6 June 2021

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Then, in 2013, Solomon Bauxite Limited – a mining company owned by two Hong Kong-listed companies – was granted a permit for an open-cast mine on Wagina. Publicly available plans show that the mine would have affected 48 sq km – 60% – of the island, and involved clearing 2,000 hectares of virgin forest.

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But the islanders fought the case in a bruising, burdensome court struggle that ran for four years and, in 2018, were granted a stay on mining until the proposal was further scrutinised.

In March 2019 the islanders’ victory was strengthened when, in its first decision, Solomon Islands’ environmental advisory committee overturned the mining licence, finding that residents had not been properly consulted and the company’s environmental impact statement was “rather unscientific and improper” and not legally valid.

“A mine tenement covering 60% of a small island will have tremendous environmental impacts on water quality, air quality, the ecology and the marine environment,” the committee said in its decision.

“It will also have a dramatic and likely irreversible impact on the more than 2,000 residents of the island who rely on the sea and land for their livelihood … What will become of the people of Wagina if the mining occupies such a significant area of Wagina Island? Where will they obtain their material to construct their homes and resources to support their livelihoods?”

That decision was appealed but last November the environment minister upheld the decision.

But the fight is not finished yet.

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