THIRTY-four special prospective licences for mineral exploration has been issued by the Lands and Mineral Resources Ministry.
This was highlighted by the acting environment chief officer for Lands and Mineral Resources, Sereima Koli, during the Fiji Land Bank landowners trustees workshop yesterday.
She said only one licence had been issued for deep-sea mining and eight mining licences.
“Three of these mining licences have been given to Vatukoula, one to Sabeto, two has been issued to the bauxite area in Bua, one in Ba and one in Tailevu,” Ms Koli said.
She said mining was not an easy job and there were processes in place to ensure it was carried out in a safe manner.
“It takes close to 20 years to complete mining at a particular site. Before any mining begins the environment impact assessment is also carried out by the Ministry of Environment,” she said.
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