An Australian company is embroiled in a frustrated effort by the Government to award the prospecting license for Mount Kasi Gold Mine in Vanua Levu and it has now emerged that the company, which is preferred by landowners to excavate there, did not follow the order of procedures.
“This SPL (Special Prosecting Licence) was advertised in 2010, so it’s been more than a decade in the making,” Minister for Land and Mineral Resources Filimoni Vosarogo told this newspaper.
“We inherited this file when we took over Government in December 2022 and by that time, the issuance process was probably about 80 per cent complete.
“Consultation has been done many times. Prior to the Coalition Government coming into power, there has been no less than 11 times where the previous acting director of mines and mineral resources had met with landowners.
“Even when we came into office, I’ve met with landowners no less than five times.
“I’ve explained the process to them and they have been quite understanding about why and how the issuance process is where it is now.”
The previous government’s choice of Vatukoula Gold Mine was shot back by the landowners who are said to prefer Aquilo Gold, an Australian junior miner established in 2019 and has Mt Kasi on its websites as its only project, although the SPL has yet to be awarded.
“Eight companies had applied for the SPL and in the order of preference, the Australian company that had been talking to the landowners was not in the top five,” Mr Vosarogo said.
“So it’s not easy to rationalise why such preferences could be preferred when the processes, which is highly technical, and mines are not just technical issues but they are also expensive to run, for example the Lion One company (in Tuvatu), before it opened, had already spent over $165m, so we have to be looking at issuance of SPL to companies that we know and are sure has the technical expertise and knowhow as well as the finance to run such operation.”
Mr Vosarogo said the SPL awardee for Mt Kasi is likely to be announced next week.
