MINING & MINERALS

ACTION PLAN – NEXT 12 MONTHS

Mineral Resources DepartmentMinistry of Lands & Minerals

Mala Finau – Director Mineral Development4 June 2011

SCOPE

• Background • Action Plans - Next 12 months• Conclusion

3 Key Areas

1. Mineral Resources & Mining2. Water (Groundwater) Resources Investigation

& Management3. Disaster Management (Earthquake &

Tsunami) Detection, Monitoring & Information Dissemination

1. Mineral Exploration & Mining

– ~ 60 Mineral Exploration Licenses that are at the current at the moment

– Includes Minerals (Earthy & Metalliferous, Petroleum, Geothermal, Deep Sea Minerals (DSM)

– Three Mines - 2 Gold Mines, 1 Bauxite• Vatukoula Gold Mine (Vatukoula)• Wainivesi Gold Mine (Tailevu)• Nawailevu Buaxite Mine (Bua)

– Initial Stage of Mine Development

– One Mining Lease Application• Viti Mining - Vorovorobitu Manganese

Action Plan – Minerals & Mining• Facilitate / Promote Steady growth of mineral sector given current

trends – Increase GDP contribution of Mining Sector

• Diversification of Mineral base- Bauxite, Manganese, Magnetite sands, Zinc, NOT just gold & Silver

• Diversification of Sector – emerging sectors- Deep Sea Minerals, Hard Rock, Sand & Gravel, Geothermal Resources,

Water Resources (Bottled Mineral Water) • Policy & Legislation- Review legislation (Mineral Exploration & Exploitation Bill –MEEB 2006)- 11th draft completed- Existing Mining Act currently in force

• Mineral (Mining) Symposium – Discuss contentious issues in Mineral Resources Development

Way Forward• Recognition that to ensure continuous steady growth of sector, it must be

done in a sustainable manner• Hence the 3 pillars of sustainability – social, environmental & economic

factors must be addressed• Lack of policy framework to address the above• Need to consult widely with stakeholders (good governance) to gauge

issues that needs to be considered as part of implementing the necessary policy frameworks to address the 3 pillars of sustainability

• Need to accommodate the policy / legal reforms either through amending existing Mining Act or progress review towards superseding existing Act with Mineral Bill (MEEB) - decreed

• Develop subsidiary legislation to provide Government with specific processes to implement principles of the underlying Decree.

Way Forward – cont’d

• Conduct Mining (Mineral Sector) Symposium to discuss contentious stakeholder issues – Public & Private, Landowners & representatives, NGOs, Donor Agencies, other Stakeholders etc, etc

- Preparatory symposium in late June 2011 to map and gauge stakeholder issues that need to be addressed

- Main symposium to be held in 3rd quarter 2011 will focus on potential of the sector in view of expectations that all exploration projects will become producing mines, whilst addressing stakeholder issues

• Government’s challenge is to channel all the issues from all stakeholders through an integrated forum to be called the “Mineral Development Technical Committee” (MDTC)

- MDTC comprises key Government agencies involved in project development

Continued• A Technical Advisory Group (TAG) will serve as advisory to MDTC in as far

as compilation and formulating relevant stakeholder issues emanating from the symposium

• MDTC will create an enabling environment to facilitate mineral sector growth by addressing legal / policy reforms together with capacity building to then establish platform for project development

- Legal / policy reforms to address exploration, mining, fiscal, compensation, geothermal and offshore (deep sea exploration)

2. GW Resources Investigation & Mangement – Action Plan

• Continue GW Investigation & Monitoring• Policy & Legislation– GW Sources Protection– GW conflicts– Environment

3. Disaster Management (Earthquake & Tsunami) - Action Plan

• Continue upgrade of earthquake monitoringStations currently in progress (JICA assistance)• Installation of 3 new stations (Dogotuki- Macuata,

Lakeba - Lau, Dawasamu – Tailevu) • Improve Services– Communications– 24 / 7 operations

Conclusion

• The need for legal / policy reform is becoming necessity given current boom & future development in Mineral Sector.

• THANKS