NORTH East Guadalcanal Constituency MP, Ethel Claudia Lency, remains the legal title holder over the $4 trillion-rich Suma Kolosori nickel deposit on Isabel after attempts to transfer the title from her failed.
Corporate lawyers, investors and businessmen have reportedly engaged in behind the scene top level discussions with chiefs but their efforts have come to nothing. This is because there is nothing in the Constitution of the Isabel Council of Chiefs (ICC) to allow such a transaction.
The matter came to a head at Huali Village last Sunday when two Win Win Investment Solomon Ltd representatives – Ben Devi and Peter Discoster – tried in vain to convince ICC members to allow the transfer of the title from MP Lency to Chief Martin Tango.
Eight members of the Gao House of Chiefs heard the case for revoking the conveyancy arrangement. They are the Chairman, John Gebe, General Secretary Willie Fetei and Chairman of the Tatamba House of Chiefs, Cominis Tavadaka, Siromola House of Chiefs, women representatives and relatives also attended the Sunday afternoon meeting from 2pm to 5pm, according to reports from the meeting.
Sunday’s meeting passed three resolutions:
- The ICC constitution must be upheld;
- The Integrity of Gao House of Chiefs must be paramount; and
- The Voice of women representative must be respected.
Despite the pressure from company representatives, the Chiefs who attended last Sunday’s held their ground, according to those familiar with the outcome of the discussions.
There is nothing in the ICC Constitution that provides for transfer of title from one person to another especially in the Isabel Customary maternal practices. Women are head of their tribal or clans, they said.
In law, conveyancing is the transfer of legal title of real property from one person to another, or the granting of an encumbrance such as a mortgage or a lien. A typical conveyancing transaction has two major phases: the exchange of contracts and completion, according to Wikipedia.
As the primary landowner, Hon Lency was overjoyed with the outcome. It means she retains the title over the much-coveted commercial find in the Suma-Kolosori Customary Land.
Suma Kolosori tenement is a rectangular area covering some 19.7 square kilometres. It contains nickel laterite ores as well as many other minerals such as cobalt, Iron, scandium, silica, magnesium and aluminum and other associated minerals, according to official documents.
Estimates of the deposit vary.
Sumitomo, the Japanese Mining giant estimated the nickel deposit there to be 15 million tonnes. Australian company, Axiom, estimated it at 16 million tonnes, according to those familiar with prospecting reports provided by the two companies.
New comer, Hong Kong-based Solomon Islands Resources Company Ltd (SIRCL), a 100 per cent foreign-owned company, estimated the Suma Kolosori nickel deposit at 22 million tonnes.
On 26th May 2022, a handing over ceremony was held at Huali village between Martin Tango and MP Ethel Lency and Joel Kame. It was at this ceremony that Mr Tango delivered his “declaration and handing over of Power and Authority” speech.
Not only did Tango appoint “Hon Ethel Lency and Joel because of his circumstances”, Power and Authority was transferred to [Hon Lency] at the ceremony. The cutting of a pudding symbolised that it was done and sealed.
But if anything, those who allegedly set out to undermine the significance of this age-old customary practice, simply ignored it.
On 17th July 2022 – barely a month and a half after the customary transfer of Power and Authority to Hon Lency over the Suma Kolosori nickel deposits was effected – a Mining Lease Agreement was signed between SIRCL and clans of Silas Tango, Dennis Hathatano and Paul Fota, for the purchase land of “THE THREE BROTHERS LAND, Bugotu District, Isabel Province.”
MP Ethel Claudia Lency is from Isabel Province and is currently the Member of Parliament for North East Guadalcanal. She is married to Jaime Vokia.
Angered by the granting of the Mining Lease Agreement without due process, MP Lency, filed a Sworn Statement in the High Court on 13th March this year. In it, she sought and received a restraining order to stop what she believed was “illegal” mining activities on her Suma Kolosori customary land.
She named Solomon Islands Resources Company Ltd (SIRCL), a Hong Kong-based company as First Defendant, Mr Dan Shi as Second Defendant, Win Win Investment Solomon as Third Defendant and Attorney General, representing the Minister for Mines, Energy and Rural Electrification and Director of Mines Board as the Fourth Defendant, according to court documents sighted by Solomon Star.
The High Court granted MP Ethel Claudia Lency’s application on 6 April this year.
By Alfred Sasako
