• UPDATED | Yayasan Sabah's joint venture partner is Aura Avenue Sdn Bhd and not Syarikat Sebangun Sdn Bhd as stated earlier. We regret the error.

A coalition of environmental groups is raising alarm that work has started on a silica mining project on Pulau Balambangan off Kudat, even though no environmental impact assessment (EIA) has been submitted.

In a letter to the Environment Protection Department last week, the coalition said piling work has begun while structures have been put up in the peninsular of the island, deemed “very important in geoheritage conservation”.

Besides biodiversity, the island is also the site of World War II artefacts...