Mining – India 1
1. CIL may hire merchant banker to advise on divestment 1
2. Coal India to devote 5 per cent net profit to CSR 2
3. Tribe's environmental fight 3
4. Coal mines and power plant give Navajos income, controversy 3
5. Miners’ strike may hit steel production 6
6. Amendment to Mines Act in winter session? 7
7. Violations are gross and serious in nature' 7
8. Will the Yeddyurappa government fall?’ 9
9. HCL gives shape to turnaround 10
Mining – International 11
10. Reintroduction of windfall tax won’t affect profitability of mines’ 11
11. Strikers at Chile Spence mine say to resume talks 13
12. Vizcaya officials unite against illegal mining 14
13. Rizal gov suspends temporary mining permits 15
14. AngloGold Cuts Full-Year Production Target After Mine Accident 15
15. MINING / ALL THAT GLITTERS WON'T ALWAYS BE GOLD 17
16. Lead-mining: the ugly truth about Mount Isa 18
Other News 22
17. India after Indira, 25 years on 22
18. Funds to NREGA in MP might stop if complaints continue: Joshi 24
19. Plug loopholes in NREGA: Rahul 25
20. Peeved forest-dwellers to stage rally 25
Mining – India
CIL may hire merchant banker to advise on divestment
Press Trust of India / New Delhi November 02, 2009, 15:01 IST
The country's largest coal miner, Coal India (CIL), is likely to appoint a merchant banker soon to advise it on the proposed disinvestment in the company.
The government may offload a maximum of 10 per cent of its stake in the state-run firm. Currently, its holdings in CIL stands at 100 per cent.
"CIL may appoint a merchant banker soon to advise it on the proposed disinvestment," a top coal ministry official said.
The coal major had recently held meetings with two such bankers who made their presentations.
The official, however, clarified that it should not be confused with an investment banker, which will be appointed after the disinvestment process in the company starts.
"The investment banker to oversee the stake sale process will be appointed by the Department of Disinvestment after the share sale in the company gets Cabinet nod," he added.
The CIL spokesperson could not be reached for comments.
The Coal Ministry and its PSU, Coal India, is in talks with the Department of Disinvestment to "fine tune" the draft on the proposed stake sale.
"We are in discussions with the Department of Disinvestment for fine tuning the proposal. The last meeting in this regard was held on October 16," another coal ministry official said.
Asked if the quantum of proposed disinvestment has been ascertained, the official said: "That will be discussed towards the end. As of now, we are working to comply with certain regulatory formalities which are necessary prior to the disinvestment."
It is learnt that the Department of Disinvestment had last month sought clarification from the Coal Ministry on the proposed disinvestment.
Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal had said that the government could offload a maximum of 10 per cent of its stake in CIL. The firm is not going to raise fresh equity.
However, according to a senior coal ministry official, the government may well sell 15 per cent stake in CIL on account of the proposed stock options to employees and compensation to be given to people from whom land is acquired for mining purposes.
In September, the Coal Ministry had approached the Disinvestment Department for determining the value of CIL shares ahead of the PSU's proposed disinvestment and also sought the Law Ministry's opinion on certain contents of the plan.
The company was given Navratna status last year and was asked to get listed before September 2011. But, industry observers anticipate listing to happen in an year's time.
The company has a paid-up equity capital of about Rs 6,316 crore. It clocked a pre-tax profit of Rs 8,738.46 crore in the last fiscal.
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/cil-may-hire-merchant-banker-to-advisedivestment/77352/on
Coal India to devote 5 per cent net profit to CSR
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STAFF WRITER 23:22 HRS IST
Kolkata, Nov 1 (PTI) Coal India Ltd (CIL) will devote five per cent of its net profit to fulfil its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Coal Minister said here today.
"CIL will provide 5 per cent of the net profit so that there is no scarcity of funds for CSR activities," Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said speaking at CIL's 34th foundation day celebrations here.
The company will support 100 BPL meritorious students selected through a nationwide selection process and provide them full financial support for higher education, he said.
"All these successful students will be offered a job in CIL," the minister added.
Meanwhile, the coal ministry has also proposed to fix minimum wage for contract workers in the coal mines.
Currently, there is no minimum wage for workers under contractors.
"We want that minimum wages for contract workers in mines should be higher than the state government's minimum wage," Jaiswal said.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/357914_Coal-India-to-devote-5-per-cent-net-profit-to-CSR
Tribe's environmental fight
Coal mines and power plant give Navajos income, controversy
by Dennis Wagner - Nov. 2, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
WINDOW ROCK - A green controversy fueled by coal-fired power plants is raging on America's largest Indian reservation.
On one side is Joe Shirley Jr., president of the Navajo Nation, who rejects the notion of climate change even though he recently won an international award for environmentalism. On the other are environmentalists opposed to power plants in Indian Country and to the coal mines that provide their fuel. Caught in the middle are tribal members concerned with economic survival and the protection of sacred lands.
The dispute centers on fundamental questions of religion and heritage, as well as tribal finances.
The Navajo Generating Station near Page, which uses coal from mines on Black Mesa, employs hundreds of tribal members and helps finance the tribal government. The Desert Rock Energy Project, proposed in western New Mexico, has been under consideration for years. The $3 billion plant would be fueled by coal from a new mine, bringing more jobs and revenue to the Navajos.
The Environmental Protection Agency wants the Navajo Generating Station to install costly air-scrubbing equipment, an expense the tribe and some Arizona utility companies say could lead to the plant's closure. Environmental groups, which have targeted the plant for years because of the emissions-related haze that builds up over the Grand Canyon, applaud the scrubbers.
Andy Bessler, Sierra Club regional representative in the Southwest, said coal-fired power plants account for about 30 to 40 percent of carbon emissions worldwide. The Navajo Generating Station, the nation's third-largest emitter of nitrogen oxides, spews 19.9 million tons of carbon emissions each year and uses 9.1 billion gallons of water - enough to fill Saguaro Lake twice with water left over. The nearby Four Corners Power Plant is the second-largest emitter of nitrogen oxides.
"If we want to take care of global warming, coal power plants are the low-hanging fruit," Bessler said. "We can't just continue with business as usual if we want to protect the planet."
But Shirley, who last week was suspended by the tribal council amid an unrelated Navajo power struggle, challenges the very theory of worldwide climate change.
"There's no signs that have told me it's a problem," he said. "There's a lot of people running around out there saying, 'The sky is going to fall down. It's going to be the end of the world.' I don't believe that. I don't know what global warming is about. . . . Maybe I'm blind, I don't know. Maybe I don't have the intelligence. But where are the signs?"
Shirley, whose father-in-law is a medicine man, acknowledged that some Navajo traditionalists recognize climate change as a threat and have joined tribal conservation groups such as Diné CARE in claiming he sold out Native heritage to big business. Those critics, he said, have been sucked in by environmentalist propaganda.
Last month, Shirley criticized the Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Trust and other green organizations for interfering with Navajo sovereignty and caring more about insects or fish than the lives of Native Americans. The rebuke was especially stunning from the leader of a tribe that has for years aligned itself with green groups in political causes.
Six months ago, Shirley accepted the Nuclear-Free Future Award in Norway for collaborating with environmental groups to fight uranium mines near the Grand Canyon. Shirley, a Christian, said he consulted with Navajo traditionalists before deciding that carbon-spewing power plants and open-pit coal mines do not damage the Earth.
But Tony Skrelunas, a Navajo who works as Native American program coordinator for the Grand Canyon Trust, expressed dismay that Shirley spoke of resources without emphasizing stewardship.
"Even sheep herders learn to protect land from overgrazing," he said, "and to do the right thing so rains will come. . . . The thing that I find shocking is that, as Navajos, we are taught that there are different monsters in creation that try to destroy us. I think one of those that is really rising up is climate change."
More than 1,500 United Nations climate scientists agree that Earth's temperature has begun to rise at a potentially disastrous rate, and that carbon emissions are the major cause. Skrelunas noted a study issued this spring by Jayne Belnap, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, which says global warming is expected to increase temperatures in the Four Corners area 10 degrees by 2100. Already, Belnap reports, drought has tripled the number of dust storms swirling from the high desert into the Colorado Rockies.
"I grew up on Big Mountain. We raised sheep," said Skrelunas. "It's massively different now. . . . Not as green. It doesn't rain anymore. There are lots of dust storms."
The Navajo reservation sprawls over portions of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, with an estimated population over 250,000.
Anna Frazier, coordinator for Diné CARE, said the mines and electric plants have wrecked the land, sucked springs dry and polluted skies. She said Shirley ignores those facts, trading heritage for short-term cash.
"He's ignoring the fundamental laws of the Navajo people," Frazier said. "Our traditions tell us we have to protect and preserve all living things."
Shirley said his priority is to help the Navajo people, who suffer from an unemployment rate over 50 percent, with average annual incomes under $15,000.
Environmentalists have exacerbated the financial woes, he added, forcing the closure of a tribal sawmill and helping to shut down another power plant - the Mohave Generating Station near Laughlin, Nev. - that received coal from Black Mesa.
"They came onto our land," Shirley said. "They didn't tell me, 'Here, Mr. President. Here are other green jobs.' They just shut us down, put more people into impoverishment. You want me to accept that?
"I'm working on independence, period," he said. "If it takes green jobs to get us back to standing on our own two feet, I'm for green jobs. If it takes Desert Rock or Navajo Generating Station . . . I'm for Desert Rock and Navajo Generating Station.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2009/11/02/20091102navajo1102.html
Miners’ strike may hit steel production
Our Bureau
Kolkata, Nov. 1 The production in public sector steel plants may be hit in the next few days due to poor availability of iron ore, according to a statement issued by the Steel Workers’ Federation of India.
The loading of iron ore in many mines supplying to PSU steel plants was affected for two days following a strike by workers at both mines and plants, demanding pay revision.
Successful strike
According to the statement, iron ore raising was badly hit in several mines located at Kiriburu, Bolani, Kalta and Roxy. Gua was already hit by a major breakdown. Production, however, was on at Dalli-Rajhara mine supplying ore to Bhilai Steel Plant.
The statement claims that the strike was successful at the SAIL plants located in Rourkela, Durgapur (both DSP and Alloy Steel plant) and Burnpur (IISCO). Bhilai Steel Plant however was unaffected.
Bokaro, Salem
The strike was partially successful at Bokaro steel plant and the Salem plant. No work was done in SAIL’s Central Marketing Organisation and various stockyards. Normal working at the offices of Metal Scrap Trading Corporation was also affected.
Vizag plant
The strike will be observed at Visakhapatnam steel plant on November 4, it is stated.
It is further claimed that despite opposition by the central leaderships of AITUC, INTUC and HMS to the strike, their supporters joined hands with the members of CITU to make the strike a success.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2009/11/02/stories/2009110251630300.htm
Amendment to Mines Act in winter session?
DNA
Monday, November 2, 2009 3:06 IST
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Mumbai: The government will table the proposed amendment to the Mines and Minerals
(Regulation and Development) Act, 1957 in the winter session of Parliament.
Sriprakash Jaiswal, minister of coal, statistics and programme implementation, said the proposed amendment is aimed at allowing private sector companies to participate in the auction of coal blocks.
The government is learnt to have identified as many as 216 coal blocks across the country for auction.
Of these, Coal India is learnt to have decided to retain 138 blocks and accordingly made a request to the ministry.
http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report_amendment-to-mines-act-in-winter-session_1305985
Violations are gross and serious in nature'
M B Maramkal, TNN 1 November 2009, 09:41pm IST
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MYSORE: Even as tourism minister G Janardhan Reddy on Saturday said the several managing directors of Obalapuram Mining Company (of
which he is one of the MDs) were looking into the notice sent by the Andhra Pradesh government over land encroachment, Anantapur district forest officer Kallol Biswas visited these mines on Saturday. He spoke to STOI later.
How will you proceed against the Reddy brothers, who are said to have violated rules related to mining activities and forests?
I am awaiting their reply to my notices. Monday is the deadline. Based on their reply, I will proceed further.
What if they fail to reply?
I will initiate punitive action against them, and I have the powers to halt their mining activities and initiate legal action, as violation of forest law is a grave offence.
What is the level of violation?
The violations are gross and serious in nature.
Do these violations warrant the arrest of mine owners?
It all depends on the laws of both the state and central governments in this regard. I will proceed according to law.
Why has the AP government suddenly acted on these violations which are said to have happened over a period of time?
It is not sudden. We have initiated action and issued notices on the basis of a report submitted by the mining department. It's through the report that we came to know of the forest laws violation.
What about reports that the AP government wants to cut to size the Kadapa -Bellary iron ore mining lobby?
That's not true. There is nothing of that sort. We are proceeding as per the law.
Is there any word from AP political bosses on dealing firmly with the Reddy brothers who are reportedly close to former AP CM the late Rajashekar Reddy's family?
There is absolutely no political pressure on us. No politician has directed me to issue notices to Janardhan Reddy-owned mines.
There was a report that you were attacked when inspecting his mines on Friday. Have you filed a police complaint?
No. Government servants have to follow various procedures to book a police complaint against people who prevent them from discharging their duties. I do not want to drag this issue as it is not only a trivial one, but happens to us when we discharge our duties faithfully.
toiblr.reporter@timesgroup.com
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hubli/Violations-are-gross-and-serious-in-nature/articleshow/5186699.cms
Will the Yeddyurappa government fall?’
Ravi S Joshi
First Published : 02 Nov 2009 05:06:49 AM IST
BANGALORE: One of the pitfalls of being in the newspaper business is the spot analyses that you are expected to dish out. Nobody lets you hedge your bets. The questions have to be answered in monosyllables: “Did Mr X accept that Rs 150 crore?” or “Are Ms Y and Mr Z having an affair?” This past week, I have been bombarded with just one question, from my sabziwallah to my neighbour: “Will this government fall?” So here is my take on the situation in Karnataka today.
Anybody looking for a sharp spot analysis need not read a column. Instead, look at a picture that The New Indian Express published last Saturday: Mr Y looking into the camera shaking a certain K Rosaiah’s hand. Rosaiah, an unwilling Andhra Chief Minister, seems to be firmly in the saddle now. Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party has been pushing him to stop mining activities by Obalapuram Mining Company, a firm owned by Gali Janardhan Reddy, the man in the thick of the battle with B S Yeddyurappa. Rosaiah, the YSR loyalist, transferred Y Srilakshmi, Secretary (mines), because she was considered too close to the mining barons of Karnataka.
The Reddy Brothers of Bellary were said to be chums of Y S Rajashekhara Reddy. After his tragic death, efforts were under way to install his son, Jaganmohan Reddy, as the CM. But the Congress high command (what the hell, let’s name names: Rahul Gandhi) wanted him in New Delhi. So, that option is ruled out. And it’s hurting the Reddy Brothers badly.
Mr Y on the other hand is going from strength to strength. After having delivered 19 MPs to the BJP’s kitty, he rules one of the handful of states that the saffron party has. And he looks pretty confident too: After transferring the Gadag DC and imposing a toll on mining trucks, he struck at the heart of the mining barons by transferring officials in Bellary. Do you think any CM would do that if he was not sure about his own moneyspinning powers, given that elections today are won solely on financial muscle? Arun Jaitley is backing Mr Y and Sushma Swaraj, the godmother of the Bellary Brothers, has too many problems of her own.
The BJP high command thus does not have too many options. It knows that any change in the leadership now will have devastating effect on its poll prospects.
Which brings us to the fringe players in Karnataka: the Congress and the JD(S).
The former is a no-man show and the latter a one-man show. Besides, in this hour of crisis — villages have to be shifted, houses have to be built, succour has to be provided, money has to be raised — it is better to sit back and criticize than to step in and execute.
And the role of the Governor? H R Bharadwaj is a veteran of politics and constitutional law. He knows that he does not need to step in right now.
I’ve tried to hedge my bets when answering the question.
But if you still want an answer to the question “will this government fall” in monosyllables: No.
m ravijoshi@epmltd.com
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=‘Will+the+Yeddyurappa+government+fall?’&artid=B0RHn4W/1MU=&SectionID=Qz/kHVp9tEs=&MainSectionID=Qz/kHVp9tEs=&SEO=&SectionName=UOaHCPTTmuP3XGzZRCAUTQ==
HCL gives shape to turnaround
2 Nov 2009, 0047 hrs IST, Rakhi Mazumdar, ET Bureau
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KOLKATA: Hindustan Copper (HCL), the country’s sole state-owned copper producer, has decided to set its house in order, following the Centre’s
recent decision to put the company on the divestment list.
While the HCL board is slated to firm up a divestment roadmap in the next two months, the company has earmarked on a 90-day strategy to fast track its turnaround plan.
Towards this, HCL will step up production at each of its three mining units — Ghatshila in Jharkhand, Khetri in Rajasthan and Malanjkhand in Madhya Pradesh. It will also intensify efforts to debug internal operations that have stifled production below target levels.
HCL, the country’s only integrated mines to metal copper producer, is 99.59% government-owned, with 0.41% of its stock listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
“We need to put our house in order before we approach the market to fund our expansion. It is a war-like situation. We are putting in place a string of initiatives to achieve a turnaround within the next three months. I will also closely monitor daily production,” HCL’s newly-appointed chairman and managing director Shakeel Ahmed told ET in his first media interaction after assuming the reins on October 29.
“Our operations at Khetri and Malanjkhand have been hit by acute water shortage. With no immediate solution in sight, we’ve decided to concentrate on mining rather than on refining and smelting, at least for the time being,” he added.
Thus, opening up closed mines, expediting outsourced mining and pursuing mining leases with various state governments would top his agenda.
Mr Ahmed, who has had a 34-year stint with the Indian Railways under his belt, is also betting big on HCL’s foray into premium, value added copper products to hedge its risks against a volatile and some what unpredictable global metals market.
“We want to enter into long term, 3-5 year contracts, with leading OEMs like the Railways and BHEL for instance, to leverage our risk averse nature of operations. We can also command a margin over and above the benchmark London Metal Exchange (LME) rates,” said Mr Ahmed.
For starters, HCL has already initiated talks with Research Design & Standards Organisation (RDSO) Lucknow to start ‘educative’ orders for supply of copper wires used to power trains, along electrified tracks. So far, the Railways have always imported these products since there were few good Indian suppliers.
The company is also keen to open up a dialogue with the MNC giants like General Electric (GE), EMD, etc, for supplying traction motors. Closer home, HCL has already started supplying rectangular conductors to Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW).
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/indl-goods-/-svs/steel/HCL-gives-shape-to-turnaround/articleshow/5187347.cms
Mining – International
Reintroduction of windfall tax won’t affect profitability of mines’
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Mon 02 Nov. 2009, 04:00 CAT [24 Reads, 0 Comment(s)]
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THE reintroduction of the windfall tax will not affect profitability of mining operations but only enable Zambians to share on supernormal profits, the parliamentary expanded committee on estimates has recommended.
And the committee has objected to the proposed increase in duty on diesel from the current seven to 10 per cent in 2010, while at the same time urging the government to clarify on how borrowed funds in next year's budget will be spent to ensure the funds go to economic activity.
At the height of the unprecedented increase in copper prices which reached almost US $9,000 per tonne towards late 2007, the government introduced the windfall tax to capture the 'abnormal profits being made by mining companies', a move which was disputed by all mining companies while it was fully supported in the country, especially among the urban elite.
The popular mining fiscal regime which aimed to rake unprecedented US $415 million from the mining sector in 2008 alone was, however, abolished this year and replaced with the variable profit tax, a move most analysts contended indicated the government had succumbed to pressure from foreign multinational companies.
Following the recent earlier than expected recovery in global economic recession which has seen copper price move from US $2,700 per tonne in December 2007 to the current levels of about US $6,500, most key stakeholders have resumed calls for reintroduction of the popular tax although finance minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane has remained adamant, arguing that “the government does not want to eat the cow before it starts producing milk.”
But most witnesses who appeared before the parliamentary expanded committee on estimates for the 2010 national budget argued that, with the current variable profit tax, Zambians would not be able to benefit from the high international copper prices induced by increasing global demand.
“Your committee recommended that the old tax regime which provided for the application of windfall tax beyond a certain threshold should be restored since, at its trigger point, the normal profit margin would have been provided for in case of both low and high cost mining operations,” submitted the committee chaired by Bweengwa UPND member of parliament Highvie Hamududu.
“Your committee wish to reemphasize that the payment of windfall tax would, therefore, not in any way affect the profitability of the mining operations but would merely serve to enable Zambian government to share in the super-normal profits that would be reaped by mining sector as a result of the high international copper prices.”
And the committee observed that the increasing duty on diesel currently when the country was grappling with the effects of the global economic recession would only lead to the escalation in costs of production and consequently, in prices of essential goods and services and also push the inflations levels and inhibit the country from achieving the set macroeconomic targets for next year.
“Your committee, therefore, seriously call for the deferment of this increase until the economy stabilises,” they submitted.
The committee also noted that while borrowing was prudent in view of the country's reduced earnings on the backdrop of the effects of the global economic crisis, it was important that such resources were channeled into productive sectors and activities.
“They witnesses note that it is not immediately clear from the 2010 budget proposals as to where the borrowed resources would be directed, and the risk of these resources being used for consumption expenditure is high,” observed the committee. “In such a case, the borrowing merely serves to push the interest rates upwards and crowd out the private sector who already have difficulties in accessing credit…”
http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=1249
Strikers at Chile Spence mine say to resume talks
Published: 01 Nov 2009 17:16:36 PST
SANTIAGO, Oct 31 - Striking workers at Chile's Spence copper mine said on Saturday they will resumegovernment-mediated talks with owner BHP Billiton on Monday, raising hopes of a possible resolution.
Production at Spence, which last year produced 165,000 tonnes of copper cathodes, has been cut to a minimum since miners laid down their tools 19 days ago.
Chile is the world's largest producer of copper, and the strike has added to supply concerns in globalmarkets.
"We hope the company will be open to making a new offer," said Andres Ramirez, president of the 560-member Spence union.
Mauro Valdes, spokesman with BHP Billiton in Chile, said he could not confirm a Monday meeting, but that the company is "always open to talks." He said BHP Billiton has not hired replacement workers during the strike.
The company earlier this month averted a walkout at its giant Escondida mine, the world's largest, with a generous wage and benefits offer that set the bar high for other contract talks in the industry.
Talks at Spence are seen as an indicator of negotiations set to begin at other mines in Chile this year and next, equivalent to one quarter of Chile's total annual copper output
http://news.alibaba.com/article/detail/metalworking/100193026-1-strikers-chile-spence-mine-say.html
Vizcaya officials unite against illegal mining
By CEASAR M. PERANTE
November 2, 2009, 6:18pm
BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya – The rising casualties in the illegal small-scale mining operations in the province has prompted provincial officials to cross party lines in an attempt to stamp out the practice.
Nueva Vizcaya provincial board member Patricio Dumlao Jr. criticized the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), the environment department and local officials in mineral-rich municipalities where there are rampant illegal small-scale mining for their failure to curb what he described as destructive mining ventures.
“If local officials in those areas are not illegal miners themselves or if they are not in cahoots with the operators, then it would be easy for them to hunt and stop all mining operations in their respective jurisdictions. Administrative charges can be filed against these officials for dereliction of duty,” warned Dumlao.
Nueva Vizcaya Vice Governor Jose Gambito Jr., who used to chair the provincial small-scale mining board, confirmed that no permits were issued to small-scale miners who operate in a mining area already under Financial Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA).
Gambito was referring to the Dinkidi Hill area in the upland town of Kasibu where OceanaGold Philippines Inc. was granted the rights by the national government to operate the Didipio gold-copper project under an FTAA.
The MGB says FTAA may be entered into between a contractor and the national government for the large-scale exploration, development and utilization of gold, copper, nickel, chromite, lead, zinc. The approval of applications is subject to qualifications and requirements set by the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 and other existing mineral policies of the Philippines.
Dumlao expressed fears that undocumented small-scale mining operations in the province may not only endanger the miners but also the entire community where they operate unregulated.
“Because they don’t have permits to operate, they are illegal and there are no records for the government to monitor their activities while technically evading tax obligations. How can we entice foreign investments into the country if we can not protect legal mining projects that pay substantial tax revenues to the government?” Dumlao asked.
Dumlao who hails from Nueva Vizcaya’s north district said using toxic mercury in extracting gold endangers not only the lives of people living in the area but the natural ecology as well.
He also mentioned the indiscriminate use of dynamite in mine tunnel excavation as extremely fatal to the miners based on reported blasting-related deaths recently.
During the recent Provincial Peace and Order Council meeting, Nueva Vizcaya Gov. Luisa Lloren Curesma ordered the local authorities to stop all illegal mining anywhere in the province.
“These must be stopped. We can’t just sit here waiting for another death or tragedy to happen. Besides most of these people are not Novo Vizcayanos and yet they exploit and ruin our natural resources,” said Cuaresma who now heads the provincial small-scale mining regulatory board.
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/227556/vizcaya-officials-unite-against-illegal-mining
Rizal gov suspends temporary mining permits
By MADELYNNE DOMINGUEZ
November 2, 2009, 5:54pm
Rizal Governor Casimiro “Jun” Ynares III suspended Monday all temporary mining permits following reports of rampant illegal mining operations in Rizal province that caused massive landslides during typhoon “Ondoy.”
Governor Ynares issued Executive Order ordering the Mines and Geo-Sciences Bureau, of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Provincial Mining Regulatory Board, Mines Rehabilitation Fund Committee, and Multi-Partite Monitoring Team to conduct spot survey and assessment to areas affected by typhoon Ondoy in Rizal province and address all concerns about mining and quarry operations.
“The unprecedented havoc and major devastations brought about by tropical storm Ondoy compelled me to suspend all mining operations and related activities, including quarrying and blasting through explosives for mineral extraction permitted by the provincial government,” said Governor Ynares.
The Rizal governor’s move is in response to a number or reports and complaints he received that many quarry operators are taking advantage of using their permits for site development.
Governor Ynares likewise instructed Rizal Provincial Director, Senior Superintendent Ireneo Dordas, to implement the order as soon as possible.
Prior to the cancellation of the permit of four quarry operators — Julius V. Moldes, Bhona Agoncillo, Roy Sungcuan, and Popoy Rodriguez — they were charged after they were caught in the act of illegally extracting minerals in Barangay San Jose, Rodriguez (formerly Montalban) on October 13, 2009
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/227534/rizal-gov-suspends-temporary-mining-permits
AngloGold Cuts Full-Year Production Target After Mine Accident
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By Carli Lourens
Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) -- AngloGold Ashanti Ltd., the world’s third-biggest producer of the metal, cut its 2009 production forecast for the second time this year after suspending output at the TauTona mine in South Africa.
The forecast was lowered to between 4.55 million and 4.6 million ounces, the Johannesburg-based company said in a statement today. AngloGold produced 1.187 million ounces in the third quarter, missing its guidance of 1.2 million ounces.
Lower production is hampering efforts to mitigate the effect of rising costs in South Africa, where wages have risen about 10 percent this year and electricity charges increased by an average 31 percent. AngloGold produces about 40 percent of its output in the country.
The suspension at TauTona will last about two months while the mine undergoes repairs and an examination of infrastructure after a length of steel fell down a shaft. Four workers died in the company’s mines in the third quarter, contributing to safety stoppages that cost 30 full and 18 partial production shifts.
“We’re obviously disappointed and working hard on the issue to ensure we improve our consistency,” Chief Executive Officer Mark Cutifani told reporters on a conference call.
AngloGold gained 2.60 rand, or 0.9 percent, to 292.50 rand as of 9:47 a.m. in Johannesburg, for a gain of 16 percent this year. The FTSE/JSE Africa Gold Mining Index has risen 6.6 percent in 2009.
Quarterly Loss
Costs in South Africa would rise by between 15 percent and 25 percent should state-run power monopoly Eskom Holdings Ltd. get permission to treble tariffs in the next three years, Cutifani said. That’s “not viable for the industry,” he said, adding it would affect production and employment.
AngloGold, Africa’s biggest gold producer, posted a third- quarter loss on the cost of reducing commitments to sell the metal below market prices. The loss was 8.3 billion rand ($1.05 billion) compared with net income of 2.3 billion rand in the preceding three months. South African gold analysts compare the previous quarter instead of the year-earlier period.
Cutifani has cut forward sales volumes by two-thirds to 4.3 million ounces since 2007, allowing the company to sell more gold at higher market prices. Forward sales committed the company to selling the metal at prices below current levels.
In July, AngloGold spent $797 million to cut forward sales by 1.4 million ounces. Committed ounces will decline to about 4.1 million by the end of the year, Cutifani said today.
Gold is set for a ninth consecutive annual gain, having risen to a record $1,070.80 an ounce on Oct. 14. The metal traded at an average $960 an ounce in the third quarter, a 4.1 percent increase from the preceding three months.
AngloGold reduced its full-year production forecast to as much as 4.8 million ounces in July from 5 million ounces previously.
To contact the reporters on this story: Carli Lourens in Johannesburg atclourens@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: November 2, 2009 03:04 EST
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=aDUS8fQGipz4
MINING / ALL THAT GLITTERS WON'T ALWAYS BE GOLD
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ANDY HOFFMAN
From Monday's Globe and MailPublished on Monday, Nov. 02, 2009 12:00AM ESTLast updated on Monday, Nov. 02, 2009 3:25AM EST
For a major gold producer, there's nothing sexier than a big growth profile. When a miner boasts about boosting production, it seems investors can't get enough. But sexy is also risky.
Take Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. With no less than five new gold mines in construction the Toronto company had been the pinup boy of the gold world. Aginco shares surged from less than $40 a piece in June, 2007, to more than $75 in September as investors anticipated a major rise in production.
Agnico said new mines in Finland, Mexico, Quebec and Nunavut would increase annual production to 1.4 million ounces by 2012 from 265,000 in 2008. That still may happen, but last week Agnico's plans hit a nasty speed bump when ramp-up issues contributed to a third-quarter loss. Costs at its Finland mine soared to $1,080 (U.S.) an ounce.
Shares tanked. But no one should have been surprised. Startup woes are a fact of life for new mines, and the Finland issues are likely temporary.
Who might be the next to stumble? Goldcorp Inc.'s Penasquito mine in Mexico has had a flawless ramp-up so far. If it wants to avoid shareholders' wrath, Goldcorp must keep defying the odds and bring the mine into production. An update is expected Wednesday when Goldcorp unveils third-quarter results.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/mining-all-that-glitters-wont-always-be-gold/article1347778/
Lead-mining: the ugly truth about Mount Isa
In the boom town next to Australia's biggest lead mine, mothers fear their children are being poisoned, reports Kathy Marks from Queensland
Monday, 2 November 2009
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The giant chimneys of Xstrata's lead mine surround the town.
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Daphne Hare moved to Mount Isa, a remote Queensland mining town, in 2002, hoping for a share of the good times. The town, situated next to Australia’s biggest lead mine and smelter, was booming, thanks to global demand for the metal, used mainly in car batteries. Ms Hare found a well-paid job at a busy pub, made friends and planned to stay.
Her infant daughter, Stella, did not thrive, though. She was constantly getting infections, and her weight see-sawed. When the Queensland health department announced a blood screening survey for under-fives, Ms Hare took her along. She discovered Stella had a blood lead level of 13 micrograms per decilitre (mcg/dl), well above the World Health Organisation limit of 10mcg/dl.
"You could have blown me off the chair with a feather," says Ms Hare. "I was in shock. I would wake up crying in the night." She was not the only Mount Isa parent to receive unpleasant news. More than one-tenth of children tested were found to have potentially unsafe levels of the toxic metal in their blood.
While the source seems likely to be the mine site, the mine's owners, the Anglo-Swiss giant Xstrata, deny responsibility. Instead, they point to exposed outcrops of naturally mineralised bedrock in the area – a stance backed by civic leaders, for whom lead represents the town's economic lifeblood, and by the Queensland government, which receives millions of dollars from Xstrata in taxes and royalties annually.
Daphne Hare takes a different view. After Stella's blood lead level rose to 17mcg/dl, she decided to sue Xstrata. Four other families have joined her, and others may follow. The lawsuit names not only the company, but also the state government and Mount Isa City Council, alleging that they knew years ago about the risks but failed to take steps to protect the community.
Those risks have been widely recognised for decades: young children, in particular, are susceptible to even small amounts of lead, which can cause brain damage and permanently reduce IQ. Largely eliminated from paint and petrol, lead no longer poses a significant danger – except to people living near industrial plants.
In China, a string of recent lead poisoning cases has sparked public anger. In Australia, decontamination work has been carried out in several towns where lead is mined and smelted. But in Mount Isa, Xstrata does not acknowledge a link between mining operations and children's health.
As a first-time visitor, it is hard not to be taken aback by the mine's position, right next to a residential area housing 23,000 people. Only a road and railway line divide the vast site – with its jumble of pylons, conveyors, crushing plants, pits and slagheaps – from homes, shops, motels, schools, sports fields and playgrounds. Suburban streets run a few hundred yards from chimneys belching out fumes around the clock. Directly opposite the smelters are a popular swimming pool and skateboard park.
From the air, too, the town – a scrabble of houses in a parched landscape – is dominated by three tall stacks thrusting skywards. Mining means everything here, and Mount Isa is a hard-bitten, macho place. It briefly achieved fame last year when the mayor, John Molony, urged "beauty-disadvantaged" women to move to find love in the town and redress its "five blokes for every woman" gender imbalance.
The families' lawyer, Damian Scattini, scoffs at the notion that the lead entering children's blood comes from "natural" sources. "It's ludicrous," he says, brandishing photographs of dust clouds drifting towards town from the mine site.
Many Mount Isans, who are fiercely protective of their jobs and prosperity, support Xstrata – which, like the other parties, is defending the legal action. Mayor Molony dismisses the litigant mothers as "just a few women chasing a quid". Most parents ignored the free blood screening programme, and of the 45 children above 10mcg/dl (a limit many scientists still consider too high), only 13 were brought back for follow-up tests.
Outside one primary school, Louise Armstrong shrugs at the mention of lead. "I didn't get my kids tested, but I know they're OK," she says. "I grew up here and I haven't got two heads, and neither has anyone else I know."
But while locals appear to be unconcerned, others have long been trying to ring alarm bells. Ted Prickett, the town's former chief environmental health officer, noticed deposits of lead around town as far back as 1986. An area was decontaminated; however, the council, fearing that "the matter may get out of hand and cause a panic", played down the problem.
Mr Prickett left town in 1995, and no further action was taken until 2006, when a senior manager with Queensland's Environmental Protection Agency, Tim Powe, resigned. Mr Powe, who accused the government of neglecting air quality in Mount Isa, says authorities were "scared to take on the company, because it was one of the largest employers in the state".
After he went public, there was a flurry of activity, culminating in the blood lead study. But the issue of blame was fudged. The state MP for Mount Isa, Betty Kiernan, declared: "The reality is that lead is literally part of the foundations of our community and we all have a responsibility to ensure we manage our exposure." John Piispanen, Queensland's Environmental Health Director, suggested children might be ingesting lead from home-made fishing sinkers.
Such notions infuriate Sharlene Body. Her four-year-old son, Sidney, had the highest reading of all: 31.5mcg/dl. But, having grown up in Mount Isa, she knows that to attack Xstrata is tantamount to treachery. "They say, 'don't bite the hand that feeds you.' But what if that hand is poisoning you too? Should we let our kids get sick just because they're providing the town with jobs and money?"
Ms Body adds: "We're supposed to just shut up and deal with it, but I want to get it out there, what Xstrata are doing. I want them to take responsibility, because we are going to have to live with what their irresponsibility has done to our kids."
Sharlene Seeto moved to Mount Isa in 2007. Her daughter, Bethany, now nearly four, had a blood lead level of 27.2mcg/dl; dust from the air-conditioning unit in her bedroom contained 30 times the maximum safe limit for lead. "She was breathing that in," says Ms Seeto, incredulous. Bethany has difficulty communicating and is 18 months behind her age group, her mother believes.
Xstrata, which also mines zinc, copper and silver, is Australia's biggest lead polluter: during 2007-08 its Mount Isa operations emitted 289 tonnes of the stuff. Scientists conclude that heavy metals in local soils come from smelter emissions and the enormous uncapped slagheaps. An eminent American professor of environmental toxicology, Russell Flegal, found higher concentrations of lead in the soils than in notoriously polluted mining towns in China and Romania.
The company defends its environmental record, pointing to its decontamination of the local river and a project to cut emissions. Fumes are carried away by prevailing winds for much of the year, according to Ed Turley, its environmental manager, and the smelters are shut down when necessary.
Mr Turley calls Xstrata's 15 air quality monitors "the most intensive monitoring system in Australia". But even within the company, there is disunity. Asked where the lead in children's blood is coming from, Gordon Teague, head of its Air Quality Control Centre, replies: "Airborne from the [mining] lease."
A follow-up study of young children is planned for 2012. Damian Scattini, the lawyer, comments: "More monitoring – what can that do? You can note that another generation has passed with brain damage. It's like saying we'll watch the road accident rather than doing something about it."
Mr Scattini criticises official advice to parents to minimise lead exposure by washing children's hands regularly. "Suppose this was asbestos and they were saying that really it's just a matter of using soap and a towel? If it was asbestos that was pouring into houses, what would people say?"
Brenda Oliver spent 18 months in Mount Isa in the 1990s. Her husband, Jeffrey, worked at the mine and Ms Oliver, who was pregnant with their son, Ryan, washed his overalls. Ryan, now 13, has learning difficulties and behavioural problems. She says: "I don't think I would have had him up there, knowing what I know now, and how hard it's been to raise him."
Daphne Hare worries about Stella's future. "Will she be able to have her own children or hold down a job?" she asks. "These are things we won't know until she's older, but there's not a day goes by when you don't think about it."
Sharlene Body says: "The lead's going to be in Sidney's system now, and I don't think he'll ever get rid of it. People say we're only doing this for the money. But I would rather he was healthy than all the money in the world."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/leadmining-the-ugly-truth-about-mount-isa-1813198.html
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India after Indira, 25 years on
Siddharth Varadarajan
She didn’t have time to learn from her mistakes. What’s our excuse?
Indira Gandhi was not responsible for the massacre of some 4,000 Sikhs in Delhi, Kanpur, Bokaro and other Indian cities which began on this day 25 years ago. But the fact that the influential culprits were able to get away with mass murder — and to get away with it in style, despite several changes of government at the Centre since then — is an indivisible part of the complex legacy she left behind.
A legacy of a strong nation unbroken by ‘fissiparous’ tendencies despite the dire predictions of foreign observers; a nation armed with nuclear weapons and missiles; a nation with the ability to assert an independent foreign policy and independent path of capitalist development, in the main, fully capable of holding its head high in the international community and world economic stage. But her bequest is also a nation with a democratic culture built on the proliferating quicksand of personalised, dynastic politics and money power, of weak and ineffective institutions easily subverted by the individuals carefully chosen to lead them. A nation where the rule of law is a plastic, contingent concept which rarely makes demands on those in authority.
Earlier this year, it took an act of individual caprice — the hurling, in desperate anger, of a shoe at the Home Minister — to effect a small but symbolic dent in the edifice of impunity that all Indians now take for granted. The Congress (Indira) finally decided not to allow Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler to contest the elections on a party ticket.
But even this concession came infected with a pathology caused by decades of valueless machine politics: one of the two tainted politicians was able to dictate that his brother replaces him as candidate.
What is it that allowed a local-level leader to wield such embarrassing influence on a national party? The Congress was not always like this. In a remarkably perceptive assessment of Indira Gandhi’s career as Prime Minister penned barely two years after death, Sudipta Kaviraj traced the decline of ideology and of a robust party apparatus within the Congress to the populistic transformation of party politics. That, in turn, was the product of Indira’s need to overwhelm established party interests, especially at the State level, with top-down campaigns centred around her own personality and the loyalty of a new breed of politicians who could use “resources” rather than “arguments” to deliver votes. “People who were pressed into political service were more in the nature of political contractors who were willing to go to any length to dragoon votes, systematically replacing discursive techniques with money and subtle forms of coercion. Thus, out of the logic of the technique Indira Gandhi brought in, Congress started becoming gradually depoliticised. Even earlier, people had regretted that arguments were being replaced by resources as the primary political asset; now the only arguments used were resources.” (‘Indira Gandhi and Indian Politics’, Economic and Political Weekly, September 20-27, 1986).
Political contractors
Kaviraj does not say so but when Indira Gandhi died, it was these ‘political contractors’ who got mobilised to deliver a headcount of a different kind. And they went about their task with great efficiency.
Their success, however, depended on another factor, which Indira’s India was particularly well-equipped to deliver: the willingness of the police and administration to turn a blind eye to the arson and murder which was taking place. The last essential ingredient in the production of the 1984 massacres was the ability to manage the aftermath by ensuring impunity for the guilty. A sitting judge of the Supreme Court, Ranganath Mishra, was handpicked to head a commission of inquiry which, predictably, found no systemic lapses and assigned no culpability to the ruling establishment. In the best tradition of suborned institutions, Mishra went on to become the first head of the National Human Rights Commission when it was set up and, later, a member of the Rajya Sabha. Proof of the commitment with which he went about his initial brief is provided by the fact that another commission established 15 years later managed to unearth far more details about the violence than he had.
Market economies need institutions in order to function in a stable, predictable and rational manner. Robust institutions function well regardless of the individuals in them; in India, everything hinges on the choice of the individual. Mishra delivered a vapid report but he did so with speed. Others labour for years to produce a similar outcome. When a rare individual like Justice Srikrishna produces a report which indicts the system, as he did in the case of the 1993 Bombay riots, the same system has a hundred ways of consigning his recommendations to the dustbin.
The reality
It is tempting to link this very Indian disregard for the norms of ‘bourgeois’ democracy to the residual pull of feudal impulses in our political and social life. But the reality is that the consolidation of capitalism and the growing power of industrial, trading and mining elites have not led to any emphasis on institution building. If anything, the situation might actually be getting worse.
Indeed, over time, the style of politics the Congress adopted during Indira Gandhi’s time has become the norm for virtually all parties, right down to the induction of sons, daughters, wives and brothers at every level of political power. With the growing salience of ‘resources’ in elections, it was only a matter of time before the alliance between party leaders, kinsmen and affluent regional elites got transformed into the rise of the Seriously Wealthy Politician — leaders like the late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and his son, Jaganmohan, Sharad Pawar and the BJP’s ‘Bellary Brothers’ in Karnataka.
‘Fissiparousness’, in the final analysis, even in the Punjab, was ended not by the security forces but by letting a hundred sons bloom.
And yet, it would be unfair to lay the blame for the current decline of politics and institutions and the rule of law entirely at the door of Indira Gandhi, even if the trend began with her. But the responsibility for fixing things lies with the present. Just as one sin, if unrepented, begets the next, 1984 led ineluctably to the 2002 massacre of Muslims in Gujarat. And there will be future killings too, unless the system is overhauled and impunity ended. Indira Gandhi made her mistakes — the Emergency, the opportunistic fomenting of religious extremism for electoral gains in Punjab — and some would argue she paid with her life for them. Had she lived, she might have chosen to chart a different course, though we owe the formal rise of dynasticism and the top-down politics of ‘nomination’ by supreme leaders and high commands to the last phase of her political career. Ironic, then, that the only politician today who seems to have grasped the corrosive nature of this aspect of her legacy is her grandson, Rahul Gandhi, with his emphasis on grass-root level elections in the Youth Congress — an organisation that, in the darkest days of the Emergency, was a metaphor for the worst possible values in politics.
http://www.hindu.com/2009/11/01/stories/2009110159740800.htm
Funds to NREGA in MP might stop if complaints continue: Joshi
Updated on Sunday, November 01, 2009, 20:29 ISTTags:NREGA, Madhya Pradesh
Satna: The Union Minister for Panchayat and Rural Development, C P Joshi on Sunday said that Centre had to stop sending funds to the state under National Employment Gurantee Act (NREGA) if complaints in its implementation continues.
Addressing a panchayat sammelan organised here by the Satna district Congress, Joshi said that as a minister it was his responsibility to ensure that there was no corruption in the implementation of NREGA.
He said that the purpose of NREGA was not merely to construct roads but also to ensure that people get some employment.
Below The Poverty Line lists would be prepared afresh so that well-off people were removed from them, he said.
Congress general Secretary, Digvijay Singh said that a lot still needed to be done for the all-round development of the state.
RTI should be used to expose the corruption being committed under BJP rule in the State, Singh said.
Congress MLA, Ajay Singh said that the induction of tainted ministers in the recent Cabinet reshuffle indicates that Chief Minister has lost the will to fight corruption.
Bureau Report
http://www.zeenews.com/news575294.html
Plug loopholes in NREGA: Rahul
30 Oct 2009, 0515 hrs IST, ET Bureau
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NEW DELHI: With special audits detecting serious deficiencies in implementation of the government’s flagship programme, Congress general
secretary Rahul Gandhi on Thursday articulated the need for plugging loopholes.
At a meeting of the Parliament’s consultative committee on rural development, Mr Gandhi questioned the claims of the department that programme was doing fairly well in Naxal-affected districts as compared to rest of the areas.
“Can you say it confidently,” he asked ministry officials, according to the members present in the meeting.
Mr Gandhi’s poser came when the ministry officials told the panel that its implementation was satisfactory in Naxal-affected districts as compared to rest of the areas of a particular state. Giving details, ministry secretary Reeta Sharma said government data available from 33 Naxal-affected areas showed that NREGA was doing fairly well. “We are relying on data provided by states,” she said when Mr Gandhi asked if any study has been done on the issue.
During the meeting, Mr Gandhi also sought to know whether the rise in prices of essential commodities have had any impact on NREGA workers, sources said. The ministry informed him that it has initiated a study to assess the impact of price rise on NREGA workers, they added.
A recent audit of the scheme in Bhilwara showed irregularities that went well beyond complaints of delayed and stalled payment of wages.
The audit collected were evidences to prove that jobs were routinely withheld by the panchayat staff, resulting in NREGA workers not being able to claim what they earned.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Plug-loopholes-in-NREGA-Rahul/articleshow/5178623.cms
Peeved forest-dwellers to stage rally
Express News Service
First Published : 02 Nov 2009 10:59:00 AM IST
BHUBANESWAR: Tribals and other forest-dwellers of the State will organise a rally here on Tuesday against violation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, by the State Government.
The tribals will protest against the police offensive in their areas and non-recognition of the powers of the gram sabha to protect and manage their community forest resources.
Criticising the State Government for ignoring the spirit of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, and concentrating only on distribution of pattas, Campaign for Survival and Dignity (CSD) State convenor Gopinath Majhi demanded banning of the joint forest management (JFM) and Vana Sangrakshan Samitis (VSSs).
JFMs and VSSs are dividing the tribals and working for their impoverishment, he said, adding that the CSD has launched a countrywide campaign for the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, in its totality.
The Centre has called a three-day meeting of the chief ministers, forest ministers and tribal welfare ministers of all states from November 4 to review the implementation of the Act. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had also reviewed the implementation of the Act at a high-level meeting here on Friday.
Out of the 3,04,509 individual claims filed at the Gram Sabha level, 55,000 individual forest land pattas have been distributed. The pattas have been distributed to only Scheduled Tribes and claims of other forest-dwellers have not been considered, he said.
There is also widespread resentment over the fact that there is a large gap in the amount of land claimed by the tribals and pattas distributed to them.
While the Act gives rights to the forest-dwellers over the forest recognising their claims for collecting minor forest produce, over water bodies and grazing, the State Government has ignored these issues, he said.
Besides, the Act totally disregards the present forest protection and management system through JFM (VSS) and empowered the village committee/gram sabha to protect forest, the State Government has taken no step on this.
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Peeved+forest-dwellers+to+stage+rally&artid=ivusIAsjlms=&SectionID=mvKkT3vj5ZA=&MainSectionID=fyV9T2jIa4A=&SectionName=nUFeEOBkuKw=&SEO=
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