Sogavare Exposes Mining Mess, Blames Tovosia’s Leadership A Failure

by Ronald Toito’ona

In a stunning revelation, former Finance Minister Manasseh Sogavare has exposed what he calls serious failures in the government’s handling of the country’s mineral wealth—pointing to missing revenues, halted mining licenses, and a leadership unwilling to act.

Sogavare was responding to a question from In-depth Solomons about his concerns with former Deputy Prime Minister Bradley Tovosia’s role in government—a factor he had cited as one of the reasons for his departure from the GNUT coalition.

While declining to name individuals outright, Sogavare gave a chilling insight into what he claims has been happening behind closed doors.

“Well, at this point in time, it is not proper at a conference like this, for us to raise issues like this,” he said.

“But there are serious indications. I can only say that.”

Sogavare revealed that 18 alluvial mining licences were ready to be issued by the Ministry of Mines—but the process came to a halt following the political fallout.

“Around 18 licenses have been halted. They were prepared and ready to go, but because of this move [our resignation from GNUT], that did not happen,” he said.

As Finance minister at the time, Sogavare said he had already begun working with the Central Bank of Solomon Islands (CBSI) to clamp down on unregulated mineral exports and to ensure that all earnings were repatriated.

“When it comes to how much minerals are going out, and how much money is coming in—there is nothing like that. No records,” he revealed.

“I issued my directive to the Central Bank—every money that goes out of the country from mineral exports must come back to the Central Bank.”

He added that the CBSI Governor had begun taking action, but said this had not happened before due to resistance and lack of political will.

“This is something that didn’t happen in the past. But we’re starting to implement that now.”

But perhaps most damning was his claim that valuable minerals were being flown out of the country—completely off the books.

“There are people that actually want to carry the minerals in planes out of the country,” Sogavare revealed.
“When this happens, the money did not come here. It’s money that has gone outside of the country.”

He stopped short of naming who was responsible, suggesting that a deeper probe may eventually be necessary.

“These are probably issues that are subject of investigation at some point in time. So we will leave it there, as it is not appropriate to talk about it here—we may risk defamation of character.”

With the political tide turning and scrutiny increasing, Sogavare’s revelations could signal the beginning of calls for a full investigation into mining sector governance and the role of top officials in failing to protect the country’s wealth.