Millions lost in ore shipment

Solomon Islands is losing millions on its direct shipment of ore from the bauxite mining in Rennell-Bellona Province.

Member of Parliament for Maringe-Kokota, Hon. Calwick Togamana told Parliament this morning.

He said the country is losing millions of dollars from exporting the raw minerals.

” I did mention about 60,000 tones of ore exported, we only have about 4-million Solomon dollars and then you share that; six percent goes to royalties and then the rest belongs to the company,” he said.

“Maybe about 350,000 plus; then you take out three percent for the Government and the share the remaining three percent to landowners as well as resource owners, which is a very small amount of money.”

But Dr Togamana said the country could fetch hundreds of millions if the raw minerals are processed onshore.

He said if the country does onshore processing of the bauxite ,it can produce aluminum oxide and sell it; which could fetch 190-million or more than that in Solomon dollars.

Dr Togamana also said if the country does go further in processing the ore, it could export that and could fetch more than 200-million dollars.

He suggested, the country should have proper policies in place to safeguard its mineral resources for the future.