A total of 33 mineral special prospecting licences have been issued by the Department of Mineral Resources.

While speaking at a public consultation in Lautoka yesterday, acting director of Mineral Resources Raymond Mohammed said the special prospecting licences were different from the mining licences issued by the department.

“These are licences only for exploration works, not mining,” he said.

“There have been a lot of discussions over this because some are thinking that companies issued with prospecting licences on a large portion of land are actually going in to carry out mining works as well.

“This is not true.

“They are only there to take out samples, survey the area and find out if there are mineable minerals within these areas.

“The recent SPL issued was to Viti Mining Ltd for an area in Nabila, Sigatoka and another in Cakaudrove. These two licences are for gold explorations.”

He said only eight mining licences were currently active in Fiji.

“With the eight active mining leases, Vatukoula Gold Mine has three. Amex in Ba has one, Lion One Gold operating a mine in Tuvatu, Sabeto has one, two bauxite mining leases in Vanua Levu and one for gold in Wainivesi in Tailevu.

“There are five applications that the department is processing for exploration.”