Fiji landowners want royalties from mining company

Transcript

Landowners in Fiji's northern division say they haven't received any royalties from a bauxite mine that they consented to in 2011.

Since then the Chinese company Aurum Exploration Limited has been issued with two further leases from the Government to mine bauxite at other sites in Vanua Levu.

But landowners from the first site say neither the company nor the Government has honoured its commitments to them.

Bridget Tunnicliffe reports:

Aurum Exploration Limited has almost completed mining at the site in Nawailevu, which has produced nearly 1 million tonnes of bauxite.  Yet landowners say they haven't seen a cent from the company.  At the opening of the site in November 2011, prime minister Frank Bainimarama said the company had already released some payments.

FRANK BAINIMARAMA: Benefits to landowners are being progressively met, with a partial release of lease payments, the construction of infrastructure like roads and mobile telecommunications and ongoing discussions with Aurum. Already Aurum has paid a total of almost a million Fijian dollars to the landowning units, with the remaining two million Fijian dollars to be paid out within two years.

But the SODELPA MP Mosese Bulitavu says none of those promises have been met.  He says the company has only paid $600,000 Fijian dollars so far in royalties to the Lands Department, which still hasn't been handed over to the landowners.  And he says the company still owes another $1.5 million.  Mr Bulitavu says the Government needs to ensure the company complies with its obligations and the Government honour its own promises.

MOSESE BULITAVU:  The landowners are coming back to petition to Government, for the Prime Minister to act to fulfill his promises to them in 2011 because it was based on trust and the condition for them to give consent to that particular lease to extract bauxite minerals.

Mosese Bulitavu says at least 300 signatures have been gathered so far and will be presented at the next sitting of parliament in May.  The Mineral Resources Department Director, Malakai Finau, confirmed last week that a lease for a third bauxite mining site has been issued to the same company in Dreketi.  He is confident that the company has mitigated any impacts on the environment at Nawailevu.

MALAKAI FINAU: The environmental performance in terms of their environment management at the Nawailevu site has been good even though there are some minor ones but fortunately there has not been a major environmental issue.

Malakai Finau says he's not aware of the petition from landowners in Nawailevu.  Mosese Bulitavu says the Lands Department has told landowners that they have to write a proposal outlining how they plan to spend the $600,000 on development projects, before it's released to them.  But he says that was never part of the deal and they should be able to do what they want with it.

MOSESE BULITAVU:  They were told it's for the future generation and when they enquired 'what is future generation?' and they were told it's for them to make some investments. But according to the constitution, section 30, nowhere in that section which allows for fair share of royalty says that it's for the future generations or for the Government to control the [use] of those funds.

Attempts to get comment from Aurum Exploration Limited have so far been unsuccessful.