Pluton Abandons Projects In Fiji Over Sovereign Risk

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday January 20, 2007

Jamie Freed

TWO weeks after the Fijian military occupied Emperor Mines' shuttered Vatakoula operation, Melbourne's Pluton Resources has decided to abandon a project on the island nation due to "unacceptable" sovereign risk.

Pluton had planned to spend half of the $10 million it raised in a float last month to purchase and explore prospects in Fiji owned by a private company.

The explorer's board includes prominent figures such as former NSW premier Neville Wran and former Intersuisse head Albert Wong. Pluton managing director Tony Schoer said the incident at Vatakoula had been a deciding factor in the company's decision to forgo exercising its option over the Fiji projects.

"That's added to what we already called sovereign risk in Fiji," he said on Friday. In addition, only two of the six exploration licence applications filed with Fijian regulators had been granted.

Mr Schoer said the two licences were approved in September and regulators had said the other four would be granted in October, but that never happened. "As of [Friday], I've had no notification these things have been approved," he said. "That's the issue with Fiji. Everything takes so long."

Pluton will use the money originally allocated to exploring the Fiji prospects to accelerate exploration at other projects in Tasmania and Western Australia.

Investors seemed pleased with the move, pushing Pluton's shares up 8.5c to 36.5c.

Despite Pluton's wariness about Fiji, Ian Pringle, the managing director of Sydney's Geopacific Resources, said his company found the situation on the ground to be fine.

"One of the comments from our people over there is as a result of the military action there has been very little crime and the streets have been safe," he said.

A representative for Emperor Mines could not be reached for comment on Friday to provide an update on the situation at Vatakoula.

But the Fiji Times said the new cabinet this week granted Emperor Mines temporary rights to begin in-depth exploration in the Vatakoula region in a bid to prove enough reserves to restart mining operations.

© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald

Back to News Index | Back to Home