If you’re not going to amend the constitution, there is no point in amending the small laws, says Minister for Lands Filimone Vosarogo.
He made this comment while responding to the question of whether the Ministry of Lands was considering reviewing the Mining Act.
Landowners of Namosi and Nawaidina in Naitasiri had called for the review of the Mining Act last year.
Mr Vosarogo said there were a lot of laws proposed to be reviewed.
“The Mining Act of course is one of them because under the current legislation and current legislative regime, all minerals belong to the State,” he said.
“But the difficulty we’re trying to amend them and remove that from the statutory law is that the ownership of minerals is in the Constitution itself.
“If you’re not going to amend the Constitution, there is no point in amending all these small laws.”
Meanwhile, talks are ongoing regarding the Occupational Health and Safety regulations in the mining industry.
Mr Vosarogo said they were having consultations with the mining specialists on the matter.
“OHS part of mining still falls under Mining Act,” he said.
“So, mining is not part of OHS regime in the Ministry of Employment, Public Relations and Productivity.
“Honourable Agni Deo Singh has brought it to me and we’re looking at it.
“We’re consulting with our mining specialist here on how we can collaborate and work together.”
He said discussions were to move the OHS part of mining to the OHS department.
“Again, there’s got to be a lot of discussions to this because mining is a very specialised area.
“OHS as well and mining underground is a very specialised cadre.
“Once we’re able to cover the basis then we would make the decision of whether it should stay with the Ministry of Lands or whether it would go to the Ministry of Employment.”
