number, holder name and area in the deal documents against the register.
• ⚠ The map is not the final word. Pending applications and very recent changes may not show. That is why the office asks for a formal availability check with coordinates at one of its offices.

Treat the public map as a screening tool and the formal availability check as the answer. Save a dated copy of both. If an overlap dispute arises later, a record of what the cadastre showed when you filed is valuable evidence.

Transfers, renewals and changes to a title

The Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office also handles applications to transfer and renew titles. These go through the same eMC+ account you used to apply, and the office publishes separate requirements for renewals and for consolidating titles on its website. The same rules on complete documents and paid fees apply. A transfer or renewal filed while annual service fees are in arrears is unlikely to get far, so clear any arrears first.

Documents and processing fees at the Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office

The Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office publishes a common set of documents for every title, plus extra technical documents for each type. The FAQ also says applications are submitted in triplicate, so keep certified copies ready even when you file online.

Documents required for every application

• Completed application forms for the title type.
• Attestation of no criminal conviction.
• Incorporation documents (Corporate Affairs Commission forms such as CAC2 and CAC7) for companies, or identity documents for individuals.
• Evidence of financial capability: bank statements or bank reference letters.
• Evidence of technical competence: credentials of a mining engineer or geoscientist.
• Landowner consent letter, with a sworn affidavit.
• Mineral specification: the minerals you are applying for.
• Current tax clearance certificate.

Title-specific documents and processing fees

These are the processing fees on the apply-now page when we checked in September 2026. That page is where a revised schedule would appear, so confirm the amount on eMC+ before you pay.

COMEG is the Council of Nigerian Mining Engineers and Geoscientists, the statutory body that regulates mining engineering and geoscience practice in Nigeria. A work programme or pre-feasibility study without a COMEG member’s signature and stamp is incomplete.

The exploration fee is flat up to 100 units and then climbs by ₦50,000 a unit. A 100-unit licence (about 20 km²) costs ₦500,000 to process. At 500 units the fee reaches ₦20.5 million, and at the 930-unit ceiling it is ₦42 million. Size is the biggest lever you control.

How long the Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office takes, and how priority works

The Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office FAQ gives maximum processing times: 30 working days for permits and licences and 45 working days for leases. That clock starts from a complete application. Missing documents, an unpaid RRR or a boundary that overlaps an existing title will stop it.

Priority is the other half of timing. Section 7 of the NMMA says that where several applications are made for the same area, the application first received in the proper form has priority. Section 8 requires the office to record the date and time of receipt in a priority register. In practice this means:

• Complete beats early. A filing isn’t “received in the proper form” until everything required is there. A rushed, incomplete application can lose to a later, complete one.
• Availability before payment. The formal availability check tells you whether someone is already ahead of you.
• Landowner consent takes time. The consent letter and affidavit are required documents, so start community engagement before you file.

Why applications stall at the Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office

Most delays come from the applicant’s side, not the cadastre’s. Based on the office’s own document list and the Act, these are the problems to design out before you submit:

• ⚠ Missing COMEG signature or stamp on the work programme or pre-feasibility study. The office lists this as a requirement, so an unsigned document makes the file incomplete.
• ⚠ Landowner consent without the sworn affidavit. The consent letter and the affidavit are listed together. Bring both.
• Expired tax clearance. The office asks for a current certificate. Check its date before you upload it.
• Unpaid or mismatched Remita payment. Pay against the RRR that eMC+ generated for this application, not a code from an earlier filing.
• ⚠ Boundary overlaps. Cells that touch an existing title or a pending application will not be granted to you. The availability check exists to catch this early.
• Weak financial or technical evidence. Bank references and a named mining engineer or geoscientist are requirements, not formalities. For a mining lease, you must also show commercial quantities of the mineral.

A clean first submission is the fastest route through the Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office. It keeps you inside the published 30 or 45 working days, and it protects your place in the priority register.

Before mining starts

A mining lease is not a licence to start digging on day one. Section 71 of the Act requires Environmental Impact Assessment studies and mitigation plans under the applicable environmental laws. It also requires a Community Development Agreement approved by the Mines Environmental Compliance Department before development begins. Build both into your schedule.

Annual service fees and revocation: keeping your title

Once granted, a Nigerian mineral title carries an annual service fee. Section 10 of the NMMA sets it at a fixed rate per cadastral unit, for the administrative and management services of the cadastre. When the office started its 2023 revocation exercise, the published rates for exploration titles were ₦1,500 per CU for titles up to 200 CU and ₦2,000 per CU above that. Those are 2023 figures and rates are revised, so check the schedule on eMC+ before paying.

Under sections 11 and 12, a title becomes liable to revocation if the holder fails to pay the prescribed fees and the annual service fee. The Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office has enforced this rule at scale:

• 2023: the office began revoking 2,213 titles. Only 580 holders paid within the 30-day notice period, and 1,633 titles were revoked.
• September 2025: the Minister approved a further 1,263 revocations on the MCO’s recommendation, BusinessDay reported. The revoked titles were deleted from eMC+, and the same report put total revocations under the administration in office at the time at 3,794 titles.

“Of 2,213 titles put on notice in 2023, only 580 holders paid up in time.”

Before you file: make sure the cells are worth the fees

The Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office grid makes one question unavoidable: which cells do you actually want? Every extra CU adds to the processing fee and the yearly service fee, and exploration licences must show work to be renewed. The strongest applications are built on some geological knowledge of the ground before anyone pays a naira.

That is where satellite analysis fits. Our satellite-based mineral detection analyses multispectral and hyperspectral imagery of your area. Each mineral and alteration zone reflects energy in its own spectral signature. We use that to flag likely mineralised target zones, alteration halos and structures such as faults and fractures, without anyone going on to the land.

• ✔ Input you already have: the coordinates, KML/KMZ or polygon of the cells you plan to apply for, plus the target mineral.
• Speed: reports arrive in 5–20 business days, depending on area and mineral complexity.
• Deliverables: prospectivity heatmaps, high-potential zones with estimated location and depth ranges, geological interpretation, and PDF plus georeferenced GIS files. Premium+ adds TargetMax™ drilling intelligence and 3D subsurface models.
• Cost and time: satellite screening can cut early-exploration costs by up to 80–85% and shorten timelines from months to days, compared with starting on the ground.
• ⚠ Limitation: satellite targets are exploration targets, not a mineral resource. They tell you where to sample and drill first, and field work confirms them.

See a sample of what a deliverable looks like in the satellite-driven 3D mineral prospectivity mapping overview. We have scanned 100,000+ hectares for 20+ mineral types across 25+ countries.

A Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office pre-application checklist

1. Incorporate with the Corporate Affairs Commission, or check your eligibility as an individual or co-operative for the title you want.
2. Register on eMC+ and get familiar with the portal before you need it.
3. Read NGSA’s geological maps for the area to understand the regional geology.
4. Screen prospectivity over the candidate area, and cut the cell count to the strongest ground.
5. Run the formal availability check at a Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office zonal office with your coordinates.
6. Secure landowner consent and the sworn affidavit.
7. Commission the COMEG-signed work programme or pre-feasibility study, and gather tax clearance and financial evidence.
8. Pay through Remita using the RRR generated by eMC+, and file complete.
9. Diary the annual service fee from the day of grant. It is the single biggest cause of revocation.

Frequently asked questions

Reviewed September 2026 against the Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office FAQ and apply-now page, the text of the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act, 2007, GAF AG’s eMC+ launch note and BusinessDay’s report of the September 2025 revocations.

Title types, areas, terms and statutory references in this guide come from the Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office website and FAQ and the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act, 2007. Revocation figures come from Ministry announcements as reported in the Nigerian press. Fees, procedures and portal addresses change, so confirm the current position with the Mining Cadastre Office before you file or pay. This guide is general information, not legal or investment advice.