Minister for Lands and Mineral Resources, Jone Usamate is currently on a four-day tour to the Northern Division to be able to familiarise himself with bottlenecks in the system and address issues related to the Ministry’s service delivery in the North.
Usamate is encouraging members of the public to make use of this opportunity and raise their grievances with him.
He has and will be visiting some other villages and communities during his four-day Northern tour.
Usamate says this was a very important trip for his Ministry to make because they are there to help the people of Fiji and their main focus is to deliver better service to the people of Fiji and to make a difference in their lives.
During his site visit to Nawailevu Bauxite mine, which is under rehabilitation, Usamate thanked the Aurum Exploration Fiji Limited Mine Manager, Benson Yee, and Director Dereck Chiu for the great work the company has done in rehabilitating the mined area.
Usamate says the company has planted approximately 160,000 pine trees which will benefit the iTaukei landowners in the near future.
He says this is an example of value-adding related to mining with the mine rehabilitation taking into account the post-mining land use needs of the landowners.
Usamate says he was also impressed with the effective and workable collaboration between Aurum Exploration and Mineral Resource Department in the mining and rehabilitation model effected at Nawailevu and Naibulu Bauxite Mines.
On Day one of his tour Usamate visited the Nabouwalu Continuously Operating Reference Station, Nawailevu Bauxite Mine rehabilitation, Naiviqiri Jetty which is used for the shipment of Bauxite, Naibulu bauxite mine site, Dreketi Town, Standard Concrete Industries, Dreketi Hard Rock Quarry, Mataqali Devo field site, Vakamasisuasua industrial subdivision and attended the Great North Seafood solar opening.
