“With oil prices on the rise, coal consumption growing in China and the US, and catastrophic storms alerting us to the danges of climate change, our future is once again bound up with the fate of coal”. “Coal: A Human History” by Barbara Freese, William Heinemann, 2003.

“As these challenges suggest, we are all fated to live in the most interesting of times, for now we are the weather makers, and the future of biodiversity and civilisation hangs on our actions”. “We Are The Weather Makers: The Story Of Global Warming’ by Tim Flannery, Text Publishing, 2006.

“The laws of energy under which men live furnish an intellectual foundation for sociology and economics, and make crystal clear some of the chief causes of failure not only of our own but, I think also, of every preceding great civilisation”. Frederick Soddy, Nobel Chemistry Prize winner, 1921.

If Aotearoa/New Zealand still has a frontier to some extent it is the West Coast of the South Island. At various stages, seals, gold, coal, and timber were vigorously exploited from the days of early European colonisation. An earlier era saw the demise of the moa and other birds at the hands of the Maori, as well as the extraction of pounamu or greenstone.The West Coast has long been an important region for raw resource utilisation, with even offshore hoki stocks under mounting pressure today. Its experience points up some of the greatest problems on the global scene. In the early 21^st Century, the minerals of the Coast represent a renewed source of attraction in the latest wave of capitalist commodity globalisation, confronting us all with critical challenges in an age of aggressive competition for the world’s remaining natural resources – an age when environmental problems are getting worse, above all the looming threat of global warming.

Throughout 2006/7, there have been newspaper headlines proclaiming that: “The Reefton Gold Rush is on again” (Marlborough Express, 12/12/06); “Reefton’s New Gold Rush” (Press, 4/4/07); and more generally, “a new South Island gold rush, of sorts” (Press, 30/4/07). Besides the glamour of gold, there is a potentially very far-reaching range of mineral developments under way - on the West Coast perhaps in particular, but also on the wider NZ scene. This development is closely connected with the expansion and concentration of other capitalist enterprise. The international commodity boom and accompanying search for exploitable mineral and metal resources, bedrock of our industrial civilization, is digging deeper and deeper into Aotearoa/NZ. We urgently need to assess what these enterprises are likely to mean, both in terms of foreign control and sustainable livelihoods in order to respond appropriately. Some young environmental activists campaigning on the Coast are already challenging the nation on its vision for the future (see Watchdog 112, August 2006, “Stripping Aotearoa Tonne By Tonne: A Critique Of Solid Energy‘s Coal Mining In Buller”, by Frances Mountier, which can be read online at http://www.converge.org.nz/watchdog/12/06.htm Ed.). This article looks at several major new mining projects in examining the issues we face.

Globalising The Coast

In recent years, the sharp rise in commodity prices has been especially evident in minerals, much of it driven by the industrialisation of the vastly populous countries of China and India. Oil, of course, has been of great global concern. The imperial Anglo-Saxon axis of the US and the UK is fiercely involved in trying to secure the fossil energy resources of the Middle East and Central Asia, particularly against competitors Russia and China among others, and even including European semi-allied rivals such as France. Indeed, the “brave new world” of the resource war is focused in this crucial regional arc. At the same time, junior imperial partner Australia is - at least in conventional terms - reaping enormous gains from mining operations on its own soil and elsewhere. Australia, unlike that even more junior imperial partner NZ, is very rich in valuable export minerals, eminently benefiting the giant transnational corporations (TNCs) which rule the field. However, Aotearoa/NZ is of increasing interest to the big players of the international mining industry.

In an interesting historical overview of NZ’s West Coast published in 2005, Anna Rogers signposted in summary form some of the mineral enterprises starting up this century. “In 2000, the Greymouth Coal Company, a joint venture between Solid Energy and Todd Energy, opened an underground mine at Spring Creek; and further major expansion is planned at Pike River. By August 2004, more than 1.5 million tones of Stockton coal were leaving NZ for foreign ports to be used mainly in Asian steel mills and in coke-making. The mine was employing 130 people and six coal trains were constantly running between the Coast and Lyttelton. By April 2005, a resurgent Greymouth was expecting to export more than 3.6 million tones of coal a year by 2010” (“Illustrated History of the West Coast”, Reed Books, p152). Rogers went on to note how at Reefton, GRD MacRaes had been mining in the 1990s and in 2005 had plans to develop the area’s historic Globe Progress Mine (now owned by GRD’s spin-off, the TNC OceanaGold). As she well commented, the Coast is now facing “its old dilemma” of the trade-off between jobs and the land, given the “severe mining effects”(ibid., p153).

Putting things in context from a longer time perspective, Rogers had previously cited historian Tom Brooking’s assessment that in the 19^th Century gold had been critical to the economic growth of NZ with widespread participation in the resulting boom, especially for a decade or so (ibid.,p59; see Brooking’s “Milestones: Turning Points In New Zealand History”, Mills Publications, 1988, p76). In 2007, however, the latest phase of rampant globalisation portends far more eventual costs than benefits. Corporate globalisation is essentially the process of expanding TNC control of the world’s resources. For the Western bloc of nations, its platform has been the traditional and ongoing interlinkage of imperial exploitation, industrialisation and technological development. The 21^st Century witnesses an overwhelming TNC dominance in planetary mineral exploitation.

Corporate Connections: The Case Of Pike River And NZOG

In 2007, the big venture at Pike River on top of the Paparoa mountain range – mentioned as a prospect by Rogers - is in the full train of implementation. Previously in the year, Pike River Coal (PRC) boldly advertised in a brochure that: “A resource the world wants – is an investment you need”. This brochure was an invitation to invest in shares in PRC as NZ’s only local listed mining company. So on a planet subject to increasingly dangerous human-induced global warming, the maxim of “Think global, act local” has been given a new entrepreneurial twist. The sales pitch declared that: “Fuelled by economic growth, there is strong international demand for hard coking coal for steel production”. PRC is seizing the opportunity to supply the premium coal to which it now has officially sanctioned right of access. The firm’s brochure was aimed to generate applications for shares with an Initial Public Offer (IPO) opening on June 8^th, 2007 and closing July 10^th. Pike River Coal is a finalist in the 2007 Roger Award. See the full list of finalists elsewhere in this issue. Ed.

First stage of development had seen $65 million put into the project by PRC’s parent company NZ Oil & Gas Limited (NZOG) and two Indian corporate investors, Saurashtra Fuels and Gujarat NRE Coke, which have deals to buy the coal for the production of coke and steel. Together, the two Indian firms are committed to about 55% of the coal for the life of the mine. Saurashtra is India’s largest privately owned coke manufacturer. The oversubscribed IPO was welcomed on PRC’s Website with the observation (18/0707) that there had been: “significant institutional and private client support from NZ, Australia and other offshore investors. Many investors had commented on how good it was to be associated with a capital raising that was going to add significant economic growth to the West Coast and provide NZ export earnings for many years” (www.pike.co.nz). Corporates, coal and growth present a green challenge that will certainly test the human future, whether in NZ, Australia, India, China, the US, or more generally, the world. Globalisation has induced potentially catastrophic climate change and seems locked on course to acutely inflame the crisis.

NZOG is a Wellington-based company listed on both the NZ and Australian Stock Exchanges. As its name suggests, NZOG is mainly focused on the exploitation of oil and gas and has concentrated its activities in the Taranaki Basin. On its Website in August 2007(www.nzog.com), NZOG declared that while many of its 11,600 shareholders were individual investors, institutional shareholders now held 14% of the company. NZOG’s assets are principally projects in the Kupe gas and oil field (15% stake) and the Tui oil field (12.5% stake). The corporate is linked with joint venture partners in developing Kupe, one of the only two substantial new gasfields on stream to meet “looming gas shortages in NZ”. These partners include Australian-owned and registered Origin Energy (50%) and NZ State Owned Enterprise (SOE) Genesis Power Ltd. (31%), with a large part of the gas committed to the latter’s power stations. Genesis is the largest energy retailer in NZ.

NZOG bills the Tui project as the “first stand-alone offshore oil development in NZ” and this is being fast-tracked into production. Its partners in this field include Mitsui E&PNZ (35%), which also has a small slice of Kupe (4%), and Australian Worldwide Exploration (AWENZ) with a 20% share. Mitsui participates with AWE in many other projects in the Oceania region. Returns from Tui started rolling in by mid-2007 and are scheduled from Kupe for 2009. As well, NZOG is engaged in exploring other prospects in the Taranaki Basin. It has several wholly owned subsidiary companies, including ANZ Resources Pty Ltd., Australia and NZ Petroleum Ltd., and Oil Holdings Ltd.

Clearly NZOG is a pivotal player on the NZ energy scene. Its role will be important in various ways. In a newspaper interview, recently appointed NZOG Chief Executive David Salisbury has commented that “there is still lots of potential in NZ, with relatively little exploration” (Press, 16/5/07). As already noted, PRC is partly owned by NZOG although obviously the oil and gas parent firm is the main driver of this particular enterprise. The interview report noted that: “The problem child for NZOG is the West Coast coal mining company Pike River”(ibid.). In mid-2007, NZOG held 61% of PRC but said that if its IPO were well subscribed then it would be selling its stake down. This has in fact happened and the parent company now owns 31% of its original subsidiary. Following the IPO, Saurashtra Fuels has not yet used its option to lift its stake in Pike River Coal to 25% as sanctioned by the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) in April 2007 (Press, 6/6/07). It continues to own about 10% while Gujarat has an 11% stake. But foreign control of Pike River is already pretty well in effect. The project was given the green light by the Government but has elicited concerns in certain quarters.

Coal And Collateral Fallout: Hotting Up The Climate

The question of coal - and more widely that of fossil fuels - for the future of humankind has sparked some attention to mining activities on the West Coast. The Save Happy Valley Coalition’s campaign to rescue rare Powelliphanta Augustus snails from Solid Energy’s coal mining operations on the Stockton ridge has helped highlight this group’s wider aim of stopping the mining of coal in NZ altogether (e.g. Press, 30/4/07 & 15/5/07). To be sure, a new associated group has sprung up with this very expressed purpose – the Coal Action Network (CAN), and CAN is specifically targeting the PRC and its large underground mine.

Doubts about the project’s feasibility were raised publicly in mid-2007 by a consultant on the mine (from 2000 to 2004) to the Department of Conservation (D0C), the site’s landowner (Press, 29/5/07). Murray Cave, an experienced geologist with Western Exploration, had advised D0C “as part of resource consent and access issues, particularly acid mine drainage”(ibid.). Cave sounded a warning at the time of PRC’s IPO. He feels that the project is rather a risky venture, although he wishes the company well. His expressed concerns include the risk of environmental damage from subsidence and “acid mine drainage”. Among his other concerns are the presence of an active fault and the danger of gas explosions (“outbursts”). The Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society strenuously contested the company’s technical data in submissions at hearings before the Environment Court on the project. The first stage of the Pike River development scheme has been tunneling a 2.3 km drive to open the Brunner Coal seam but this has proved harder than anticipated.

Mr Cave’s comments have shed some light into some of the murkier geological corners of the Pike River venture. The company’s IPO float came in for flak on other grounds too. Bruce McKay, a financial commentator for the Press and a director of investment bank Saffron Capital, pointed out that prospective investors were not able to assess the financial impact of the gross profit margin “or the limited production targets in the prospectus because there were no forecasts, apart from the very limited cash flow forecasts required by the Securities Act” (Press, 6/6/07). Owing to a regional case of globalisation, PRC could have its prospectus registered in Australia and so Australian rules prevailed. These rules restrict financial projections on the grounds that such projections might be wrong. The problem with this is that the information given out can be very vague. McKay said that “because of the rules under which the prospectus has been prepared, there is no guidance for investors as to what sort of bottom line the company may produce” (ibid.). What the figures mean “in terms of dividend yield and earnings is anyone’s guess” (ibid.). In McKay’s opinion, investment in PRC really depends on estimating the likely long-term exchange rate.

Strongest criticism of the IPO came from the Green Party, which has been standing staunch on coal and global warming. As Co-Leader Jeanette Fitzsimons declared in a media release (2/8/07), NZ’s energy emissions today are nearly 50% higher than in 1990. The Green Party, among other things, called for a moratorium on new coal mines. Fitzsimons remarked that methane emissions from coal mining contribute significantly to our greenhouse gas releases and indicated how hypocritical it was for NZ to develop the Pike River and Spring Creek mines for coal exports. We would suffer the ultimate effects anyway. Earlier, the Greens had challenged PRC’s IPO by laying complaints with the Advertising Standards Complaints Board, Securities Commission, and Commerce Commission (Greymouth Star, 3/7/07). At one point, Fitzsimons claimed the Party’s challenge had caused the mining company to back down over its IPO information and acknowledge, to some degree anyway, its liabilities for methane emissions (media release, 9/7/07). Coming under fire, the firm had evidently felt obliged to advise the Stock Exchange and potential investors about how it would address these liabilities although the Greens still strongly questioned the adequacy of what it imparted. While PRC denied misleading potential investors in its IPO, the Greens have provoked public recognition by a coal company of a vital new accounting dimension. The company’s widely distributed brochure claimed the operation had “low environmental impact” and even “minimal environment impact”.

Politico-Economics And Mineral Movements

It seems that real debate over the Pike River project, and more generally fossil fuels and their fallout, is just starting to get under way, if at all yet. It is very unfortunate that the Labour Government is so profoundly compromised and confused in its energy policies. Ever since the first wake-up call, the oil shock of the early 1970s, the record of NZ governments on energy and alternatives to fossil fuels has been abysmal. If key environmentalist criticisms and alternative proposals to “Think Big” had been heeded and implemented at the time, then Aotearoa/NZ would be in a far better position today to weather the storms ahead. Rhetorical posturing and tokenism aside, it is still essentially business as usual. If Labour is Big Business-friendly, it is likely that an even more corporatised Government under National will be returned in the 2008 election. The outlook on the horizon is thus pretty bleak. We desperately need a high pressure movement for sustainable and renewable energy. The former Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Dr Morgan Williams, has called for such a new energy system, replacing gas and coal-fired power stations (Press, 1/9/07 & 25/7/06).

The future of some of our national parks is looking rather foggy given the minerals in prospect. PRC, for instance, claims that it will have “a very small footprint on the land” but CAN and others, as we have seen, are contesting this. The company is already preparing to mine coal beneath native forest adjacent to Paparoa National Park and has applied for a further permit to mine beneath the park. CAN held a protest on the issue when World Heritage Committee delegates visited Greymouth in July 2007 (Greymouth Star, 3/7/07). Spokesperson Alex Winter-Billington said that CAN is concerned about the mine’s intrusion into the park with all the associated risks of subsidence, fires and acid drainage. Geologist Murray Cave has remarked that mining investments on the West Coast are “generally risky”, and that the “tonnages of coal Pike River is anticipating” are unprecedented, raising the level of risk for this particular project (The Press, op. cit.).

Even transporting Pike River’s coal has major environmental implications. The original proposal was to truck the coal through Greymouth to its port. “Pike River Co. wants to move a truck every three minutes to get 1.3 million tones of coal a year to the Greymouth port” (Press, 29/5/07). The Environment Court ruled that this was okay but placed a condition for a community group to be established in order to monitor the coal trucking down the Grey Valley. This trucking operation was to be directly connected to the expansion and upgrading of the port. In fact, the Pike River project was praised as throwing a lifeline to the debt-ridden port just in time. PRC coal was to be transported by boat from the port to Port Taranaki for export overseas. Locally, this was very much seen as a “win-win” situation: “A billion dollar deal that links Port Westland and Port Taranaki is Great News for the West Coast economy. . . [a] deal with Pike River Coal Mine that can only bring good things for Greymouth and by extension, the rest of the West Coast” (Bulletmag, August 2007, p11). Capital costs for the port development were to be recovered eventually from PRC.

Both ports, along with other partners, were joined in the West Coast Coal Company Ltd. consortium. The whole shebang was promoted as a way of boosting coastal shipping in general, with the potential warmly welcomed for jobs in mining, construction, etc. There was even an environmental spin in that shipping was being promoted as a far more benign form of transport than trucking and rail. The new port/shipping consortium was investigating options like replacing the Indonesian coal imported for the Huntly power station with West Coast coal, or ferrying some of the Coast’s huge aggregate resources to the North Island. It was looking at doing the same for timber and dairy products (Press, 27/3/07). Yet to touch on the irony of transport again, trucking is much the worst form and getting the coal from Pike River to Greymouth, 46 km away, would be very trucking-intensive. PRC hopes to start coal production by late in the March quarter of 2008. At present, it is in the red.

But the deal with Pike River Coal intended to relaunch the port of Greymouth ended up a wreck. In November 2007 it was announced instead that Solid Energy will now rail Pike River Coal to Lyttelton, the port of Christchurch. Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn said the deal "had been ruined by the might of Solid Energy and rail operator Toll Holdings" (Press, 28/11/07) and he was very gloomy about any future at all for the port of Greymouth.

Global Reach

The Pike River enterprise illustrates many of the conflicts and contradictions we face in trying to move to a more sustainable way of life. Unless governmental processes set the scene for proper full, open, and ongoing democratic discussion and debate on all the issues that are implicated in our use of energy sources there is a growing risk that NZ will become deeply conflicted along a range of divides. Both Labour and National have collaborated to date in systematically suppressing discussion and debate on free trade and its implications, something that the TNC-dominated mainstream media has been only too willing to endorse for the most part. The intimately related question of increasing foreign control and all its ramifications is of course similarly marginalised or even given a positive spin by the same foreign-owned media.

Commodity-oriented TNCs are reaching into the West Coast and elsewhere in Aotearoa/NZ, and foreign control threatens to further erode what little real democratic choice we have left. TNCs can simply take over existing enterprises or gain greater influence in a multitude of other ways. The Labour Government is an egregious facilitative agent of this process. Cargill’s advent in a deal with SOE Solid Energy at Spring Creek is a very disturbing move. As the world’s largest private commodity trading company, Cargill has accumulated a notorious reputation for capitalist exploitation. Since its beginnings in the US in 1865 after the American Civil War, Cargill has had an interest in coal. This giant corporate is prominent in the food, agriculture and energy sectors. A former Cargill executive wrote the original US proposal on agricultural free trade for the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1980s & 90s Uruguay Round agenda as promoted by the US and its NZ protégé, former Labour Prime Minister, Mike Moore. On completion of the Round, the GATT transformed itself into the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and Moore went on to head this organisation for a period. Overall, NZ trade policy has long been in line with that of the TNCs.

Just three TNCs – Cargill, Arthur Daniels Midland and Louis Dreyfus – “control 80% of the world’s grain – most people’s staple food. Yet few outside the business have even heard of them. It’s these companies that have pushed for market liberalisation to secure a giant global grain market, unrestricted by trade barriers. They are often behind the push for genetically modified (GM) crops, too, which give them control over the grain trade from seed to flour. Cargill and the GM giant Monsanto work closely together” (“101 Facts You Should Know About Food” by John Farndon, Icon Books, 2007, p158; see CAFCA’s Website www.cafca.org.nz Search for more on Cargill; for detailed analysis, see “Invisible Giant: Cargill And Its Transnational Strategies”, 2^nd edition by Brewster Kneen, Pluto Press/UBC Press, 2002, & Kneen’s Website: www.ramshorn.ca/invisiblegiant.html).

Mining Monsters

Cargill has bought a 49% stake in Solid Energy’s Spring Creek coal mine. Solid Energy had previously acquired Todd Energy’s share. The new joint venture was announced in March, 2007. Again, locally, the deal is seen in a very positive light, “securing the long-term future of the biggest underground mine on the West Coast” (Greymouth Star, 15/3/07). Up to this point, the mine’s outlook had been uncertain. The OIO gave the deal its habitual stamp of approval. Cargill, which is cited as having extensive experience in thermal coal trading, will buy 49% of all future coal from Spring Creek, matching its investment stake. The TNC will transport this coal overseas from Lyttelton to its international customers using its existing ocean transport business. Coal extraction from the mine will be greatly increased and the life of the mine extended out to 20 years. “Cargill Coal Managing Director Patrick Bracken said the investment marked their first steps into coal production [my emphasis]. ‘It expands our presence in the Asia Pacific region, creates a number of opportunities and allows us to better serve our customers in Asia and elsewhere, offering them premium quality coal’” (ibid.). Grasping opportunities has been the essence of Cargill’s growth, with its aim of getting ever bigger as quick as it can.

More localised mining initiatives are also under way. For instance, “Redcar Holdings, owned by Terry Birchfield of Christchurch, has applied for consent to reopen the old underground Snowline and Redcar mines which have not been actively mined for a number of years” (Greymouth Star, 11/8/07). Commenting on this, Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn celebrated the prospect that: “Private mining is coming back – it’s good to see the emergence of private companies on the West Coast” (ibid.). Mr Birchfield’s mine proposal covers Crown land and Department of Conservation (DOC) estate. Indeed, for Kokshoorn, “Coal is king again” (West Coast Property Newsletter, June 2007). The National Party has proclaimed its support for coal mining and mining in general, as well as for more hydro schemes and tourist facilities on the West Coast (Press, 7/6/07). Leader John Key sees limits to environmentalism (not capitalism!) and wants the Resource Management Act (RMA) loosened up as well more DOC land opened to development. As well, National has said that it would carry out more privatisation of NZ’s primary assets and that this would likely include selling off 30% of Solid Energy (Press, 30/6/07). Cargill might well be licking its lips!

Mining exploration was given a boost by a new survey of results published by the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) in 2006 (www.crownminerals.govt.nz). It was noted that the exploration and mining environment of NZ had changed dramatically in recent years. An enthusiastic foreword to the report was written by John Dow, an AusIMM director and former head of Newmont Mining Corporation’s Australian operation. Dow is now PRC’s chairman. Newmont Mining Corporation acquired Normandy Mining in February 2002, making Newmont Australia’s largest gold producer, including ownership of NZ’s controversial Martha Mine at Waihi on the Coromandel Peninsula. Newmont also has core operations in Nevada, Peru, Ghana, and Indonesia.

Generating Power

Sharing our coal and maybe certain other minerals with countries like China and India certainly has the ring of global justice about it. The problem with coal exports of course is the additional input to global warming and climate change when the nations of the world should be joining hands in a comprehensively coordinated plan to truly combat this threat.Then the TNC-dominated implementation of it all is fast turning the screw on further foreign control of our resources, environment, welfare, and freedom of choice, as well as grossly enriching the few at the expense of the many. The Western mining industry is deeply involved not only with the long-standing and systematic plunder of Third World resources but also with central industries like the defence, automobile and transport sectors, including the privatisation of basic infrastructure; and so at least the partial determination of both foreign and domestic policies. Of late, the NZ Federation of Commercial Fishermen has been calling on the Government to stop the “foreign plunder of hoki” (Press, 1/10/07). The foreign plunder of our mineral resources requires similar scrutiny and concern in order to help create sustainability and benefits beyond the “boom and bust” cycle.

Coal is certainly king again for the mining corporates riding high on the wave of Asian demand. PRC chief John Dow has mentioned how TNCs like Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton meet annually with their customers to set prices for coal (Press, 2/10/07). He is looking forward to a positive outcome in 2008 for PRC while aiming for one million tonnes a year in export coal from “calendar year 2009 onwards” (ibid.). Dow also indicated that the globalist mining industry has lobbied hard to influence the NZ Government and that this was now paying off (ibid.). Meantime, parent company NZOG is pressuring the Government with regard to the latter’s renewable energy policy. “The Government might decree all new electricity generation be renewable and not thermal, but the new boss [David Salisbury] at NZOG is gearing up his company to find more gas to fire thermal power stations” (Sunday Star Times, 14/10/07). NZOG is forging full steam ahead with exploration and development plans for oil and gas.

Another example of the insidious application of Big Business power that has become publicly visible - if so slightly - has been notice of the new secret electricity supply deal (applying for nearly 20 years) between SOE Meridian Energy and Rio Tinto’s NZ Aluminium Smelters at Tiwai Point, Southland. “NZ Aluminium Smelters has said it could produce its own power from a coal-fired station at less that 7 cents a kilowatt hour, from 2012, effectively capping the price Meridian might get” (Press, 2/10/07). So this TNC cynically used cheap coal as a key bargaining chip. Meridian acknowledged that: “The negotiations have been hard and tough”, while “Rio Tinto Aluminium’s Smelting NZ and Britain Managing Director, Tom Campbell, said the company was pleased with the agreement” (ibid.). Well might Rio Tinto be pleased as it continues to rip New Zealanders off, using mostly our prime hydro power. When this new power supply contract was announced, CAFCA re-issued our regular call for the Bluff smelter to be closed and for the electricity locked into being supplied to NZ’s single biggest power user be freed up for more productive use. Ed.

Survival Of The Future?

In 1984, I wrote that: “America imports a considerable number of strategic minerals from the Asia-Pacific area. Even in our own country more and more multinational companies want to strip the land of its mineral resources. As well, American, Australian and Japanese trade and investment within the Pacific region will pressure the NZ Government towards a policeman/interventionary role. We already have defence links with some corrupt and repressive regimes like those in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. Once more the focus of debate must be shifted and sharpened on these issues within NZ in the direction of peace and justice. The links have to be drawn between resources, intervention, nuclear war, and the need for ‘de-development’ in the rich countries” (“Demilitarising Nation States: Opposition To The Resource War”, NZ Environment, Number 44, Summer 1984, pp26-32, quote on p30). Suitably updated, this statement still applies - only more acutely.

Besides PRC, Cargill, and OceanaGold, a number of other overseas companies have joined the search for coal, gold, and other minerals on the West Coast, as well as throughout Aotearoa/NZ. There is a great deal of mining enterprise activity from the Great South Basin to Northland. The Labour Government has been brazen in its international promotion to sell off NZ’s mineral wealth and encouraging subjugation to the imperatives of the TNCs which are set to further dictate both law and practice on labour, the environment, health and safety, distribution of returns/income etc. Meanwhile, the National Party has clearly signalled that it would be even more assiduous in courting the mining TNCs. We are continuing to lose control of any decision-making power for our future and the huge acceleration of mining here is very ominous in its implications. But at the same time since our survival is at stake the incentives for positive interventions are also getting stronger than ever.