Axiom Mining chief Ryan Mount warned of China land grab in Solomon Islands

The Australian owner of a Solomons nickel mine warned the Morrison government three years ago the country’s PM was trying to hand its lease to a Chinese rival.

Axiom Mining chief executive Ryan Mount says he was sidelined when he warned the Morrison government about China in the Solomons.

The Australian owner of a Solomon Islands nickel mine warned the Morrison government three years ago that the country’s Prime Minister was trying to hand its mining lease to a Chinese rival, offering Beijing access to a strategic deepwater port 1700km from Cairns.

Axiom Mining chief executive Ryan Mount said he was sidelined when he told Australian ­officials, including then-minister for the Pacific Alex Hawke, that the Sogavare government had demanded bribes and tried to force his company out of business when it refused to pay. When Scott Morrison visited Solomon Islands in June 2019 to cement his “Pacific Step-up”, Axiom Mining was one of the biggest Australian companies operating in the country, with about 8000 Australian shareholders and $50m invested in its Isabel Province nickel mine.

But the Prime Minister ­declined to visit Axiom’s office and Mr Mount was denied an ­invitation to Mr Morrison’s official cocktail party at the Australian high commission.

“In Solomons we were considered a prominent company, with Australian and local landowner shareholders,” Mr Mount told The Australian. “But we felt they were sidelining us, which didn’t help our case with the Solomons government.”

The revelations come amid a federal election campaign dominated by the fallout from the ­Sogavare government’s security pact with China, and Labor claims that the Morrison government should have averted the deal which could open the way for a Chinese military base.

Mr Mount said he struggled to get a ministerial audience in Australia to relay his concerns about the Sogavare government’s treatment of his company, and its preferential treatment of Chinese interests. On a trip to Australia in early 2019, after being repeatedly rebuffed, Mr Mount secured a meeting with Mr Hawke with the help of Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Peter Jennings.

The veteran miner, who is now operating a tin mine in Brazil, said he told Mr Hawke: “We have a big problem. We are being denied due process for our export permits to ship our stockpiled ore and we are being squeezed for bribes by ­Sogavare government officials.’’

Mr Mount said he asked Mr Hawke for “greater strategic oversight” of the Australian high commission in Solomon Islands, but failed to secure help from the minister.

“Hawke was upset with my ­approach. He wanted us to accept this absurd situation and just keep quiet,” Mr Mount said.

Mr Jennings, who attended the meeting, said Mr Mount made a convincing case to Mr Hawke.

“ (Mr Mount) was and is a credible person with direct experience of what was going on on the ground, very well connected across the breadth of Solomons politics, and knows a wide range of people across the Solomon ­Islands bureaucracy, and I think he should have been listened to,” the ASPI boss said.

Axiom has since been forced out of the Solomon Islands after being denied a permit to export nickel ore from its lease on the country’s San Jorge Island.

Axiom’s lease offers access to San Jorge Island’s Thousand Ships Bay – named by Spanish ­explorers in 1568 because it was big enough to accommodate the Spanish Armada – which was the subject of an August 2020 Chinese bid revealed by Sky News to develop “naval and infrastructure projects on leased land for the People’s Liberation Army”.

Chinese company Bintan – which was responsible for a devastating February 2019 oil spill cleaned up at Australian taxpayers’ expense – has been awarded mineral rights to a tenement ­adjacent to Axiom’s, with the full support of the Sogavare government.

In an August 2019 email to then-Australian high commissioner Rodrick Brazier, obtained by The Australian, Mr Mount warned the Sogavare government was attempting to cancel Axiom’s mining lease after it refused to pay bribes to some of Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare’s closest associates, including controversial Fijian lawyer Julian Moti.

“You will recall … Julian Moti spent much time pursuing Axiom to deliver them substantial bribes and conveyed that if we do not then they will refuse us access to the licences for development and provide interference,” he said in the August 2, 2019 email.

Mr Mount told Mr Brazier the Mining Minister, Bradley Tovosia, was working “to persuade the San Jorge landowners to revoke their signatures for our surface ­access agreement and this will be the basis for the minister to cancel Axiom’s mining lease” in favour of Hong Kong-registered Bintan Mining.

In February of that year, ­Bintan was responsible for a devastating oil spill near a World Heritage site, which the Morrison government agreed to clean up at Australian taxpayers’ expense.

Bintan’s bulk bauxite carrier, Solomon Trader, ran aground during a cyclone, spilling 100 tonnes of heavy fuel oil into Kangava Bay. Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne pledged Australian help to clean up the spill, while Bintan was never held accountable.

Mr Mount said: “At the very same time the Australian government was cleaning up Bintan’s mess, Bintan embarked on an aggressive campaign against Axiom in an ­attempt to turn the local communities against Australian-owned Axiom in an attempt to seize Axiom’s tenements.”

The Australian sought comment from Senator Payne and Mr Hawke but received no response.

A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman said Australian officials engaged with Solomon Islands counterparts on Axiom’s behalf at least 21 times.

She said former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, former foreign minister Julie Bishop, Senator Payne and Mr Morrison “each raised Axiom with their counterparts”.

“Australian Government officials at all times encouraged Mr Mount to provide any relevant evidence to the Solomon Islands government of Axiom’s concerns,” the spokeswoman said.

Since signing the security pact with Beijing earlier this month, Mr Sogavare has insisted there will be no Chinese bases in the country. But Australia and US ­officials remain sceptical.