SAN JORGE Landowners on Isabel are demanding an urgent investigation into the activities of Far East Resources Company Ltd, claiming the company is not complying with the conditions of its prospecting licence.
“Its prospecting licence should be revoked or at least put on hold on the grounds of non-compliance,” Chief Edward of Vulavu village told Solomon Star yesterday.
“The Company’s San Jorge operation is definitely not prospecting but actual mining activities,” Chief Edward said.
He called on the Ministry of Mines, Energy and Rural Electrification to undertake urgent due diligence check on this aggressive miner.
“Since they were granted the PL on July 5, they are transporting six dump trucks, bulldozers, excavators, land cruisers and other heavy machineries in. What sort of prospecting is this,” Chief Edward said.
“The underlying consideration of our concern is that the due process appears to have been high-jacked and the Far East Resources Company Ltd took advantage of loopholes within the Mines and Minerals Acts and its policies,” he said.
He said the Far East Resources Company Ltd exploration in San Jorge should be warned that their Prospecting License revoked if the continue to ignore compliance issue.
“Failure to comply with prospecting license conditions is usually a ground for revocation of a PL or refusal to extend it for a new term,” adding why the company should be treated any differently.
“The prescribed process and conditions for Prospecting License with Mines and Minerals Acts have been abused. As far as we are aware, the Company has not done any Environmental Impact assessment Study and there was no development concern as well.
“Apparently, the Company has submitted a commercial discovery report and vying for a Mining License. This is fishy and appears to be a lot of abuses of the PL conditions,” according to a complaint Land trustees who signed the Surface Access Agreement (SAA). These trustees have decided to remain anonymous for obvious reasons,” Chief Edward said.
“If the Ministry of Mines and the Mines and Minerals board can terminate the ML and PL of other miners, what is so hard about revoking the PL of the Far East Resources company Ltd.”
By Alfred Sasako
