Fiji Sun

CONTRADICT­ION

Mercurius Mineral Resources PTE LTD, an unheard-of company, is pitching for the country’s largest minerals resources exploratio­n licence. If it is awarded the exploratio­n licence for CX877, Mercurius would be the largest exploratio­n company of its kind in Fiji.

The scale of the proposed project would suggest a large company, given that the Mining Act limits special prospectin­g licenses to 1200 hectares per person.

In this case, Mercurius Mineral Resources is after 135,106 hectares, a contradict­ion of local laws.

Owned by Lijuan Hou, the area of interest - marked CX877 on the Mineral Resources Department’s tenement map - has many boundaries immediatel­y adjacent to other SPL’s and operating properties.

The sticky issue surroundin­g the matter of CX877 is in the limitation to buffer zones that current operators enjoy.

Lack of consultati­on with the current operators in the country, calls into question the integrity of the system, an industry expert said.

“The spirit of the act is to award small tracts, demonstrat­e ability, and then enlarge or award larger tracts,” one source said.

The Mining and Quarry Council, which operates under the umbrella of Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation, meets regularly in the capital.

SunBiz has it on good authority that the council had never discussed CX877 or Mercurius Mineral Resources at council level. “Had the representa­tive from MRD discussed this proposal to the forum, a more robust discussion would have eventuated and would have allowed the director of Mines to consider existing operating mining companies and issue the best advice to Mercurius Mineral Resources Pte Ltd and its’ associates,” an industry expert said.

“It would also save the image of the mining sector in Fiji especially the office of the Director of Mines and would have had no objections from current exploratio­n and operating companies at all.” “This proposal will not do justice to Fiji or to companies that have worked the ground for an extensive period of time, to gain valuable informatio­n through extensive mineral exploratio­n programmes, only to be used by a company that was formed overnight with informatio­n supplied by MRD from the hard work of the operating and exploring companies.”

The award of CX877 is unfair, counterpro­ductive, and uncompetit­ive in the current circumstan­ce.