Fijian Manager Praises China-Owned Mine

The China-owned bauxite mine in Nawailevu in Fiji's Northern Island has benefited the Fijian economy greatly by bringing in the much needed export dollars and providing jobs to local people, a local mine manager said Wednesday.

Vanuaca Basilio, mine manager of the Aurum Exploration Fiji Limited, told the media that about 2 million Fiji dollars (about 1. 14 million U.S. dollars) in revenue is generated into the economy every month from the bauxite mining.

The mining has also had a lot of benefits to the humble Bua community including Nawailevu villagers, Basilio said.

He further explained that the bauxite mine currently employs 150 permanent staff and 250 seasonal workers from around the island nation who would otherwise be unemployed without this development.

The Northern Island, or Vanua Levu in local language, is one of Fiji's most under-developed islands where people were mostly unemployed or were subsistence farmers.

The China-owned bauxite mine therefore was a good opportunity for villagers to find some real employment, said Basilio.

Bauxite is an aluminum ore which is the main source of aluminum.

Earlier, Filimone Kau from the Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources said right now, bauxite is limited in as far as serious exploration and mining is concerned to China but there are other interests being expressed by Russia, some European countries, and some other countries in Asia.

The challenge is to ensure that any exploration and mining work is carried out in a sustainable way, and is mindful of the environmental and social implications on Fijians who cherish their land as an ancestral possession as well as one for the future generation, he added.

Fijian land unlike other countries is owned collectively by land owning units.