An overwhelming majority of native landowners want legal ownership of minerals found on their land to be handed back to them, mining advisor Dr Apete Soro told a public consultation in Viseisei Village, Vuda, on Thursday — the latest development in the government’s review of the Mining Act 1965.
Dr Soro, who is leading consultations that began earlier this month in the Central Division, said resource owners have been “persistent” and clear in their demand that mineral rights should belong to the landowners rather than the State. Under the existing Mining Act, all minerals discovered on or beneath the surface are legally vested in the State, meaning exploration, licensing and leasing fall under government control. “They want to own the mineral found in their land and it should belong to them,” Dr Soro said.
The calls carry weight because roughly 90 percent of Fiji’s land is native-owned, Dr Soro noted. Only about seven percent of land is freehold and three percent is government-owned — a distribution that would make any change to mineral ownership a major shift in how natural resources are managed and who benefits from them. Dr Soro said submissions reflecting the strong landowner sentiment are being compiled into the review team’s final report.
A significant point raised during consultations is the draft provision intended to lock in mineral ownership to landowners and prevent other agencies from overriding that title. Dr Soro said the proposed law would ensure mineral ownership could not be altered by bodies such as the iTaukei Lands Trust Board, the Ministry of Lands, or the Director of Lands — an attempt to allay fears that agency decisions could be used to transfer or dilute landowner rights.
Public consultations on the Mining Act review are still under way, with the process scheduled to conclude in the Northern Division on April 18. The review has already generated submissions in the Central Division and now in Vuda, reflecting wider concern among iTaukei communities about resource sovereignty. How the review team responds to the near-unanimous call for mineral ownership to be vested in landowners will shape downstream issues: licensing regimes, benefit-sharing arrangements, environmental oversight and potential legal conflicts between customary land structures and national regulatory frameworks.
The push for mineral ownership reform echoes broader debates about land law reforms in recent months, including calls from iTaukei leaders and representatives for changes to regulations that they say limit returns to traditional landowners. If the review’s recommendations lead to legislative change, it will be one of the most substantial rewrites of resource governance since the Mining Act was enacted in 1965, and will require new mechanisms to manage exploration, royalties and dispute resolution while balancing national economic interests.
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