‘We had to find a balance’ Bharrat says residents called for resumption...

Romanex will only be doing prospecting for five years and that persons are cherry picking parts of the agreement for criticisms.

“This thing about the large scale company doing mining is utterly not true. In fact, what we are doing is [taking] away the mining licence from Romanex and giving them a prospecting licence for five years. The large company would not be doing any mining for five years; none at all. All mining activity that will be done in Marudi will be done by the indigenous; the small miners in Region Nine,” he stressed.

Noted too by Bharrat was that small miners were given strict rules for operating in the area, including that mercury must not be used and employment priority must go to nearby villagers

“There were concerns about the environment and illegal activities at the shops or landings. The right and respect of indigenous people and creating opportunities for indigenous. We have mentioned that the small miners need to respect indigenous people. If they employ people from the villages, they need to purchase from the people in Region Nine. With regard to environment, when they signed the agreement [they agreed] that mercury will not be used because that is one of the main concerns that was raised at the consultation,” he said.

Bharrat added that another concern was the destruction of medicinal plants but he did not elaborate on what alternatives would be taken to stop that.

“We have confined the small miners to a smaller area where they will be doing mining in a safe way and a mercury-free way. We would have done that to ensure there are some environmental safeguards and protection of the environment,” he added.