Bauxite mining in Bua continues, two more sites being explored

Bauxite mining in Fji's Bua province has not ended and other prospective sites are being explored for possible deposits. This was confirmed to members of the Parliament Standing Committee on Natural Resources by Department of Mineral Resources director Malakai Finau.

Mr Finau said although the company mining bauxite at Nawailevu had started exploration on Wainunu in Bua, there was no guarantee it would be given access to other sites.

"In Nawailevu there are two sites, Nawailevu south and Nawailevu north, they haven't completed exporting," said Mr Finau.

He said standing bauxite at the stockpile site at Naviqiri amounted to 70,000 wet metric tonnes, which was estimated during the last inspection visit by the department.

Mr Finau also revealed the initial $US26 ($F55) per tonne had to be reduced because silica was discovered in the bauxite as well with the company always insisting it was extracting aluminium only and not other minerals found with the bauxite.

Members of the Parliament Standing Committee on Natural Resources asked Mr Finau if the company used silica for other purposes to which he said the department was unaware of this.

However, he informed the committee that some water bottling companies used silica in their products locally.

Copyright and Exemption Declaration :¢ÙAll articles, pictures and videos that are marked with "China Aluminum Network" on this website are copyright and belong to China Aluminium Network (www.alu.com.cn). When transshipment, any media, website or individual must list the source from "China Aluminium Network (www.alu.com.cn)". We seek legal actions against anyone that disobey this. ¢ÚArticles that marked as copy from others are for transferring more information to readers, do not represent or endorse their opinions or accuracy and reliability. When other media, website or individuals copy from our website, must keep the source. Anyone that changes the articles' sources will hold the responsibilities for copyright and law problems. We also seek legal actions against anyone that disobey this. ¢ÛIf any articles copied by our website concern the copyright and other problems, please contact us within one week.