Felda Bukit Goh has 671 settlers. While some continued their oil palm plantations, 402 settlers could no longer toil their land after mining was halted by a moratorium imposed by the government in 2016 before it was extended on nine occasions and withdrawn on March 31, 2019, but to date, there is still no signs that mining works would resume.

The temporary ban was following unregulated mining which resulted in environmental impact, including contaminated water sources.

Some 800,000 tonnes of bauxite were heaped at several stockpiles around Felda Bukit Goh and many areas had not been excavated.

Meanwhile, Pertubuhan Gagasan Dua Generasi, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Bukit Goh, chairman Jefri Salim said the decision to reject the EIA is nothing new as the reports were previously rejected on previous occasions.

"Until March last year, three EIA reports were rejected so the settlers plan to move on to solar farming. Several proposals were on the table but we need to sit with the Pahang government to discuss further.

"If solar farming is allowed, the settlers will receive a fixed monthly income and their lands will be leased to the respective company. At this moment, most of the settlers are against the idea of returning to plant oil palm on the existing bauxite sites," he said when contacted.

It is learnt that BG Mining Sdn Bhd was appointed to undertake the mining works at Felda Bukit Goh by the Pahang State Development Corporation(PKNP) in 2021 but the EIA reports were never approved.

Meanwhile, second generation Felda settler Ros Asmawi Abdul Latif, 43, said most of the settlers were prepared to participate in the proposed solar project and hoped the state government would give their approval soon.

"Bauxite mining is promising but it will never happen so let us venture into something else. It has been almost eight years since the mining moratorium was issued and we are still waiting for the day to hear some good news(4.5ha plot of land to generate income)," he said.

New Straits Times had previously reported on the settlers who have grown tired of waiting for bauxite mining activities and were prepared to lease their lands for a large-scale solar farming project.