BY MELVILLE TITIULU
The Magistrate’s court recently heard and dealt with cases involving gold theft, arising from illegal mining activities at the Gold Ridge mining company site.
Yesterday, there was a continuation of the trial into a matter involving a male and a female person accused of receiving plastics of gold ashes and bottles of gold ashes, knowing that the said property may have been obtained in a way and under circumstances which amounts to stealing. Both pleaded not guilty to the charge.
According to Police Prosecutor who is prosecuting the matter, Mr John Teuila, he confirmed that the principal offender in that case is currently serving his jail term at the Rove Correctional Centre.
Similarly, on 23 February this year, the magistrate court sentenced a 33-year-old man, Aron Loke, of Haimane village, Tina area, Central Guadalcanal in the Guadalcanal Province, to 3 years imprisonment for gaining entry into the Gold ridge mining storage facility and stealing eight bags of carbon gold, worth $28,000.00.
On August last year, the then Minister of Mines, Dereck Manu’ari told parliament that influx of illegal miners and panners who came in thousands are making dirty money of ‘estimated SBD210 million dollars per annum’ as estimated by the company (investor).
The defendant who was imprisoned last month comes from central Guadalcanal and is a member of the land-owning tribes.
The Principal Magistrate Felix Hollison, noted in its sentence ruling at paragraph 31, dated 23 February, 2026, that: ‘’the defendant in that case claimed that the carbon gold that was stolen contained a mixture of minerals, including gold. Which suggests the company may have taken those minerals (apart from the gold) without paying the land-owning groups the appropriate payment they might be entitled to. That is to say that the agreement was only meant for gold but not the other minerals’’.
The complainant in that case, is the Gold Ridge Mining Limited.
The Gold Ridge landowners through their investment arm, Gold ridge Communities Investment Ltd (GCIL), holds a 10 percent stake in shares in the Gold Ridge Mining Limited.
Central Guadalcanal MP Peter Shanel Agovaka, whilst debating the issue of influx of illegal mining in Parliament, alleged that it was the company who created all of these problems. “No royalties, no rental dues, no regular payments. If they had played their part, we wouldn’t see people risking their lives in the pits today,” he told parliament on August last year.
Defence Counsel Mr Wally Hatingongo, during the sentencing hearing for Mr Loke, made mitigating submissions to the effect that the disgruntled landowners disagreed with the Company for breaching agreement signed between them.
The courts would normally take a deterrent approach in safeguarding the interest and safety of investors when conducting their business operations in the country.
Offenders are subject to harsh punishment especially when factors such as economic loss and breach of trust in cases of disgruntle landowners caught up in theft related offenses are weighed in as aggravating features in sentencing as seen in the case of Mr Loke.
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