BY JOHN HOUANIHAU
The matter of environment bonds in mining operations will be brought to cabinet.
There are no specific provisions requiring payment of an environmental bond in the current Solomon Islands Mines and Minerals and the Environmental Act.
Minister of Mines, Derrick Manuari recently voiced this in parliament.
He was responding to the question of whether an environmental rehabilitation bond deposit was made by the license holder and contractor in the now-closed Rennell bauxite mining lease.
In his response to the question from Opposition Leader, Mathew Wale, the Member of Parliament for West Makira said no environmental bond was paid in this sort of case.
He went on to say that the government, however, recognizes this gap in this sector and his ministry with the Ministry of Environment are working on this through the Legislative Reform Programme to transform the sector.
Manuari said that there’s a reference to financial assurances, that require companies to pay, under Part 3, Section 2 of the financial assurances under the current reforms of the new Minerals Act.
“It requires companies to make a bond payment to the government when incur environmental damages to the mining sites. The money can be used for environment rehabilitation, even if the operation is finished,” he said.
He said that as part of the Legislative Reforms under the proposed environmental bill, it explicitly provides for environmental bonds under the relevant sections of the environmental bill, Clause 86.
He said that there is ongoing work on a policy to be brought before Cabinet that will pave way for the calculation of an environmental bond.
“It will also be outlining the framework on which the bond can be implemented. Under the policy, Mr Speaker, it will be integrated into the Mining Amendment Regulations and will be linked to the Environmental Act 1998 and the Mines and Minerals Act 1990,” Manuari said.
He assured that House that the GNUT will be the first government to come up with an environmental bond policy.
“It is already finalised. We will ensure that policy, by putting into place an environmental bond, which will be applied to the best practice in this regard. We are working seriously on this to ensure that the situation does not continue,” he said.
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