While you were sleeping

from w
What is going on in the Sovi basin area while everyone focuses on Christmas, the cost of living, managing after a cyclone?  The greed of the huge mining industry needs to be examined.  What re they going to do at the headwaters in the middle of Viti Levu - headwaters that starts the water of life for several rivers including those that go down to the sea near Suva.  I am for conservation not mining because despite promises about cleaning up, it does not seem to happen so there's so much damage.  Look what happeneds in PNG!  Here's an article about Newcrest that I found on the web.

DECEMBER 11, 2012 · 10:28 AM  Namosi Joint Venture proposes to mine in Sovi Basin but the area has been set aside as a protected rain forest.FIJI: Newcrest plans to mine in protected rainforest

Master plan to address overlapping leases

Epeli Tukuwasa | FBC

Overlapping development works have been identified in the new National Land Master Plan says Director Land Use Samuela Naicegucegu.

Naicegucegu says one of the areas identified is the Sovi Basin which was issued with a Conservation Lease – only to be over-shadowed by a mining prospecting lease.

Namosi Joint Venture proposes to mine in Sovi Basin but the area has been set aside as a protected rain forest.

The land has been leased by Conservation International for 99 years starting from 1980.

Naicegucegu says this overlapping has eventuated because Ministries and departments weren’t coordinating in the past. Government Ministries and Institutions have been working in isolation without even realising how land in Fiji have been utilised.

The Master Plan should be complete by the end of this year for Cabinet approval and will put an end to overlapping leases.
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And from 'Real Jack' a contributor to a forum called Fiji Exiles Board.

That area where the Newcrest guys are setting up their operations is the SOURCE of the HEADWATERS which come down as the SOURCE FEED for the rivers which feed the water reservoirs for the WHOLE OF THE SUVA/ NAVUA/NADROGA/ TAILEVU/REWA region. It's that serious.
All the water for human consumption in this whole Suva basin and towards Deuba and Sigatoka and towards Tailevu all comes from that source up in the Namosi highlands which is the area where that Newcrest operation is being set up.
The mining extraction uses everything from cyanide to carcinogens to mecury.
This is stuff which has not reached the public yet but its only a matter of time