Fishy mines deal
New company gets prospecting licence quick, has LOI to untendered tenement
QUESTIONS are being raised at how quickly a prospecting company, Sunshine Minerals Limited, obtained its prospecting licence (PL) and are claiming operational rights to a tenement in Isabel.
Eyebrows are raised at the Ministry of Mines and Energy for granting the PL only four months after the Sunshine Minerals Ltd was registered.
Investigations by this paper found that Sunshine Mineral Limited was established and incorporated on September 19, 2016.
And, by January this year they were granted a PL for Bauxite exploration on Tausere, Choiseul province.
Furthermore, Sunshine Mineral Ltd also claims on its website that they have a Letter of Intent (LOI) for Jejevo nickel deposit in Isabel province – a questionable claim as the Ministry has not yet tendered this project.
This claim raises eyebrows higher towards the Ministry of Mines, with people wondering who inside the Ministry had endorsed the LOI for Sunshine Minerals Ltd.
Speaking to the media last week, a senior official within the Ministry of Mines made it clear that there is no LOI for Jejevo nickel project.
“I want to make it clear that there is no company being awarded with Letter of Intent for Jejevo Nickel Project,” the officer said.
A brief read through the company’s establishment indicate that this company is surviving on assistance from a London-based company called Gunsynd Plc.
It is reported that Gunsynd Plc has sent £240,000 (close to over 3 million Solomon Islands dollars) to facilitate Sunshine Minerals’ operations, such as obtaining the PL and LOI as well as their office setup.
Meanwhile, the team running the show for Sunshine Minerals Ltd are familiar faces.
Directors and Managers are; Anderezej Kuzemko (Chief Executive Officer), Pawel Misiec (Director), Nelson Kehe Kile (Director), Patrick Scott (Project Manager), Donn Hicks Tolia (Technical Manager) and Stephen Jones (Project Consultant).
Among these individuals are sitting members of the Isabel Provincial Government, and current or former employees of the Prime Minister’s Office.
It is not yet established whether these individuals are breaching the Leadership Code Act with their positions in the company.
Furthermore, it is understood that Mr Pawel Misiec is the key person to deal with the Ministry of Mines as well as negotiating leases with local communities.
Mr Misiec was a member of the controversial Nazar group – a group that the government kicked out last year.
It is also alleged that he is a wanted person for unpaid debts in Poland, Australia and Papua New Guinea.
On the other side of the coin, key financier, Gunsynd Plc, is said to be in doubt with answers needed on how genuine Sunshine Mineral is handling its programme here in the country.
In one of his public statements, chairperson of Gunsynd Plc said funding the cost of licence application is ‘at time amount to fraught with danger’.
This means Gunsynd Plc is aware the cost of obtaining a Prospecting Licence here in Solomon Islands is only SBD$2,500 and not 3 million as stated in the financial assistance Gunsynd Plc spent on Sunshine Mineral Limited.
Responding to this allegations, Mr Misiec says he is a free man.
“I am not wanted man criminal, if your friends from another companies cannot solved their problem they should not use newspaper to tarnish my reputation,” he said.
A document attached from Mr Misiec’s mail shows Mr Misiec has no criminal record in his country (Poland).
A sworn statement translated and certified by Mr Tomas Budkowski on behalf of the Ministry of Justice Information Office of the National Criminal Register on June 22, 2016, sealed the following inscriptions;
Mr Misiec is not recorded in the Criminal Record of National Criminal Register, 21st June 2016, Information Point of National Criminal Register in Wroclaw by Regional Court.
Mr Misiec is also not recorded in the Detain Persons Register and Wanted Person List of National Criminal Register 21st June 2016, Information of National Criminal Register in Wroclaw by Regional Court.
In the meantime, the question still remains as to why this company had received its PL in an unprecedented shorter time-frame than usual.