Fiji’s Cabinet has endorsed the findings of a review that produced two proposed bills to replace the country’s decades-old mining and quarrying laws. The Mineral Exploration and Mining Bill 2026 and Mine Safety Management Bill 2026 are proposals, not enacted legislation, and a further consultation is due before either is tabled in Parliament.
Review covered two long-standing laws
The review examined the Mining Act 1965 and the Quarries Act 1939. It was jointly conducted by the Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources and the Fiji Law Reform Commission. Cabinet endorsed the review’s outcomes at its meeting on 20 October, with the decision published on 22 October.
The review identified legal, structural and operational gaps in the existing framework. The stated concern was that the laws were no longer adequate to regulate mineral exploration, mining and quarrying effectively. The proposed bills would provide a modernised legislative framework, but the Cabinet endorsement does not itself change current law or establish that any of the proposed measures are already in force.
Consultations informed the proposals
The review included 62 stakeholder consultations across Fiji. Participants included mine operators, workers, landowners and affected communities, alongside government agencies, civil society organisations and members of the public. The process was intended to identify practical challenges and inform possible improvements to the legislation.
That consultation record is relevant because the proposals touch on access to land and the distribution of benefits as well as the regulation of businesses. The bills aim to strengthen landowner rights and benefit-sharing arrangements, and to set clearer processes for consent and compensation. They also propose stronger transparency and accountability and more effective ways to resolve disputes. These are stated aims of draft legislation; the announcement does not settle how rights, payments or dispute outcomes would operate in particular cases.
Safety and environmental measures also proposed
The Mine Safety Management Bill is intended to modernise workplace health and safety requirements for mining. The wider proposals also include environmental protection measures and digital management of mining activities. Together, the proposed changes address both the way projects are overseen and the protections that could apply to workers, landowners and communities affected by mining and quarrying.
No detailed bill text or specific implementation timetable was set out in the Cabinet announcement. It therefore remains unclear how the proposed provisions would define particular standards, what oversight arrangements might apply, or how any new system would be phased in. Those details would need to be assessed against the bills themselves when they are formally published and considered.
Further consultation comes before Parliament
Before the bills are tabled, a special consultation with the Bose Levu Vakaturaga, Fiji’s Great Council of Chiefs, is to be conducted through the Ministry of iTaukei Affairs. The stated sequence places that consultation ahead of parliamentary tabling. Cabinet has endorsed the review outcomes and the development of the two bills, but there has been no confirmation in the announcement that Parliament has received, debated or passed them.
The next step is therefore consultation rather than implementation. Any eventual legal change will depend on the formal parliamentary process, including the contents of the bills as tabled and the decisions made during their consideration. Until then, the proposed protections and regulatory arrangements remain intended reforms rather than settled legal rights or obligations.
For landowners and mining-affected communities, the proposals raise questions about how consent, compensation and benefit-sharing would work in practice. For operators and workers, the safety and oversight provisions may also matter. The consultation before tabling offers a further opportunity to consider the proposals, while Parliament’s subsequent scrutiny will determine whether and in what form the bills advance.
