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Post by wanyee on Dec 18, 2006 1:03:43 GMT 3
“A Pink Cheek man came one day to our Council. He sat in our midst and he told us of the king of the Pink Cheek, who was a great king and lived in a land over the seas. “This great king is now your king,” he said, “and this land is all his land, though he has said you may live on it”. This was strange news. For this land was ours. We had no king, we elected our own Councils, and they made our laws. With patience, our leading elders tried to tell this to the Pink Cheek, and he listened. But at the end he said, “This we know, but in spite of this, what I have told you is fact…In the town called Nairobi is a Council or government that acts for the king. And his laws are your laws” [Chief Kabongo of the Kikuyu recalling his first visitor from the British administration, in Kenya: Promised Land? – Oxfam GB (Oxford), 1998]. --- P U B L I C D E C L A R A T I O N THE MINING INDUSTRY’S TRACK RECORD ON THE ENVIRONMENT, HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: A SOMBRE ASSESSMENT AND A RESPONSIBILITY TO TAKE ON This March, the City of Toronto hosts the "International Convention, Trade Show & Investors Exchange - Mining Investment Show", sponsored by Barrick Gold Corporation. The convention brings together mining industry representatives from around the world. This event gives us the opportunity to express our deep concerns and to denounce the critical situation regarding increasing exploitation of natural resources, particularly mineral resources. Today’s unfettered economic growth, with its emphasis on profits, power and wealth, runs roughshod over any concerns for the human, social and environmental effects of unregulated exploitation of resources. This trend is devastating for the environment and for communities. Ecosystems are disrupted. Soils contaminated. Air and water pollution increases. The food chain is disturbed. These often irreversible impacts are a direct result of the industrial extractive activities of the gas, petroleum and mining sectors. The recent GIEC report about climate change clearly outlines these impacts. There are also profound human consequences faced by communities, especially indigenous ones, which inhabit the regions where resource exploitation takes place. The expansion of multinational extractive enterprises, including mining firms, particularly in Third world nations, appear like a new form of colonialism that succeeds by virtue of the use of economic might. These enterprises strip the earth of its natural wealth through full-blown devastation of vast portions of land. Often they set up shop through million-dollar lobby campaigns that provide them with access to the corridors of power of the local political and economic elite, combining seductive promises of profits, the purchasing of "gifts", and the use of fear-mongering, threats and aggressive business tactics, sometimes even repressive actions. These practices constitute a fundamental violation of human rights. A marked increase in violence occurs as mining companies push to expand their operations, including the use of repressive forces within communities as well as generalized militarization in and around the sites. Testimonies of such realities are turning up from all over the world. For example, nickel extraction in Sorowako (Indonesia) by the Canadian firm Inco completely disrupted the Karonsi'e Dongi indigenous community life: the people were forcibly displaced with the complicity of local authorities and the police. Traditional indigenous lands were taken over by the company, part of which was turned into a golf course and Inco constructed buildings on an indigenous graveyard. By taking advantage of local social conflicts, this firm was also able to take control of the territory of other communities in central Sulawesi. In 1999, the United Nations Truth Commission linked Inco to both human rights violations and murders in Guatemala. In San Marcos, one of the poorest regions of this nation, Glamis Gold Ltd. (now Goldcorp Inc.) has created a hostile climate filled with threats and intimidation. It continues to operate the Marlin mining project in spite of almost unanimous opposition from the local population (popular consultation of Sipacapa). The case of the Pascua Lama mining project by the Canadian multinational, Barrick Gold Corporation, at the Chilean-Argentine border further illustrates the potential for unforeseen negative consequences. Situated at the heart of the Andean Cordillera, the Pascua Lama project endangers the entire watershed ecosystem of the Huasco valley, directly affecting the essential water resources within this semi-desert region: the glaciers. Not only does the project diminish the region's already retreating glacial water sources, it will affect the quality of the water available by polluting it with the use of toxic products such as cyanide (already denounced in Berlin Declaration, 2000) and some heavy metals. The amount of water available will also be affected: mining operations needs enormous quantities of water (about 360 L per second). With this project, Barrick Gold has violated the territorial and ancestral rights of the Diaguita indigenous peoples who inhabit the territory of the mine. The firm's efforts to begin mining in a territorial area that is already in dispute has disrupted life in the region, where agriculture is the main economic activity, as well as violating the right of the population to self-determination, that is, the right to choose their own form of development. The extracting industries make enormous profits, among others, because of very low royalties and the often difficult social, economic and political conditions in the countries where they set up business. The traces and repercussions of mining enterprises are not part of community development, collective prosperity, security, well-being nor quality of life, as their official statements would have us believe. On the contrary, their activities mean social, environmental, cultural and human devastation. In the current state of the world in which neo-liberal ideology dominates, foreign investment is naturally given priority above all other consideration. Given this reality, Canada must assume a major responsibility for its firms: a total of 60% of the international mining companies are Canadian. Voluntary measures that encourage them to respect the environment that are currently being adopted are clearly insufficient and despite this the Canadian government is considering them as potential means of regulating enterprises. Firm regulation and a rigorous system of control are vital. Media campaigns that portray mining multinationals as "responsible enterprises," and in the case of Barrick as a "community mining enterprise", are a far reach from the painful reality of their humans rights violations (environmental, social, indigenous) that occur alongside mining development projects around the world. In order to improve this situation, we demand the following: -1. The adoption of clear, urgent and effective measures that ensure the respect of the environment and of communities; -1. The respect of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a sine qua non requirement that should be integrated into the extractive projects of the mining industry. March 2, 2007, Montreal Groupe Non à Pascua Lama-Montréal (Canada) L’Entraide Missionnaire (Canada) Chaire de recherche du Canada en éducation relative à l’environnement, Université du Québec à Montréal Social Justice Committee (Canada) Comité chilien pour les droits humains, Montreal (Canada) Association Culturelle Araucaria (Canada) Association québécoise d'organismes de coopération internationale – AQOCI (Canada) Chilean Canadian Community Association of Calgary Club du Fric Éthique (Canada) Coalition Romero, Montreal (Canada) Comité de apoyo al pueblo mapuche, Montreal (Canada) Comité pour les droits humains en Amérique latine – CDHAL, Montreal (Canada) Comunidad Eclesial de Base "Mártires de El Salvador" - CEBES, Montreal (Canada) Grupo de apoyo a FUNDELIDDI – Montreal (Canada) MiningWatch Canada Projet Accompagnement Québec-Guatemala (Canada) Proyecto Cultural Sur (Canada) Solidarité Laurentides Amérique centrale-SLAM, Saint-Jérôme (Canada) Observatorio latinoamericano de conflictos ambientales – OLCA Concejo de salud de Conay (Chile) Consumidores de agua y regantes del Huasco (Chile) Coordinadora Ambiental de Alto del Carmen (Chile) Coordinadora del Huasco (Chile) Grupo operativo pro defensa del Huasco (Chile) Junta de vecinos de La Pampa (Chile) Movimiento ciudadano anti Pascua Lama (Chile) Pastoral Salvaguarda de la Creación (Chile) Santiago Luis Faura, Enrique Gaytan Arcos and Arturo Aliaga, Town councillors of Alto del Carmen (Chile) Afirmación para una República Igualitaria "ARI", La Rioja (Argentina) APresTur - Chilecito, La Rioja (Argentina) Asociación de Mujeres Riojanas (Argentina) Autoconvocados en Defensa de la VIDA (Argentina) Coordinadora de Asambleas Ciudadanas por la Vida - Chilecito, La Rioja (Argentina) Environment Defense Foundation (Argentina) Grupo Apu Huaira - Chilecito, La Rioja (Argentina) Inka Ñan Turismo EVT - Chilecito, La Rioja (Argentina) Operarios ex Gatilar Chamical (Argentina) Pastoral Social de la Diócesis de San Carlos de Bariloche , Río Negro (Argentina) Proyecto Nexos de articulación entre Universidad y Movimientos Sociales – Universidad Nacional Quilmes (Argentina) Raúl A. Montenegro, Profesor, Alternative Nobel Prize (Argentina) Theomai Network & Journal, Society, Nature & Development Studies (Argentina) Vecinos Autoconvocados de Capital (Argentina) Vecinos Autoconvocados de Chamical (Argentina) Vecinos Autoconvocados de Chañarmuyo (Argentina) Vecinos Autoconvocados de Famatina (Argentina) Vecinos Autoconvocados de Patquial (Argentina) Vecinos Autoconvocados de Pituil (Argentina) Vecinos de Malanzán (Argentina) Vecinos de Punta de los Llanos (Argentina) Frente amplio opositor a la instalación de la minera San Xavier (Metallica Ressources Inc.) en Cerro San Pedro, S.L.P. (Mexico) Comité Regional Ambientalista del Valle de Siria (Honduras) Centro de Investigación sobre Inversión y Comercio – CEICOM (El Salvador) US-El Salvador Sister Cities Comisión Pastoral Paz y Ecología – COPAE, Diócesis de San Marcos (Guatemala)… If you or your group want to sign on to this declaration please contact: marleau.marie-eve@courrier.uqam.ca --- To learn more about the mother of all "Ilmorog" meetings: www.pdac.ca/pdac/conv/index.html --- This is why we need to have comprehensive reforms before the next elections. We need transparency, accountability, new mining-laws etc. Before the last (2002) elections: Fate of Titanium Mining Awaits Kenya Polls www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2002/2002-12-19-03.asp See also: MP urges farmers to drop case against Tiomin plc The Kenya Times, www.timesnews.co.ke/23nov06/business/buns3.htmlMinister For Environment Confirms Signing Date Of Fiscal Agreement For Tiomin's Kwale Project www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2005_Jan_25/ai_n8708621www.minesandcommunities.org/Action/press164.htm Why Kulundu Ignored Pleas on Tiomin ---- The False Economic Promise of Mineral Extraction From: Thomas Michael Power Dept. of Economics University of Montana Missoula, MT 59812 (406) 243-4586 e-mail: tmpower@selway.umt.edu I was born and raised in Wisconsin and spent my teenage years paddling the rivers of northern Wisconsin. The threat of Exxon's proposed Crandon mine to the Wolf and Wisconsin Rivers both saddens and outrages me. My thirty year experience as an economist living in Montana, the "Treasure State," a state with a very long experience with the environmental legacy of copper mining, leads me to offer the following comments on the promises made by mining companies to local communities. One of the most powerful arguments that mineral companies can muster in their endless quest for access to more of our landscape for their extractive purposes is that they offer rural communities and households something that they desperately need: high paying jobs. While most of our nonmetropolitan areas have watched their traditional economic bases deteriorate while new minimum wage jobs appeared to proliferate, the mineral extraction companies offer communities a prize that is very difficult to refuse: family-wage jobs that support blue collar access to a middle class lifestyle. Local and state government officials, chambers of commerce, and local civic organizations typically see these jobs as a godsend. Given the massive environmental destruction that typically accompanies mineral extraction, such communities and their citizens appear to face a stark, tragic choice: accept the degradation of the natural environment and enjoy the prosperity the jobs bring or turn down those high-paying jobs and enjoy the resulting higher environmental quality but live in relative poverty. The "jobs versus the environment" dualism cannot be presented in starker terms. But something is seriously missing in this characterization of the choices our communities face. Review in your mind the mining towns you are familiar with. How many of them, if any, are prosperous? Most of our mining and smelter towns are run-down and decrepit. The communities that depend upon them have average incomes well below the national average. Poverty rates and unemployment are higher. Almost any measure of socioeconomic health, child abuse, alcoholism, spouse-battering, school accomplishment, etc. indicate anything but healthy communities. The promise of high-paid jobs in mineral extraction does not materialize in community health and prosperity. Quite the opposite: Reliance upon these industries systematically undermines the community's ability to create a secure social and economic environment for its citizens. How can we explain this dramatic and systematic failure of resource extraction's promise of a prosperous future for communities willing to embrace it? The answer lies in the other economic characteristics of these industries, besides their relatively attractive wage levels. First is the instability that is endemic in mining industries. In modern chemical mining, mine lives can be as short as 5 to 10 years. Even those short run operations can be interrupted by dramatic declines in metal prices on international markets. Second, these industries are "mature" economic activities that have been with us since before the industrial revolution. We have had decades, even centuries, to adapt technology to natural resource extraction. The result has been dramatic and impressive gains in labor productivity. With each passing year, a smaller and smaller labor force is needed to extract larger and larger quantities of raw materials and process them. This has meant that the employment opportunities provided by these industries are steadily declining. The result of these common characteristics of mining industries is that the employment and income associated with them are very uncertain, despite the relatively high wages. Workers do not know how long they will collect those high paycheques. Local merchants do not know how long the income associated with those industries will circulate within the local economy. Both workers and local merchants react rationally to this instability and uncertainty: They reduce their investment in the local community. They do not buy or build new homes; they do not expand their businesses. Local officials are hesitant to invest in local public infrastructure too, since a mine or mill shut down could leave them without the ability to pay off the bonds, pay for the up-keep, and afford the salaries of the additional public employees. Workers do not even move to the mining towns; they commute very long distances, carrying away their paycheques from the community. The result of this rational adaptation to these objective characteristics of the natural resource industries is what we observe in our mine and smelter towns: economic and social depression, the opposite of prosperity. But this is just the beginning of an economic unravelling. Mining tends to have dramatic negative impacts upon the natural landscape: trees are stripped away, the topology is radically changed, streams are poisoned and silted up, fisheries are destroyed, wildlife habitat is fragmented, the recreational potential of the land is degraded, scenic beauty is lost, and air and water quality deteriorates as a result of both the extraction and the processing of the raw materials. This is not just an environmental or aesthetic concern. It is also an economic disaster. Over the last half-century people, businesses, and economic activity have increasingly shifted in the direction of perceived high quality living environments. People, indisputably, care where they live and act on those preferences. As they do, economic activity shifts, too, because businesses have to pay attention to where the labor supply and markets for their products are located. This means that an area's ability to attract and hold people and businesses is crucial to its economic development. The locally specific qualities of the social and natural environment that make it attractive are central features of the area's economic base. Mining can systematically undermine that part of an area's economic base as it sacrifices the natural landscape for the unstable, short term, and declining employment opportunities mining offers. Long before the mineral deposit gives out, the layoffs tied to technological change or instability on international commodity markets steadily shrinks the employment base. The community is left with an increasingly ravaged natural landscape and an impoverished community that cannot hang on to its people. The long decline and decay evident in most of our mining towns sets in. This negative and depressing scenario can be read as a positive economic development scenario for those communities who see through the promise of high-paid jobs and confront the economic reality of reliance upon these destructive and unstable industries. Preserving the quality of the natural environment in which a community is embedded protects an important part of the community's current and future economic base. Focusing upon diversification and stability lays the basis for household, business, and public investment. Encouraging local entrepreneurial solutions to problems rather than passively seeking salvation in the facilities of a large international corporation also builds a resilience into the local economy and community that no company town ever has. When natural resource industries make their "offers that cannot be refused, "we have to keep in mind the powerful images of Butte, Montana, Kellogg, Idaho, Lead, South Dakota, the copper towns of Arizona, the iron fields of Minnesota, the coal fields of Appalachia. Part of our brain knows that the economic offer being made to our communities is not anything like what it appears to be. This is not speculative doom-saying; it is economic reality. Rather than retreating to the environmental moral high ground when these economic promises are made, we need to confront the false promises on their own terms, with hard economic facts. [Thomas Michael Power is Professor of Economics and Chairman of the Economics Department at the University of Montana. He recently published two books, Lost Landscapes and Failed Economies: The Search for a Value of Place (Island Press) and Environmental Protection and Economic Well-Being: The Economic Pursuit of Quality (M.E. Sharpe).]
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Post by wanyee on Dec 18, 2006 23:33:44 GMT 3
Out of court talks with Tiomin fail – Daily Nation, 14th December 2006 Out of court negotiations that were to enable the Sh9 billion titanium mining project to start have collapsed, the High Court heard. Tiomin Kenya Limited – the firm granted a mining lease by the Government to extract the mineral in Kwale District – and farmers failed to agree on the compensation package. Following the collapse of the talks, Tiomin will have to wait a little longer before knowing whether the High Court will grant it permission to proceed with the mining activities. Mr Justice Joseph Nyamu is hearing the case in which a Kwale farmer is seeking to bar the Government from forcibly taking over his 12 acres of land; and following the talks deadlock, the hearing proceeds today. The Commissioner of Lands has notified eight farmers that their land would be compulsorily acquired before the end of the year to pave way for titanium mining. Yesterday, Dr Gibson Kamau Kuria, representing a farmer, Mr Rogers Mwema, said: "Your lordship, it's unfortunate that we have been unable to come up with an out of court settlement. Hence we seek a hearing date for this case." Each party declined to take responsibility for the collapse of the talks, in which the Government was represented. Last week, Mr Justice Nyamu granted an adjournment to enable the parties to explore a possibility of settling the dispute out of court. The negotiations were prompted by concerns that Tiomin was incurring substantial losses owing to the delay in starting its first phase of mining. The company has already positioned heavy machinery in Maumba and Nguluku, an area identified as having high deposits of titanium. Mr Mwema sought legal redress after the Government notified him and seven other farmers that their land would be compulsorily acquired. The Government move was prompted by the farmers' unwillingness to give up their land to pay way for mining. The farmers complained of inadequate compensation. In the suit, Mr Mwema has enjoined the Commissioner for Mines and Geology, the Commissioner for Lands and Tiomin Kenya Limited. Yesterday, Mr Justice Nyamu barred Tiomin from disclosing the reasons leading to the collapse of the talks after Dr Gibson Kamau Kuria objected to the move. Tiomin, through lawyer D. Oyatsi, had wanted the court to hear the reasons that led to the collapse. --- Titanium mining row settled, says Kimunya – Daily Nation, 16th December 2006 The dispute over titanium mining in Kwale has been resolved. Finance minister Amos Kimunya met officials of Tiomin Kenya on Thursday at the Treasury and thrashed out the sticky issues. Yesterday, Mr Kimunya said it was now up to the company to go ahead with its mining activities. Mr Kimunya told journalists: "I do not see anything outstanding between Tiomin and us." Being handled He said that any issues arising from the acquisition of land for squatters at the site were being handled by the Lands ministry. On Wednesday, Mr Kimunya asked Tiomin Kenya to explain why it had not started working on its Kwale project and instead was blaming the Government. "I did approve all the incentives we were required and the Lands minister actually gazetted the resettlement committee. "Let them not create the impression that the Government is not moving," Mr Kimunya said. --- Canadian diamonds not conflict-free Many issues to be addressed, says First Nations leader By Joan Delaney Epoch Times Victoria Staff “Both the Province of Ontario and the federal government are saying the north is open for business. We’re saying it’s not - we need to talk about our rights and our issues first” [Alvin Fiddler; Deputy Grand Chief, Nishnawbe Aski Nation] An Ontario First Nations group is launching a campaign to persuade Americans not to buy diamonds mined in Canada. The group maintains that because of ongoing aboriginal rights and environmental concerns, many Canadian diamonds come with a hidden cost. Alvin Fiddler, Deputy Grand Chief of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation who represents 49 First Nations communities in Northern Ontario, said De Beers Canada plans to develop a massive open pit diamond-mining project on their traditional lands without honouring treaty rights or undertaking consultations. “What we’ve always said is that under the treaty we do have rights to the land and the resources on that land, and the rights we have need to be respected by both industry and government,” Fiddler told the Epoch Times. The campaign will be aimed largely at the U.S. where annual diamond sales represent almost half of the $55 billion world market. Fiddler says some of the communities he represents are in a “pretty desperate situation,” with an unemployment rate of close to 70 percent, overcrowded homes, poor quality drinking water, the lowest life expectancy in Canada and the highest youth suicide rate in the world. “There has to be revenue sharing arrangements with First Nations that whatever resources are extracted from our territory, that revenue has to go back to our communities,” says Fiddler. Work started on the Victor mining project, De Beers first diamond mine in Ontario, earlier this year. Set in a pristine region near James Bay that previously had no industrial development, the open pit mine will cover an area of 5,000 hectares. But because of dewatering - the pumping of water out of the mine pit - a further 260,000 hectares will be impacted, according to MiningWatch Canada. Several First Nations communities in northern Ontario have called for a moratorium on mineral exploration until there has been proper consultation regarding revenue sharing and environmental impact. Fiddler says there are many communities with outstanding land claims that have yet to be resolved. In the meantime, with mining exploration ongoing in the region, environmental groups are concerned about damage to Canada’s vast Boreal Forest, home to a myriad of birds, fish, plant and animal life and one of the few intact forest eco-systems on earth. Joan Kuyek, National Coordinator with MiningWatch, says that last April when De Beers carried out exploration on Muskrat Dam First Nations land without permission, the helicopters and drill rigs destroyed the spring goose hunt on which the community depends to feed the elders through the winter. “The mining companies have been going on Aboriginal land often without permission,” says Kuyek. “The very fact that they’re there and intruding on traditional territory is creating all sorts of problems for communities that are already stressed. De Beers says on its website that is was “unfortunate” that their work in the area disrupted the traditional spring goose hunt, but a meeting they had requested with Muskrat Dam was declined and therefore they weren’t aware of the hunt. The company states that they go to “great lengths” to meet the needs of local communities within those lands they operate. Kuyek says that the Attawapiskat nation, a “small and fragile community, agreed to the Victor Mine out of dire financial need. She believes they may not have been aware of some of the wide-ranging environmental impacts the project involves. In a first in the annals of mining, the Victor mine is being constructed on muskeg, which is wet, swampy ground. To keep the mine dry, the water has to be constantly pumped from deep underground where there are various interconnected water systems. Because it’s near the sea, the water is salinated. And that salinated water, says Kuyek, will be pumped into the nearby Attawapiskat River. In 2003, as a result of an increasingly aware consumer and strong criticism from human rights activists regarding so-called blood diamonds fuelling wars in Africa, the diamond industry finally bit the bullet and worked with NGOs and governments to enact the Kimberley Process, a voluntary international system that tracks diamonds. While the Kimberly Process has been relatively successful, NGO’s say that conflict diamonds are still making their way into the stream of legitimate stones. With the recent release of the movie Blood Diamond, set in the civil war in Sierra Leonne in the 1990’s, diamond retailers and industry officials are preparing for a new wave of consumer scrutiny. While Canadian diamonds are not in the same realm as blood diamonds, Amnesty International’s Tara Scurr says that people who think Canadian diamonds are squeaky clean are often unaware of the human rights and environmental issues involved. “The draining of lakes and the destruction of habitat is a very serious concern for people in the north and for all of us,” says Scurr. Scurr says there’s a “bit of a cowboy attitude” among extraction companies that operate in the north in that they try to get away with limited monitoring and without proper consultations with the Aborginals. In recent years there have been Supreme Court rulings which stipulate that First Nations have to be consulted and in some cases have to give their consent before any development occurs on their land. But Fiddler says industry and government often continue to disregard those rulings. Although the Victor Mine will move ahead regardless, Fiddler says he hopes that such issue as land claims, revenue sharing, treaty rights and environment can be addressed before any further major development takes place in the region. “Both the Province of Ontario and the federal government are saying the north is open for business. We’re saying it’s not - we need to talk about our rights and our issues first,” says Fiddler. --- www.worldeconomicjustice.blogspot.com/[Please pardon any errors on the blog. It is a work in progress] www.boston.com/business/articles/2006/11/26/filmmakers_taking_aim_on_corporations/?page=2--- geo.international.gc.ca/cip-pic/current_discussions/csr-roundtables-en.aspOr directly to… geo.international.gc.ca/cip-pic/library/CSR_Toronto_Submission_World_Economic_Justice.doc [Pages 4 – 5; Towards a New International Resource Management Order]. ---
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Post by wanyee on Dec 21, 2006 5:15:28 GMT 3
Responding to an e-mail from Jean C. Potvin; CEO, Tiomin Resources Inc. December 21, 2006 Responses have been provided by: Joan Kuyek (National Coordinator, MiningWatch Canada) and myself (I) ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS J.C Potvin - In terms of environmental and social considerations no issues remain unresolved... the issues raised…are outdated and have been superseded by actions taken by Tiomin and approvals granted by the relevant authorities. Prior to embarking on the project development phase, Tiomin commissioned an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) based on terms of reference written in compliance with World Bank Standards, the Kenyan EIA guidelines and the Environmental Management and Co-ordination Act. The EIA report was prepared by Coastal & Environmental Services (CES), a highly respected, South African based social and environmental consultancy, with vast experience of mineral sands mining projects in South Africa, Mozambique, Egypt, Madagascar and Malawi. Following extensive consultation with relevant authorities at both national and district levels, as well as with the local communities in the proposed mining area, the EIA report was presented to the government in 1999. It was then made available for a three months public review period, during which meetings and workshops were held with various government committees and the affected communities to collect the interested and affected parties' comments and views. All comments received by the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources were compiled and addressed in a response report, which was also submitted to the government as part of the environmental approval process. In November 2000 Tiomin completed all statutory requirements in terms of the environmental law and presented the final volume of the EIA to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources. This volume addressed issues that arose as a result of the EIA review process. Following the establishment of the new statutory environmental licensing body, the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA), in May 2002, Tiomin's Environmental License was approved on July 2, 2002. The license itself was subsequently received in June 2002 once NEMA established the basis of the license fee payable. The Environmental Management Plan (EMP) was then reviewed by NEMA and stakeholders in December of the same year and was subsequently approved in January 2003. The Environmental management & Coordination Act came into force in 2000 and subsequent regulations pertaining to the Act were gazetted in 2003. In accordance with the terms of the EMP, various Environmental Action Plans (EAP's) have been prepared under the supervision of and subject to approval of NEMA to ensure that design, construction and operation of the facilities remains within the parameters set out in the approved environmental and social management plans in terms of controls, audits and mitigation measures applied. The environmental and social management programmes of the project are clearly the most comprehensive and rigorous carried out in the history of Kenya, both have met all government and international standards and procedures and Tiomin has set aside a budget of around $7.5 million to fulfill its commitments in this regards. These have also been reviewed and approved by the various banks and multilateral lending agencies that will be financing the project…Tiomin is confident that it has done the best possible job and consequently enjoys the full support of government and the affected community in implementing the project to gain the wide range of benefits that will flow from it. --- Response: First of all, the EMP was approved in (January 2003) before the NEMA regulations had been gazetted, as required by law [See also: Environment watchdog was fertile ground for abuse of office: A report by the Efficiency Monitoring Unit accuses NEMA directors of holding too many board and committee meetings with the sole intention of earning hefty allowances - The EastAfrican]. In addition, Tiomin has still not provided the Environment Impact Action Plan (EIAP) that is required to support the EMP, therefore violating the Environment & Co-ordination Act 1999 (EMCA 99). There are also civil cases pending in the High Court with injunctions in place, implying that both Tiomin and the Government have blatantly violated the law [Source: Environment Trust of Kenya. See also: Court told of bid to seize land to pave way for miners – Daily Nation, 30th November 2006]. After the 2002 General Elections, MiningWatch Canada posted the following report on its website: New Kenyan Government Holds Tiomin to Account - Tuesday June 3, 2003 The new government in Kenya is treating the Kwale titanium project with healthy suspicion… [http://www.miningwatch.ca/index.php?/Newsletter_12/New_Kenyan_Governmen] The public forums were not organised. Subsequently, the National Council of Non-governmental Organizations issued a press release; Titanium Mining in Kenya: The Unresolved Questions (Please refer to the 2nd last post in the The Titanium Mining Scandal thread). --- J.C Potvin: In mineral sands mining 95% of the mined material is returned to the site. The industry has, over many years, built up a very good reputation for revegetation and rehabilitation. Similar techniques to those methods already proven elsewhere will be used in Kwale to achieve the desired end result including top-soil stripping, management and return. The average shape of the dune will be re-established as close as possible to the pre-mining conditions. The area will be re-contoured, the topsoil replaced and replanted with vegetation. The post-mining land-use will be discussed with the community to ensure that a sustainable plan, which responds to their needs, is developed both in terms of agricultural requirements and natural resources. The separation processes (gravity, electrostatic, magnetic) do not rely on any toxic substances so the tailings or waste sand does not need further processing before being returned to the hill. There are many mineral sands operations in countries such as Australia, South Africa and the USA, which have successfully rehabilitated their properties and Tiomin will, through its Environmental Management Plan, adhere to the standards that define international best practice. The subject of erosion and silting of rivers and coastal water has been comprehensively addressed in the EIA (Vol. 7). The placement of silt traps to around the mining area and tailings dam has been incorporated into the design to prevent escape of water borne silt. This is in accordance with the risk identified in the EIA, mitigation measures included in the EMP and mining and tailings dam management best practice. J Kuyek: Mr. Potvin has not satisfactorily accounted for the erosion expected, or the siltation of rivers and possibly coastal waters. Silt traps, for instance, are very problematic [Ref: Protecting fish / Protecting Mines – MiningWatch Canada website]. He also has not said anything about the danger of salination, with respect to the Tiwi aquifer [Ref: Dongo Kundu, a film by Gene Bernofsky, Ken Furrow, and James Kinsey, 2002; Produced by World Wide Film Expedition, Montana (also available at Nation TV, Kenya). There is also the issue of perched aquifers within the dunes, for the purpose of retaining water for agricultural reasons. This process will destroy the structure of the sand leading to desertification. This has not been mentioned. Mr. Potvin has also not said anything about how much water the mine will need from the surface, and what will happen to downstream users. The issue is not about groundwater extraction, but about the depth of the stripping, which may affect the quality of the water. According to a previous internal report, Tiomin did not have any guarantees with respect to “the water issue”, or whether “significant environmental or adverse impacts on existing users” could be prevented [Tiomin Resources Inc. – Annual Information Form, 30th April 2003]. “I would demand…some clarity around these water issues…the real question is what’s the long-term water impact” [Joan Kuyek; National Coordinator, MiningWatch Canada] “We see everyday, projects go ahead, that shouldn’t go ahead. We see people being displaced by projects. We see land being raped that shouldn’t be…Canada doesn’t control it…We need to look at ways of making this more effective as a democracy…If CIDA had taken their four hundred thousand dollars and given it to the University of Kenyatta to do the study, we would have had something completely different” [Ibid] “Even if there is an environmental disaster, it is not really our…problem” [Gerald T. West (former MIGA Senior Advisor, and the Director of MIGA’s Evaluations Department), when speaking to InterPress Service in 1995. MIGA (Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency) is the World Bank’s insurance arm] N.B: On Tiomin’s connection to the World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) - www.bicusa.org/bicusa/issues/Africa%20EI%20projects%20May%202006.xlsContact: Mrs. B. Bocoum, b.bocoum@afdb.org Pursuant to the above… Tiomin Resources Inc. does not have any previous experience in mining, let alone in rehabilitating mined land. It has only been a prospector, and actually has a very poor track record. Regarding its copper-exploration project in Western Panama, Tiomin is responsible for the “destruction of trees…loss of livestock and arable land…rivers draining from the Cerro Colorado have reportedly been damaged…while residents along San Felix River have seen the disappearance of fish, a main staple…there are clear parallels between what happened in Panama and what’s likely to happen to Kwale” [Mineral Obsession: Inside the Canadian push to make a killing on Kenya’s titanium – Toward Freedom (online magazine), June / July 2001]. Nobel Laureate Professor Wangari Maathai is also on record as having stated that, "Tiomin presented a doctored Environmental Impact Assessment when applying for its license" [Troubles Mount for Canadian Titanium Mine in Kenya – Environment News Service, 11th April 2001]. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) preceded Professor Maathai's claim, calling Tiomin's EIA "incomplete and biased" [Kenyan Farmers Battle Mining – San Francisco Chronicle, 11th April 2000]. While speaking In reference to the fact-finding trip to S.Africa, Professor Wangari Maathai told the East African Standard that “according to the plan, the delegation was to compile and present… findings to the government, and these were to form the basis for a decision on whether to license the company or not. The findings were to be discussed before a national consultative forum. But…just days after the trip, the government announced…that it had issued Tiomin with a mining permit. Curiously, the announcement came the same day a national forum had been organized to discuss the delegation’s findings. Everyone was taken aback, with most questioning the logic behind sending a high powered delegation to South Africa in the first place” [East Africa hails Wangari Maathai’s Peace Prize – East African Standard, 11th October 2004]. J.C Potvin - The alleged comments attributed to Prof. Wangari Maathai are dated 2001. Neither the government nor Tiomin are aware that Prof. Maathai made such comments, other than to express a concern that there should be a high level of stakeholder involvement. After her visit to South African mineral sands operations in 2003 as part of a Government of Kenya delegation, she endorsed the Kwale project as being good for Kenya. ---- This just in: Farmers to lose land to State Story by FRANCIS THOYA Publication Date: 12/20/2006 The Government is justified in forcibly taking over land belonging to eight farmers to allow for titanium mining, a court has ruled. The Kwale farmers will now settle for the Sh80,000 for each acre the Government negotiated for them a year ago, instead of the Sh110 million they had demanded for their land. In the public interest, the Government had the right to seize the land belonging to the farmers, who have been unwilling to give it out for the Sh9 billion mining project, said Nairobi High Court Judge Joseph Nyamu, yesterday. The judge said it was apparent that the mining project was important for the country. The judge said the farmers who were unwilling to vacate their land citing inadequate compensation were not sincere because they had been part of the government-brokered negotiations that resulted on an agreed compensation. Bound by pact "Surely from the above, it is clear that the petitioners (farmers) clearly recognise or acknowledge the mandate of District Resettlement and Compensation Committee, which had successfully negotiated better compensation package. The farmers are bound by this agreement negotiated on their behalf," said Mr Justice Nyamu. In his 34-page judgment, Mr Justice Nyamu said, having agreed to a Sh80,000 per acre per year negotiated by the Government, the farmers were barred from turning down the offer. And turning down the offer left the Government with no option but to forcibly acquire the land. The Government can now proceed with its acquisition, scheduled for tomorrow. Mr Justice Nyamu made the ruling in a test case in which a Kwale farmer, Mr Rogers Mwema Nzioka, had gone to court seeking to bar the Ministry of Lands and Settlement from forcibly taking over his 12 acres of land. In the suit he had enjoined the Commissioner of Mines and Geology, Tiomin Kenya Ltd, the Attorney General, and the Kwale district administration. The judgment affects seven other similar cases filed by Kwale farmers. "It is sad that we have lost but we shall be consulting with our advocate with a view to see whether we are going to appeal," said Mr Nzioka said. In September, 2006, the the Commissioner of Lands notified the eight farmers that their land would be acquired for titanium mining before the end of the year. Step forward The ruling is a step forward for the titanium project by Tiomin, which has been dogged by a myriad problems since its inception in 1997. The Canadian firm has already moved heavy machinery in Maumba and Nguluku areas in Kwale, identified as having high deposits of titanium. ---- Next: ECONOMIC JUSTICE ISSUES
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Post by wanyee on Dec 23, 2006 0:35:46 GMT 3
Canadian miner embroiled in Ecuadoran chaos By Kelly Patterson, CanWest News Service; Ottawa Citizen Published: Friday, December 15, 2006 Article tools A Canadian mining firm in Ecuador sent as many as 120 paramilitaries, armed with guns and tear gas, to storm anti-mining communities in the northern Intag region recently, according to the Ecuadoran Ecumenical Human Rights Commission (CEDHU). www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=1f596f26-cbb7-4c33-b8c9-7adf3098ed52&k=417---- This is a letter that I just received from a concerned Kenyan living in the U.K: "Yes I have been aware of the goings on relating to the Tiomin Project and frankly it reeks of corruption. How and why Kenya was not more involved in this mineral extraction as a Nation instead of 'giving' everything away beggars belief. Somebody somewhere close to the top has facilitated this whole business. There is a company called Kenmare Resources in Mozambique that is doing the same, ie titanium mining all along the coast but as I understand it, the Mozambique Government is very heavily involved in the extraction process and that in addition to primary employment at the mine, there will be both secondary and tertiary level employment created for the citizens of Mozambique as a result. Titanium Dioxide is a valuable commodity and used extensively in pigments in the paint industry and in many other industries I understand so you can see the spin off for Kenya if it had been handled properly. Instead the product will be strip mined from the beaches and then shipped out probably to some east European country, China or Australia. The financial and economic losers in all of this will be the people of Kenya, particularly the local fishermen, the coastal village communities whose way of life and livelihood will be destroyed. FELLOW KENYANS, WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING. --- (II) ECONOMIC JUSTICE ISSUES (i.e on local ownership and value-adding local / secondary processing) “Kenyans are getting so little from the mining that it is going to be a rip-off…the slave labour will be provided by Kenyans…the Kenyan government should have been the one to invest in the production and processing of the minerals” [Nobel Laureate Professor Wangari Maathai, in Troubles Mount for Canadian Titanium Mine in Kenya – Environment News Service (www.ens-newswire.com), 11th April 2001] Although compensation is of no significance issue, a rate of Sh 80,000 (or 1,340.24 CdN dollars) per acre is an insult, to say the least. The Government will also receive 3% in royalties A janitor working in Toronto, at 40 hours per week, would probably earn more in a month (even after tax deductions). This all just goes to show the kind of 'leaders' that we have. --- J.C Potvin - By law minerals are vested in the Government of Kenya. By way of a Special Mining Lease, the government has granted Tiomin the right to exploit the minerals within the designated boundary. Tiomin will pay royalties and corporate taxes as well as other proceeds that will form part of government's take, such as personal taxation on direct and indirect employment, statutory deductions, fuel taxes etc. The minerals are being processed to the point of maximum economic value that is appropriate for Kenya's current state of economic development. Kenya 's economy has not yet reached a point at which the materials can be processed properly in-country. It will never do so if projects like Kwale are blocked from offering the hundreds of millions of dollars of responsible investment in Kenya that will directly and indirectly lift the living standards of many thousands of ordinary Kenyans. The best value for Kenyans today, reflecting the time value of money, is to do what Kenya is good at i.e. to mine, process and export the basic commodity. This is exactly the strategy that made Canada and Australia into first-world nations in the 20th century. The money from these exports funded investment in other industries and Canada and Australia grew into large and diverse economies. Pigment manufacturers, being the largest consumers of titanium ores, build their plants close to the end product markets. They typically import ilmenite and rutile from various parts of the world in order to blend these various ores to obtain the appropriate chemistry for their processes. The chemical composition of ilmenite and rutile varies considerably from deposit to deposit. Other than the facts that electrical power is exorbitant in price and unreliable in Kenya, there is no natural gas available, also a key element in the upgrading process, and that the end markets are far from Kenya, Kenya would have to import minerals to blend with the Kwale output. Any Kenyan entrepreneur can start an upgrading business and Tiomin will gladly sell him product. However, should any Kenyan investors wish to undertake such a project, Tiomin would be very happy to supply them with ilmenite. If companies specializing in the applications of zircon and titanium are willing to invest in Kenya as a consequence of our presence, Tiomin would be very happy to supply them with the necessary raw materials. However, it must be accepted that every company has the right to focus on its core business –Tiomin has neither the technology nor the expertise nor the capacity to venture into specialist fields beyond its core business area. Response: (1) A case study: Canada’s political economy, the United.States, and nickel “The most telling feature of the trade deal is the way it restricts Canada’s ability to modify its industrial structure, thus limiting Canadian governments ability to manage the economy strictly in Canada’s national interest” [Marc Gold and David Leyton-Brown (eds), 1988; Trade-Offs On Free Trade: The Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, The Carswell Company Limited (Toronto)] “The need to nationalize companies such as Inco has been recognized for many years. The disaster which has now befallen Sudbury as a result of Inco’s failure to build downstream processing facilities or to reinvest its profits in the local community underlies why public control of our mineral resources is so vital” [Daniel Drache and Duncan Cameron (eds), 1985; The Other Macdonald Report: The Consensus On Canada’s Future That The Macdonald Commission Left Out, James Lorimar & Company, Publishers (Toronto)] During the 70’s, nickel was very prominent on the United States Department of the Interior list of 13 basic raw materials required by an industrial society. The oil crisis of 1973-74 made obvious to all a truth which American policy makers had long understood; “secure supplies of raw materials at reasonable prices are the lifeblood of any industrial nation…Security of basic materials, when both the outcome of wars and the ability to maintain the uneasy balance of terror between wars are closely related to economic strength and performance, is a paramount objective…Within the general scheme of raw material supplies, nickel has a special place. The U.S. Defence Department warned in 1945 that nickel comes closest to being a true ‘war metal’. It deserves the first priority among metals receiving…attention. Since the start of the Korean War, nickel has remained the world’s most critical material; this condition is likely to continue for some time.” [John Deverell and the Latin American Working Group, 1975; Falconbridge: Portrait Of A Canadian Mining Multinational, James Lorimer and Company, Publishers (Toronto)]. The properties that made nickel such a useful and strategic metal are its strength, hardness, ductility, resistance to corrosion, and the ability to retain these features at extremely high and low temperatures. Nickel also imparts these same benefits to other metals when combined with them in alloys. American industry sought to find substitutes, but nickel consumption continued to grow rapidly. This growth in demand continued despite rising prices, and the reason for this strong demand, not only in the United States but also in Western Europe and Japan, was the key role that nickel played in many high-technology products and processes. One of the chief activities of the massive military establishments in industrialized countries has been the pioneering of advanced technology and its application to enormous, expensive, ever-growing and ever-changing stocks of military hardware. The expansion of the nickel industry from its earliest beginnings was therefore intimately linked to the rise of military expenditure in times of peace and war. “Commercial production of nickel in Canada, the world’s leading producer for nearly 70 years, was begun for military purposes…The U.S. navy moved quickly to pursue the technological advantage nickel seemed to offer. Nickel steel passed the artillery punishment tests with flying colours and was judged the most wonderful armour plate ever made…the Canadian Copper Company made its first sale in 1891 to the United States Navy, and the new industry was on its way…expansion of nickel production was based primarily on meeting the demand of the various national military establishments…During the 1960’s the increasing civilian uses of more than 3000 nickel alloys competed with the military requirements of the Vietnam war to encourage a further strong growth in productive capacity. “Space and military technology and all related civilian production dealing with intense stress and heat require extremely high-performance materials in large quantities, as for example in the large and powerful jet engines of the aircraft industry. The change in the scale of demand is indicated by the changing nickel requirements of that industry: a four engine piston driven plane required only about 125 pounds of nickel; a commercial four engine jet requires 4,000 pounds; the Boeing 747 jumbo uses 11,000 pounds; and the supersonic transports, if their day ever comes, will each need 18,000 pounds of nickel. The same trend appears in any productive activity where the power, size and speed of machinery is increasing. “Another special feature of nickel, its non-corroding quality, spreads the demand for nickel to other high-technology growth industries. The petroleum industry in the capitalist world now uses 64 million pounds of nickel annually, mainly in refinery process equipment. The new nuclear power plants require large amounts of nickel alloy tubing in their heat exchanger systems, and a similar need for miles of nickel alloy tubing arises from the desalinization plants which will be needed to increase fresh water supplies. The same is true of pollution control systems for the treatment and disposal of industrial wastes” [John Deverell and the Latin American Working Group, 1975; Falconbridge: Portrait Of A Canadian Mining Multinational, James Lorimer and Company, Publishers (Toronto)]. N.B: Titanium is only about half as dense as ferrous and nickel-based metals, but owing to its exceptionally high strength to weight ratio, only about half as much titanium is required to do the same job (or the same weight of titanium will go twice as far). With time, however, the divergence between the interests of the mining companies and of the Canadian nation was also becoming clear - a pattern was being established, often to be repeated. Resources were being extracted from Canada on terms essentially in accordance with the economic, political, and strategic demands of the United States. The enforcement of these terms was largely dependent on the nature of the corporations involved – put simply, they were American companies ultimately integrated in the American system. The vast wealth generated from the staple trades went hand in hand with a crippling pattern of commercial dependency that shaped the fundamental condition of Canadian development. The wealth from resources, the revenues from markets, and the benefits from production flowed largely to others. Canada’s economic trajectory was subject to the decisions and strategies of states or groups within the dominant industrial countries of United States and Britain [Innis A. Harold, Daniel Drache (ed), 1995; Staples, Markets, and Cultural Change: Selected Essays - Innis A.Harold, McGill-Queen’s University Press (Montreal & Kingston)]. “No country in the world would want to give up its natural resources to foreigners” [Putin signals end to foreign ownership of Russian energy: Subcontracting O.K; Gazprom to take project from Shell - The Ottawa Citizen, 12th December 2006] “As exhaustion of mines proceeded in the United States, increasing demands for capital brought increasing centralization of control. The mining industry in part became entrenched behind tariffs and cartels and in part migrated to new countries…American protectionist policies…encouraged the development of secondary industry in the United States at the expense of Canada as a producer of ore…the enormous drain on Canadian energies left the task of exploiting mineral resources to an important extent to America; and the Canadians were effective in the exploitation particularly of precious metals and base metals” [Innis A. Harold, 1956; Essays in Canadian Economic History, University of Toronto Press (Toronto)]. The President of Canadian Copper, Stevenson Burke, openly stated that the Americans naturally wished to see refining done in the United States and the work provided for American citizens [Jamie Swift and The Development Education Centre, 1977; The Big Nickel: Inco at home and abroad, Between the Lines (Kitchener)]. “Foreign investment has helped China’s economy grow, but after establishing a secure foothold, it has now created many serious problems and risks…Foreign takeover bids for Chinese companies are also endangering China of its capacity to maintain and grow its own technical, research, and management capabilities and potentially making it a permanent developing country” [Economic nationalism rises in China five years after WTO entry: Officials say more must be done to protect indigenous players – The Ottawa Citizen, 12th December 2006] “The emergence of large scale ventures in the mining of lateritic deposits of nickel in the third world was an extremely critical development for the future of the Canadian nickel industry. Inco had began generating large pools of capital through its Canadian operations that allowed the company to make very substantial investments abroad. Important areas in Inco’s expansion outside Canada were: Indonesia, Guatemala, and Brazil. In effect, the company had used its profits made in Canada to make it less dependant on Canada in the future. The failure of previous Canadian governments…to insist on a higher return to the public purse from Inco’s operations had assisted the company in generating a capital pool, which allowed it to diversify internationally, thus cutting down the bargaining power of Canadian governments with Inco in the future” [Laxer James, 1981; Canada’s Economic Strategy, McClelland and Stewart Limited (Toronto)]. The general tendencies in the industrial areas of western civilization, particularly the United States and Great Britain, have had a pronounced effect on Canada’s export of staples. “These two areas began to draw increasingly on outside areas for staples and even continental United States has found it necessary with the disappearance of free land, the decline of natural resources, and the demand for new industrial materials…to rely on outside areas as shown in her imperialistic policy of the twentieth century. Canada has participated in the industrial growth of the United States, becoming the gateway of that country to the markets of the British Empire. She has continued, however, chiefly as a producer of staples for the industrial centres of the United States even more than of Great Britain making her own contribution to the Industrial Revolution of North America and Europe” [Innis A. Harold, Daniel Drache (ed), 1995; Staples, Markets, and Cultural Change: Selected Essays - Innis A.Harold, McGill-Queen’s University Press (Montreal & Kingston)]. American imperialism replaced and exploited British imperialism, while Canada has ultimately served as an instrument of both [Great Britain, the United States and Canada, by Harold A. Innis. In The New Canadian Political Economy, edited by Wallace Clement and Glen Williams, 1989; McGill-Queen’s University Press (Kingston, Montreal, London)]. A concurring source states that “Canadian-based firms have generally chosen to serve the US markets through exports from Canada…The interests of Canadian multinationals are similar to those of the Canadian subsidiaries of US multinationals” [Joseph R. D’Cruz and James D. Fleck, 1988; Yankee Canadians In The Global Economy: Strategic Management of U.S. Subsidiaries Under Free Trade, National Centre for Management Research and Development, University of Western Ontario (London)]. “The places where Canada, the United States and Australia have been able to become wealthy from mining, is in the secondary processing. And Africa has certainly had its share of knowing what it means to simply ship things offshore” [Joan Kuyek; National Coordinator, MiningWatch Canada] In essence… N.B: Staples = Raw materials The staple theory is considered to be Canada’s most notable contribution to modern economic thought. Its most powerful claim was that, when Canada “entered the world system as an advanced country, the backward, forward, and final demand linkages generated by export-led growth remained weak, and import penetration, foreign ownership, and the absence of an indigenous class of entrepreneurs blocked the transformation of the Canadian economy into a fully mature industrial one” [Laxer G (ed), 1991; Perspectives on Canadian Economic Development: Class, Staples, Gender and Elites. Oxford University Press (Toronto)]. As evidenced, exogenous forces, or what economists call, externalities, set the agenda despite all the factors favourable for rapid and sustained development being present. The seminal message of the staple theory was that by exporting every rock and log as fast as it could, Canada had a raw deal - “it needed to mobilize its resources in order to build strong industries, deepen its domestic market, and create new and better employment opportunities for all” [Innis A. Harold, Daniel Drache (ed) 1995; Staples, Markets, and Cultural Change: Selected Essays – Innis A. Harold), McGill-Queen’s University Press (Montreal & Kingston)]. As Canada’s famous economist rightly stated, in exposing their industries to the global business cycle, Canadians have ultimately paid a high price [Ibid]. (2) Guatemala and the nickel cartel “With a revolver slung conspicuously on his hip, General Kjell Eugino Langerud, Guatemala’s President, officially opened Inco’s nickel mine in that country’s El Estor province. The July 12, 1977 ceremony was kicked off with the hoisting of the Canadian and Guatemalan flags – Canada’s being raised by Charge d’Affairs William Taylor, head of the Canadian mission. The opening was heralded in the Guatemalan press with such headlines as “Guatemala: Nickel Capital of Central America” [Jamie Swift and The Development Education Centre, 1977; The Big Nickel: Inco at home and abroad, Between the Lines (Kitchener)] “The Cold War concealed the unprecedented expansion of American-based transnationals which followed World War II. This direct use of state power to further corporate interests was symbolized by a meeting of the key members of President-elect Dwight Eisenhower’s cabinet in 1952. Appropriately occurring on board a U.S. warship, it was intended to plan the new administration’s foreign policy, or in the language of the day, to decide how best to combat Soviet-dominated Communism throughout the world. In attendance were John Foster Dulles of Sullivan and Cromwell, longtime counsel and executive committee member of International Nickel; George Humphrey, for twenty three-years President of the Hanna Mining Company; and Charles Erwin Wilson, President of General Motors. Respectively, they were appointed Secretary of State, of the Treasury and of Defence…In 1956 the Hanna Mining Company of Cleveland had secured a concession on the shores of Lake Izabal in Guatemala, from the military government of Carlos Castillo Armas…Hanna had secured these mining rights only two years after a CIA-inspired coup...When Hanna Mining invited Inco’s participation in the Lake Izabal development, the vehicle for co-operation became a Canadian-based holding company called Explorer Metal.” It is worth noting that Guatemala’s mining code was enacted between the suspension of the country’s constitution in 1963, and the institution of its successor almost two years later - which notably exempted mineral exploitation agreements from ratification by the Guatemalan Congress [Jamie Swift and The Development Education Centre, 1977; The Big Nickel: Inco at home and abroad, Between the Lines (Kitchener)]. Tiomin has said very little about the myriad applications of the ores available at Kwale after they have undergone value-adding / local processing. This deposit is one of four along the Kenyan coast, and contains about ten different ores. Company records state that, “the main heavy minerals found in the mineralized zone are, in order of abundance, ilmenite, rutile and zircon but minor amounts of kyanite, garnet, tourmaline, leoxocene and monazite have also been recorded.” [Tiomin Resources Inc., Annual Information Form (April 30, 2003). The company has indicated that it expects 80% of its profits from just two ores, rutile and zircon, and further estimates that it will break even, in less than four years of operations [Ibid]. Tiomin has also developed a proprietary process (the “TSR” Process) used to upgrade ilmenite into a high-grade titanium dioxide feedstock known as synthetic rutile. The “TSR” Process employs the latest chemical processing technology to produce synthetic rutile product containing up to 97% titanium dioxide, the highest titanium dioxide content in the marketplace. In 1997, Tiomin submitted several patent applications to various international Intellectual Property Offices around the world for its “TSR” Process. As of 2004, it has been granted patents in the U.K, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore, and the USA, with two more pending in other jurisdictions. Notable applications of rutile and zircon: Rutile: The pigment industry, electronics, photochemistry, heavy-duty indsutrial applications, auto industry, medical industry, military applications, and aerospace. Zircon: The nuclear industry, fuel cells (auto / ‘the hydrogen economy’, the military), power uitility industry, medical industry, telecommunications, advanced ceramics, piezoelectrics, refractories, and electronics. See also: Calling for a New International Resource Management Order, by World Economic Justice Network. A presentation to the National Roundtables on Corporate Social Responsibility and the Canadian Extractive Sector in Developing Countries, Toronto, September 12, 2006, geo.international.gc.ca/cip-pic/library/CSR_Toronto_Submission_World_Economic_Justice.doc. For Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada Roundtable Website, see geo.international.gc.ca/cip-pic/current_discussions/csr-roundtables-en.aspSo, in response to Mr. Potvin's 'strongest' argument against better value for Kenyans (through value-adding processing) or in response to his point about lack of electricity / natural gas… Africa Should Use Natural Gas At Home - Energy Panel World Bank - www.worldbank.orgExporting to the West is only part of the solution for Africa's surplus of natural gas, much of which is flared for lack of a market, panelists speaking at the Corporate Council on Africa's Oil and Gas Forum said on Tuesday, Reuters reports. While prospects of growing natural gas exports probably will end flaring, Jacob Broekhuijsen of the World Bank said producer nations must find more use for the resource than shipping it away… www.noticias.info/Archivo/2004/200412/20041202/20041202_41344.shtmJ Kuyek: There is an excellent study that shows the impacts of resource extraction on the economies of the US and Canada. It points out that it was in fact manufacturing that aided development in both countries [Ref: Lost Landscapes and Failed Economies: The Search For A Value Of Place, by Thomas Michael Power (Paperback, available at amazon.com)]. See also The False Economic Promise of Mineral Extraction, by the same author (first post in this thread). --- In the next posting: More on Economic Justice issues And The Directors and Officers of Tiomin Resources Inc. (Toronto, Canada) - as of April 30, 2004. N.B: Officials at the office of the Registrar of Companies in Kenya have not been able to “trace the file” belonging to Tiomin Kenya Ltd., and its directors remain unknown [Source: Environment Trust of Kenya]. “Too much capitalism has raised fears in China that its economy is sliding into the grip of powerful multinationals…Strategic industries and leading companies in these industries, such as nuclear, aerospace, and power industries and others must be restricted in the ratio of foreign capital and foreign ownership” [Economic nationalism rises in China five years after WTO entry: Officials say more must be done to protect indigenous players – The Ottawa Citizen, 12th December 2006]
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Post by wanyee on Dec 24, 2006 10:40:49 GMT 3
“To win one hundred battles in one hundred wars is not the ultimate skill. To stop the enemy without fighting is the ultimate skill” [Sun Tzu, The Art of War]
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"We'll have to fight, we're gonna fight, fight for our rights...Africa liberate" [Bob, Zimbabwe]
Wasee, hawa ni mfano mdogo wa wale wanajiita wafalme wa dunia, wanaodhulumu binadamu wenzao.
Inabidi sasa tuwashow waKenya ni nani. Kwani ukichokoza nyuki ukimbie kwa hao, inamaanisha?
Si wakati umewania, masikini warithi dunia? Mwenyezi Mungu awe nasi maana tunapigania haki zetu.
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The Directors and Officers of Tiomin Resources Inc. (Toronto, Canada) - as of April 30, 2004
Name, Municipality Of Residence, Office and Security Holding, Period of service as a senior executive, Principal occupation for last five years, No. of shares beneficially owned or over which control is exercised (3)
Jean C. Potvin, Toronto-Canada, President-CEO-Chairman-Director, Since 1992*, Same, 7,790,971
Oliver Lennox-King (1), Toronto-Ontario, Director, Since 1992, Chairman, Southern Cross Resources, 1,033,714
C. Thomas Ogryzlo (2), Toronto-Ontario, Director, Since 1992, President & CEO-Polaris Energy Inc., 285,000
Roland Bertin (1)(2), Toronto-Ontario, Director, Since 2002 , Portfolio Manager-retired, 4,362,952
Donald Worth (1), Toronto-Ontario, Director, Since 1998, Banker-retired, Nil
Ian MacNeily, Toronto-Ontario, Vice President, Finance & CFO, Since 1996, Same, 301,000
* Appointed President of the Corporation in January 1997
(1) Member of Audit Committee (2) Member of Compensation Committee (3) The information as to shares beneficially owned or over which they exercise control or direction, not being within the knowledge of the Corporation has been furnished by the respective nominees individually. Shareholdings shown are as at April 30, 2004
How much is being paid for the minerals and how was that figure reached?
J.C Potvin: By law minerals are vested in the Government of Kenya. By way of a Special Mining Lease, the government has granted Tiomin the right to exploit the minerals within the designated boundary. Tiomin will pay royalties and corporate taxes as well as other proceeds that will form part of government's take, such as personal taxation on direct and indirect employment, statutory deductions, fuel taxes etc.
Response: The recent court ruling was based on the argument that the mining project is “good for the country” and that “the farmers are bound by this agreement negotiated on their behalf” [Farmers to lose land to State – Daily Nation, 20th December 2006 (Story by Francis Thoya)]. First of all, how can an agreement that has been negotiated on anyone’s behalf, particularly if they have not been provided with sufficient information, be fair, let alone binding? [Ref: Police break workshop by lawyers on mining deal - Daily Nation, 3rd May 2006].
Sh.2,000 or 33 CdN dollars per acre per year Sh 9,000 or 149 CdN dollars for relocation 3% in royalties
To appreciate the insolence of this offer, consider that a janitor cleaning Tiomin’s headquarters in downtown Toronto, would earn more in a month. This is not only unacceptable, but it is a great to all Kenyans.
And in view of Canada’s aforementioned Staple Theory, Thomas Michael Power’s piece (The False Economic Promise of Mineral Extraction), and the experience of history itself, the following excerpts though “outdated” prove their validity, and therefore provide a fitting response:
[Source: Lanning G. and Mueller M, 1979; Africa Undermined: A History Of The Mining Companies And The Underdevelopment Of Africa, Penguin Books Ltd (Harmondsworth, England)]
"It is argued that even if the mine remains an enclave, cut off from the rest of the economy, the country still benefits financially from the mine. In return for a licence to develop the mineral deposit, the company will undoubtedly have to pay taxes. The government can use this income to develop the educational, technical and industrial infrastructure. Alternatively the income can be channelled through the central and commercial banks to provide risk capital and encourage new enterprises and local entrepreneurs” [Ibid].
"The revenue accruing to the government from taxes will depend on the value of the mineral, the profitability of the mine, and the division of profits between the mining company and the government. In the colonial era, the funds diverted to Africa were negligible in relation to the developmental needs of the continent. Since independence, nationalist governments have sought to increase their share of mine profits. But although they have made some progress, they have not succeeded in diverting enough of the surplus created by the mining industry to generate economic development. Liberia, for example, is as far from industrialization as ever; and despite more than twenty years of iron-ore production, the country still imports all its steel” [Ibid].
"The government's income from mining in Africa is often very small, and despite the heavy capital expenditure it is not enough to lay the basis for further economic development. The income is used to meet the government's rising recurrent administrative costs, and may well be offset by a consequent reduction in aid, as in Botswana. There is a small gain in economic independence, but little or of no help for balanced economic development. Even where the government has taken a large stake in a mining company, this does not necessarily mean that the government's income will increase. The compensation agreements involve the payment of large sums of capital, which have to be paid out of the country's foreign exchange earnings for many years” [Ibid].
"Nor are the incomes generated by the labour force likely to provide a source of new investment funds, for two reasons. A high proportion of the managerial staff will be foreign, and their salaries and savings will be remitted overseas. Moreover, local miners are likely to spend their wages in an attempt to raise the low living standards of themselves, their families and their relatives in the cities and rural areas, before saving a high proportion of their income. In any case, savings in a capitalist economy more often come from company profits than from the incomes of manual workers. But as the mines are invariably established with foreign capital, the bulk of the profits are also paid overseas, except of course for the taxes levied by the government. Skilful use of transfer accounting can further reduce the amount of tax paid by the companies. Even if more savings and profits were channelled through the commercial banking sector, there is not, in most African states, an indigenous entrepreneurial class waiting to utilize the capital. If funds are available locally, the mining company with its superior credit rating will take advantage of them to finance mine renewal or expansion. Then, as in Zambia, the companies will use bank funds, while exporting their own incomes to their metropolitan base” [Ibid].
"Although the mining companies have ceded majority ownership of many of their African mines, they have evolved a whole range of techniques to neutralize the effects of these takeovers. The most important element of their strategy is to cede nominal control to the country in the form of majority ownership while retaining as much effective control over the mines as possible through management, advisory and sales contracts, and by reinforcing the rights of minority shareholders. As long as day-to-day management remains the prerogative of the mining companies, much of the investable surplus needed in Africa for development continues to leave the continent. In the company accounts this surplus sometimes appears as profits, but often it is disguised as inflated ‘head office charges’, ‘management and consultancy fees’, ‘machinery costs’, ‘shipping and handling charges’, and ‘marketing commission’. The paramount concern of the mining companies is to ensure the continuing flow of minerals and profits from Africa. The developmental needs of Africa are likely to be a long way down any company’s list of priorities” [Ibid].
"Once their resources have been incorporated into the world capitalist economy, the underdeveloped areas suffer from their relationship with the advanced industrial states in two major ways. They pay a heavy economic tribute, which aids the further industrial development of the metropolitan centres, and their own social, economic and political structures are heavily distorted. Colonial rule, the companies, and free trade confine their economies to the production of primary goods. Their mineral and agricultural exports feed the factories of the industrialized states which then export back manufactured goods, to make a handsome profit from the transaction. The process strengthens the position of the manufacturers in the developed states and destroys the possibilities of independent industrial growth in the underdeveloped ones. What industrial activity there is in the Third World is largely owned and controlled by the giant multinational companies with their base in the industrialized nations. For as long as the poor countries remain economic satellites of the advanced capitalist metropoles, they will be prevented by the operation of economic, political and military forces from achieving significant economic development…as the experience of Chile and Cuba demonstrates. When groups of mineral-exporting countries do form, the developed nations will try to split them, as they have set out to do in the case of OPEC and CIPEC” [Ibid].
“The problem for Africa, whose social and economic structure was heavily distorted by colonialism, is whether the activities of the international mining companies are compatible with the continent’s economic development, or whether the companies are in fact the greatest obstacle to that development…Foreign mining companies created Africa's dependant economic structure and incorporated the continent into the world economy. And today Africa’s subordinate position in a world economy dominated by the advanced industrial nations is maintained by the giant international companies. The obstacles blocking the way are too great, and the forces too powerful, for a poverty-stricken African state, however richly endowed with resources, to develop its potential as part of the world capitalist system…More minerals have been mined in the last fifty years than in the whole period since people first appeared on the earth, but the world is clearly entering an era when its finite resources will have to be carefully rationed. The danger for Africa and the other underdeveloped countries is that the industrialized nations will use their undoubted political, economic, and military power to ensure that their share of world mineral consumption does not diminish. Should this happen, Africa will be condemned to a permanent state of poverty and underdevelopment” [Ibid].
“Too much capitalism has raised fears in China that its economy is sliding into the grip of powerful multinationals…Strategic industries and leading companies in these industries, such as nuclear, aerospace, and power industries and others must be restricted in the ratio of foreign capital and foreign ownership” [Economic nationalism rises in China five years after WTO entry: Officials say more must be done to protect indigenous players – The Ottawa Citizen, 12th December 2006]
A case of the pot calling the kettle black, China happens to be right in the middle of the Darfur crisis:
Ref: "Give me the oil and I'll look the other way" - Daily Nation, 01/13/2006
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Post by wanyee on Dec 24, 2006 10:48:55 GMT 3
I apologize for the double posting. Ni kama vidole za mine zimejam na hawa wasee sana. --- But while I was logging back on, I noted that we might be having some wageni's on Jukwaa, who have been interested in some of the stuff we're gassing about. Inafaa tuwapikie hawa 'wageni' chai. Or is it, tuwapike? Ref: Canadian diamonds not conflict-free: Many issues to be addressed, says First Nations leader (2nd posting in this thread) ---- We are going into the heart of the beast, and we shall smite the necks of our enemies... Wacha kwanza tuangalie nini iko kwa oven - www.nkusa.org/ Inaonekana kama mambo yako karibu kuchacha. --- Sun Tzu said: 1. The art of war is of vital importance to the State. 2. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected. [Chapter 1: Laying Plans]
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Post by wanyee on Dec 25, 2006 10:24:29 GMT 3
Habari zenu ndugu zangu? It’s a Black Christmas this year in Ottawa. Mzee Msa, I’m not sure about Montreal, but it’s definitely a Black Christmas in the capital region. B.t.w, nice piece on the WSF - appreciate your coverage on Potvin and Co. As for me, first time in ten years of living in Canada, that I haven’t seen snow on Christmas eve. In some places, I am told, they call it a “Black Christmas”. Nilikuwa nikitembea mtaani leo usiku, nikienjoy weather, nikifikiri vile Jah nimgreat. Anachenjingi mambo ghafla, vile ‘anajiskia’. Wengine wanabaki wakisema ati ni Global Warming. Kuna mtu yeyote hapa ashawahi kucheki kitu simple kama bawa la nzi, kwa mfano? Technology kama hizo, ambazo mpaka sasa wanasayansi wanatumia kujenga madoido ya kila aina. Iwe ni F-16 au nyumba ya gorofa sijui ngapi. Kwanza hizo ndege wanajenga na mabati za akina nani? Let me repeat a favourite proverb: “Two men in a burning house should not stop to argue” [Ghanaian proverb]. As Bob Marley said, “they keep us hungry, so when you wanna get some food, your brother becomes your enemy” [Ambush in the night (ubaya sikumbuki album)]. To all you who are for the truth and justice, let us always remember who our common enemy is, and thus stay united in our fight unto sure victory. “We can make it if we try” [Burning Spear, Appointment with His Majesty] Mungu yu nasi, na ni Mwenyezi kweli. Hivi karibuni, sote tutajishuhudia. --- Bombardier looks to new regional jet production: Company to shift production to Mexico – The Ottawa Citizen, 19th October 2006 “Bombardier has seen its order book for the CRJ 700 and CRJ 900 regional jets shrink steadily. Formerly it supplied half the world regional jet market, but its share dropped to about 25 per cent. Rival Embraer of Brazil, with new models from 70 to 110 seats, has been more successful, with an order book topping 400 aircraft.” President of the Aerospace unit, Mr Pierre Beaudoin, “said because of the high Canadian dollar, soaring aluminium and titanium prices, and its domestic cost structure, Bombardier will shift more manufacturing to its new Mexican plant, now making electrical harnessing…We must use low-cost countries and more outsourcing as we work to double aerospace margins in a few years…Business jets continue to be Bombardier’s ace card and it sees no let-up in demand before 2008. It is the world market leader but admits it may face a threat if Embraer gets a full line on the market by 2010, including very light jets…Business jet demand, up nearly 20 per cent in the first half, is so strong internationally that delivery times on many Bombardier, GulfStream, Raytheon, Cessna, and Dassault models may stretch out three years.” --- Regarding the oil exploration that is currently going on off our coast: "Oil companies favor PSAs, because they limit the risk of cost overruns while giving greater potential for profit. PSAs tend to be massive legal agreements, designed to replace a weak or missing legal framework -- which is helpful for a country like Iraq that lacks the laws needed to attract investment. "It's also dangerous. It means governments are legally committing themselves to oil deals that they've negotiated from a position of weakness. And, the contracts typically span decades. Companies argue they need long-term legal security to justify huge investments in risky countries; the current draft recommends 15 to 20 years. THE RACE FOR IRAQ'S RESOURCES Will Iraq's Oil Blessing Become a Curse? By Joshua Gallu in Berlin www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,456212,00.html --- Please sign this petition to the UN Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon www.gopetition.com/online/10256.html
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Post by wanyee on Dec 25, 2006 22:50:29 GMT 3
Why not us? Nasi tuamke ndugu zangu. --- TITANIUM DIOXIDE PIGMENT PLANT www.kmml.com/inf_titdio_page.htm --- The Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd (KMML) Kollam, Kerala,India History of KMML The KMML was established by a private entrepreneur in 1932 as F. X. Perira and Sons (Travancore) Pvt. Ltd. During 1956 this concern was taken over by the state government and was placed under the control of its industries department. The unit was converted as a limited company with effect from 1.4.1972. in the name of “ The Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd”. About KMML The Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd (KMML) is the world’s first fully integrated Titanium Dioxide plant. Since its inception, KMML has made an indelible mark in the fields of mining, mineral processing and manufacturing. With the state of art factories at Sangaramangalam and Kovilthottam, KMML has won national acclaim for its impressive performance.KMML is the India’s first and only manufacturer of Rutile Grade Titanium dioxide by chloride route. Our products are marketed under the brand name KEMOX. KEMOX RC 822 is a multiple application pigment, which is in great demand in the world market. KMML also produces other grades of Titanium Dioxide pigments like RC 800 PG, RC 800, RC 802, RC 813, RC 822 and RC 808. Our product range include Titanium Tetra Chloride, Ilmenite, Rutile, Leucoxene and Sillimanite from the basic raw materials for the variety of industrial uses. Minerals like Zircon and Monazite are used in the development of Nuclear Technology.KMML also manufactures Iron oxide bricks used for building purpose. The production of these bricks from waste Iron oxide is an in-house development. Close access to one of the worlds' richest beaches helps KMML retain its leadership. KMML’s Titanium pigments are reputed for their high degree of gloss, tint retention capacities and ease of dispersion. These qualities give KMML a formidable identity in the industryKMML is certified ISO 9002 in the year 2000 for implementing world class quality standards. Vision KMML to be a world class producer of mineral sand based value added products. Mission a)To become the nodal agency for promoting and establishing mineral based industries in the State to ensure value addition and effective and controlled exploitation of the mineral reserves. b) To develop adequate supply base for the services and utility for development of the mineral based industries. c) To create more awareness about Corporate Social Responsibilities for chemical industries in the State. d) To become the leader in controlling Green House Gas Emissions so as to promote the concept of Green Earth. www.kmml.com/inner_page.html---
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Post by wanyee on Dec 26, 2006 7:54:07 GMT 3
Kenya in the energy frontier --- Vast New Energy Source Almost Here: Solar Hydrogen Fuel Dream Will Soon Be A Reality, Australian Scientists Predict Science Daily — Australian scientists predict that a revolutionary new way to harness the power of the sun to extract clean and almost unlimited energy supplies from water will be a reality within seven years. Using special titanium oxide ceramics that harvest sunlight and split water to produce hydrogen fuel, the researchers say it will then be a simple engineering exercise to make an energy-harvesting device with no moving parts and emitting no greenhouse gases or pollutants. It would be the cheapest, cleanest and most abundant energy source ever developed: the main by-products would be oxygen and water. "This is potentially huge, with a market the size of all the existing markets for coal, oil and gas combined," says Professor Janusz Nowotny, who with Professor Chris Sorrell is leading a solar hydrogen research project at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Centre for Materials and Energy Conversion. The team is thought to be the most advanced in developing the cheap, light-sensitive materials that will be the basis of the technology. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/08/040825094820.htm --- Future Materials News - December, 2004 Research News: Titanium oxide and the unlimited clean energy By Bob Beale Titanium dioxide is a decidedly useful industrial material - it has found its way into everything from toothpaste and paint to air filters and water-cleansing devices. All that will pale into insignificance, however, if Professor Janusz Nowotny and Professor Chris Sorrell succeed in using it as the basis of a revolutionary new way to generate vast, clean energy supplies for the world. The area of solar panels required to cover all Australia's energy needs is equivalent to a square that is only 40km wide. The special titanium dioxide ceramics that the two University of NSW researchers are working with can be used to split water by electrolysis into its component gases, hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen, of course, is a rich energy source. The process is powered by solar energy, gathered by conventional photovoltaic cells. Put these elements together with enough efficiency and you would have the capacity to generate almost limitless supplies of energy - all produced from sunlight and water. It would be the cheapest, cleanest and most abundant energy source ever developed. When hydrogen is used as a fuel (for examples in cars with fuel cells), the main waste products are heat and water (not carbon dioxide as when fossil fuels are combusted). "This is potentially huge, with a market the size of all the existing markets for coal, oil and gas combined," says Nowotny, who with Sorrell is leading the solar hydrogen research project at the UNSW Centre for Materials and Energy Conversion. The team is thought to be the most advanced of any in the world in developing the cheap, light-sensitive materials that will be the basis of the technology. Titanium dioxide's ability to split water was discovered many years ago by Japanese researchers Akira Fujishima and Kenichi Honda, who won the the 2004 Japan Prize for their work. The UNSW team has been steadily re-engineering and refining the ceramic formulation and structure to make it more effective for this purpose. And they are getting close. "Based on our research results, we know we are on the right track and with the right support we now estimate that we can deliver a new material within seven years," says Nowotny. Once they reach that point, he says it will be a simple engineering exercise to make an energy-harvesting device with no moving parts and emitting no greenhouse gases or pollutants. Sorrell says Australia is ideally placed to take advantage of the enormous potential of this new technology: "We have abundant sunlight, huge reserves of titanium and we're close to the burgeoning energy markets of the Asia-Pacific region. But this technology could be used anywhere in the world. It's been the dream of many people for a long time to develop it, and it's exciting to know that it is now within such close reach." The Centre for Materials Research in Energy Conversion, University of New South Wales, was established in 1998 to promote research in technologies and devices for clean energy and environmental monitoring. More info: Bob Beale Public Affairs Adviser, Office of the Dean, Faculty of Science, University of NSW E-mail: bbeale@science.unsw.edu.au Background on solar hydrogen • 1.6 million individual households equipped with 10m x 10m solar hydrogen panels would meet all of Australia's energy needs. • Hydrogen generated from water using solar energy constitutes a clean source of energy as neither its production nor its combustion process produces greenhouse or pollutant gases. Hydrogen produced by existing conventional methods emits carbon dioxide at the production stage. • When this technology matures it would allow Australia to be a leader in solar technology, becoming part of an OPEC of the future. Australia is ideally placed to commercialise this technology as it has abundant sunlight. • This technology ultimately will reduce Australia's total reliance on coal, gasoline and natural gas, providing energy security. • Titanium dioxide is plentiful and cheap. Titania ceramics also have many other applications, including water purification, anti-viral and bactericidal coatings on hospital clothing and surfaces, self-cleaning glasses, and anti-pollution surfaces on buildings and roads. • As sources of fossil fuels disappear, the race is on to be the world's leading provider of hydrogen. The US Government recently committed an extra US$1.2 billion to hydrogen research. Japan has launched a 20-year research program that is sending satellites into space in the hope that it can harvest solar energy and send it back to the earth by laser onto cells of titanium dioxide (TiO2). The European Commission has instituted an intense R&D program in pursuit of solar hydrogen. Iceland aims to be the world's first hydrogen economy. www.future.org.au/news/december/titanium.html See also; Titanium Dioxide Key to Producing Hydrogen Fuel from Sunlight www.azom.com/news.asp?newsID=1895Titanium Dioxide Almost Breaks the Energy Barrier Science Watch®, January/February 2005, Vol. 16, No. 1 www.sciencewatch.com/jan-feb2005/sw_jan-feb2005_page7.htm---- Please sign this petition to the UN Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon www.gopetition.com/online/10256.html
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Post by wanyee on Dec 27, 2006 9:03:48 GMT 3
Kenya and the Hydrogen Economy “The US Department of Energy estimates that by 2040 cars and light trucks powered by fuel cells will require about 150 megatons per year of hydrogen. The US currently produces about 9 megatons per year, almost all of it by reforming natural gas. The challenge is to find inexpensive and efficient routes to create hydrogen in sufficient quantities from non-fossil natural resources. The most promising route is splitting water, which is a natural carrier of hydrogen. It takes energy to split the water molecule and release hydrogen, but that energy is later recovered during oxidation to produce water. To eliminate fossil fuels from this cycle, the energy to split water must come from non-carbon sources, such as the electron-hole pairs excited in a semiconductor by solar radiation, the heat from a nuclear reactor or solar collector, or an electric voltage generated by renewable sources such as hydropower or wind.” [Challenges For The Hydrogen Economy - www.energybulletin.net/3828.html]. “A major attraction of hydrogen as a fuel is its natural compatibility with fuel cells. The higher efficiency of fuel cells—currently 60% compared to 22% for gasoline or 45% for diesel internal combustion engines—would dramatically improve the efficiency of future energy use. Coupling fuel cells to electric motors, which are more than 90% efficient, converts the chemical energy of hydrogen to mechanical work without heat as an intermediary. This attractive new approach for energy conversion could replace many traditional heat engines. The broad reach of that efficiency advantage is a strong driver for deploying hydrogen fuel cells widely. ”Although fuel cells are more efficient, there are also good reasons for burning hydrogen in heat engines for transportation. Jet engines and internal combustion engines can be rather easily modified to run on hydrogen instead of hydrocarbons. Internal combustion engines run as much as 25% more efficiently on hydrogen compared to gasoline and produce no carbon emissions. The US and Russia have test-flown commercial airliners with jet engines modified to burn hydrogen.9 Similarly, BMW, Ford, and Mazda are road-testing cars powered by hydrogen internal combustion engines that achieve a range of 300 kilometers, and networks of hydrogen filling stations are being implemented in some areas of the US, Europe, and Japan. Such cars and filling stations could provide an early start and a transitional bridge to hydrogen fuel-cell transportation. ”The versatility of fuel cells makes them workable in nearly any application where electricity is useful. Stationary plants providing 200 kilowatts of neighborhood electrical power are practical and operating efficiently. Such plants can connect to the electrical grid to share power but are independent of the grid in case of failure. Fuel-cell power for consumer electronics like laptop computers, cell phones, digital cameras, and audio players provide more hours of operation than batteries at the same volume and weight. Although the cost per kilowatt is high for these small units, the unit cost can soon be within an acceptable consumer range. Electronics applications may be the first to widely reach the consumer market, establish public visibility, and advance the learning curve for hydrogen technology. ”The large homogeneous transportation market offers enormous potential for hydrogen fuel cells to dramatically reduce fossil fuel use, lower harmful emissions, and improve energy efficiency. Fuel cells can be used not only in cars, trucks, and buses, but also can replace the diesel electric generators in locomotives and power all-electric ships. Europe already has a demonstration fleet of 30 fuel-cell buses running regular routes in 10 cities, and Japan is poised to offer fuel-cell cars for sale” [Ibid].
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Post by wanyee on Dec 29, 2006 11:35:12 GMT 3
‘Poverty, ignorance, greed’ blamed for pipeline explosion in Nigeria The Ottawa Citizen – 27th December 2006 By Katharine Houreld (Associated Press) Lagos, Nigeria “How can this be, that people are so poor in Nigeria that they will risk their lives for a little thing? But boats leave for America every day filled with oil.” [Bode Kuforiji, university lecturer]. news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061226-oil-explosion.html--- Titanium and the aerospace industry Gas Turbine Engines – Highly efficient gas turbine engines are possible only through the use of titanium-based alloys in components like fan blades, compressor blades, discs, hubs, and numerous non-rotor parts. The key advantages of titanium based alloys in this application include high strength / weight ratio, strength at moderate temperatures and good resistance to creep and fatigue. The development of titanium alumnides will allow the use of titanium in hotter sections of a new generation of engines. Pratt & Whitney’s revolutionary F-119 jet-engine is an excellent example. It has 40% fewer parts than current jet-engines, and each part is more durable and does its job more efficiently. The F-119 consequently “develops more than twice the thrust of current engines under supersonic conditions…Pratt and Whitney’s innovative titanium alloys exhibit high elevated-temperature strength and a markedly improved resistance to sustained combustion… allowing the engine to burn hotter and faster for greater thrust and efficiency…The same heat-resistant alloy protects aft components, permitting greater thrust and durability” [F/A-22 Raptor: Advanced Tactical Fighter Aircraft, USA - www.airforce-technology.com/projects/f22/index.html/ and www.vostokstation.com.au/aircraft/F22_raptor.htm]. Industry experts describe it as “the first fighter aircraft engine equipped with hollow wide-chord fan blades...installed in the first fan stage” [F/A-22 Raptor: Advanced Tactical Fighter Aircraft, USA -http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/f22/index.html/]. This revolutionary engine will power a number of other cutting-edge aerospace innovations, including the G-7’s Joint Strike Fighter [http://www.jsf.mil/] and future supersonic business jets [http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/1303021.html]. Things are looking good for Pratt & Whitney (P&W), particularly when you add on the engines being produced by P&W Canada – and potential future usage in business jets and UAV’s (unmanned aerial vehicles, which are very crucial to the U.S Army and border-patrol) [GP7200 ‘exceeds expectation’ on road to autumn first flight – www.flightdailynews.com, 21st July 2004]. Pratt & Whitney’s GP7200 is the power-source of Airbus’ new A380 jumbo-liner [Upbeat P&W boss sees clear runway ahead – www.flightdailynews.com, 21st July 2004]. Rolls Royce has also developed revolutionary jet-engines, such as the AE 2100 and the AE 3007. The former powers the C-130 Hercules aircraft, and the latter, Embraer’s popular regional jets, as well as the Cessna Citation X-business jet. The AE 3007, for example, contains 14 titanium compressor discs. Pratt & Whitney’s PW600 and Very Light Jets (VLJ’s) – VLJ’s will transform air travel over the next decade. Absolutely. More than 5,000 VLJ’s are expected to take flight in the next decade, and can access any of the 5,000 secondary airports around the world, instead of having to struggle through the 30 much larger airports. The PW600 has half the parts of other turbofan jet engines, making it very light and easy to maintain. These new engines rev six times faster than a high performance sports car, and are breaking speed records in assembly and test time. “Pratt & Whitney Canada also manufactures engines for a host of business aircraft, including Bombardier, Cessna, Dassault, Embraer, Eclipse, Gulfstream and Raytheon” [Business aviation fastest-growing segment of market – Aerospace (A Special Report for the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada); The Globe and Mail, 27th September 2005]. --- Next: More on aerospace [Boeing, Airbus SAS, Bombardier, Embraer, NASA, Space Tourism]
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Post by wanyee on Dec 30, 2006 10:30:44 GMT 3
Tiomin stock up 24% as Kenyan judge dismisses fight against land acquisition Published 2006 www.canadaeast.com/ce2/docroot/article.php?articleID=78974TORONTO (CP) - Tiomin Resources Inc. (TSX:TIO) shares rose 24 per cent Tuesday as the company announced that a judge in Kenya had cleared the way for the expropriation of farmers' land needed for the company's Kwale titanium mineral sands project. The company's stock rose 3.5 cents to 18 cents in early-afternoon trading, on volume of nearly 7.3 million shares. Tiomin said the judge ruled in favour of the company and the Kenyan government, dismissing all petitions from seven farmers who have not voluntarily accepted an offer from the government for their land. The farmers control eight plots of land within the area of the special mining lease for the Kwale project, about 40 kilometres south of Mombasa, the largest port in East Africa. The judge also indicated that the government can proceed with expropriation, Tiomin said. The government is expected to deliver notices to the farmers giving them a short period in which to vacate the land. A week ago, Tiomin's stock tumbled 33 per cent to 13 cents after the firm said construction of the project would be delayed until the Kenyan government resolved the dispute with the farmers and provided access to the site. The parties failed to reach an out-of-court settlement. Tiomin said Tuesday several issues surrounding the project are still outstanding, such as the negotiation of port tariffs, exemption from certain stamp duty and taxes, and modification of the existing mining lease to encompass all land required for the project. "Tiomin is encouraged by the progress and efforts from the government of Kenya to resolve all outstanding issues to the satisfaction of the project lenders," it added. "The company is currently reviewing the development framework for the project in light of the delays caused by land issues and conditions set by the project lenders." In mid-2006, the company secured US$155 million in debt financing for the Kwale mineral sands project in Kenya. Standard Chartered Bank, WestLB and Caterpillar Finance made US$80 million available after Tiomin secured US$40 million from the African Development Bank and US$35 million in subordinated debt from Jinchuan Group Ltd. Tiomin also secured a cost-overrun facility with Netherlands Development Finance. Tiomin also holds a 49 per cent interest in the Pukaqaqa copper-gold deposit in Peru with partner Compania Minera Milpo SA. --- The follow-up on aerospace applications will be included in the next posting.
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Post by wanyee on Dec 31, 2006 11:39:54 GMT 3
Commercial jetliners Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner is a super-efficient aircraft “made of 50 percent composite materials, 20 percent aluminum, and 30 percent titanium, steel and other materials. That compares with 12 percent composites, 70 percent aluminum and 18 percent other materials in Boeing's existing 777 jetliner” [Boeing To Use Composites For Half Of 7E7 jet - www.komotv.com/stories/28117.htm , 3rd November 2003 and KQ acquires the latest 777-200 ER - East African Standard, 29th May 2004]. It is worth noting that, “a major aviation breakthrough came about with the rollout in 1995 of the first Boeing 777 commercial airplane incorporating a titanium landing gear. With this innovation, the weight of titanium usage in a single aircraft approximately doubled to almost ten percent of the total aircraft weight. A new plateau was reached in 1997 when…industry shipments set an all-time record” [RMI Titanium Company’s 50th Anniversary - . Canada happens to boast “the largest landing gear industry in the world”, with its most recent, notable achievement being the world’s most advanced landing gear, fitted beneath Airbus A380 XWB superjumbo aircraft” [Business aviation fastest-growing segment of market – Aerospace (A Special Report for the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada); The Globe and Mail, 27th September 2005]. The wings of Boeing's new jetliner will be comprised of titanium / graphite composites, and this, coupled with new engine technology, will allow the jet to fly farther without refuelling, making it 20 per cent more fuel efficient than other jets of similar size [Boeing in deal with Chinese parts suppliers – www.globalcomposites.com/news/news_fiche.asp?id=1307& , 11th June 2004 and Space and Aviation - Popular Science, December 2003]. The Seattle-based manufacturer anticipates that airlines will use its jet to open new non-stop links between mid-size cities, particularly in the 9,000-plus-mile range, therefore predicting $2 trillion in sales during the next two decades. Several airlines have already paid deposits for 100’s of Dreamliners [Space and Aviation - Popular Science, December 2003. Also Aircraft manufacturing giants gearing up for worldwide rebound in air travel - The Associated Press, Farnborough England; Boeing lands 50-plane order: Japanese airline signs $6-billion deal – The Associated Press (Seattle), 27th April 2004; Air Canada Picks Boeing – 26th April 2005; Air India to buy 50 Boeing planes – BBC News, 26th April 2005; and Boeing lands 25 craft order from Korean Air- Business News: The Globe and Mail (Canada), 22nd November 2006]. The A380 also uses significant amounts of titanium [Airbus A380 Megaliner: Weight Savings by Titanium – brightsurf.com/news/headlines/12204/Airbus_A380_Mega-liner_Weight_Savings_by_Titanium.html]. Airbus SAS announced “that the months of delay in launching its planned A350 XWB long-haul jetliner have made it a better product…The plane will compete with rival Boeing Co.’s 787 Dreamliner…Airbus executives…will launch a major sales offensive to pursuade airlines that the new twin-engine, wide-body plane…will offer unparalleled advantages such as a roomy cabin and better fuel economy. The coming duel between Airbus’ A350 XWB and Boeing’s Dreamliner promises to be particularly intense, because of what is at stake. Both companies predict that demand for the midsize, long-haul market will total 6,000 planes – or about 40 per cent of all spending on jetliners – over the next 20 years. Both planes promise their passengers a more pleasant flying experience than what is available today, having larger windows, wireless in-flight entertainment and better on-board air quality. They also promise big leaps in operating efficiency thanks to lighter structures, simplified maintenance and engines that are cheaper to purchase, operate and maintain. These planes are therefore expected to take the long-range flight market to the next level [Ready for Take-Off: Passenger planes for the 21st Century - SPACE.com, www.space.com and Airborne: New chapter opens in the battle for supremacy in the skies between Airbus and Boeing – The National Post (Canada), 28th April 2005]. The A350 XWB will carry between 275 and 350 passengers over distances of around 8,500 nautical miles, whereas the Dreamliner is designed to carry between 210 and 330 passengers, and fly slightly farther. Airbus believes that it plane’s larger capacity gives it the ability to compete with Boeing’s as well as some versions of the latter’s larger and popular 777 model. Boeing officials have countered this by stating that they plan to continue improving the Dreamliner and incorporate its innovations into the 777, to keep it competitive with the A350 XWB [Airbus finally gets new jet off ground: With the A350 project now green-lighted, firm focuses on competing with Boeing – The Globe and Mail (Canada), 4th December 2006 and Challenge to Boeing ‘Airbus is back’ – Financial Times (USA). 5th December 2006]. Regional Jets One of the fastest growing sectors of the aviation market is that of the small regional jet (RJ), to replace the turboprops on commuter airlines. Embraer, a Brazilian manufacturer, has already begun rivalling Canada's Bombardier Aerospace, in the RJ market. “Bombardier may be one of the biggest, best-known and most controversial companies in Canada, but the world’s third-largest maker of airplanes has been upstaged recently by rival Embraer. The Brazilian firm has been flying high thanks to the success of a new family of commercial jets, translating into a flurry of orders and worries for its Canadian rival” [Brazil Takes Flight: Embraer pulls off mission impossible - The National Post (Canada), 28th March 2005]. “How did a Third World country like Brazil come to host one of the top aerospace firms in the world?...How Embraer found itself in this spot is the result of years of research, millions of hours of engineering, slick marketing and lots of money” [Ibid]. Embraer’s jets are powered by the Rolls Royce AE 3007 Turbofan, which is also found aboard the Cessna Citation-X business jet, and contains 14 titanium compressor discs. In order to provide a superior product, Bombardier must develop a much more efficient engine [Bombardiers sabotaging case for public support - Toronto Star, (www.thestar.com), 23rd October 2003. Also Saudi carrier orders 15 Embraer jets – The Globe and Mail (Canada), 26th April 2005; Smaller jets Air Canada’s new advantage – The Edmonton Journal, 26th March 2005; Air Canada asked to axe Brazilian deal – The Vancouver Sun, 19th March 2005; and Air Canada may be pressured to buy Bombardier jets – The Colonist (Victoria, BC), 19th March 2005]. Sources within the airline industry have estimated that the market for aircraft seating 100 to 150 passengers, over the next 20 years, will be 5,800 planes, worth $250 billion U.S [Board puts Bombardier future on line: Development of new CSeries passenger jets gets marketing approval – The Ottawa Citizen, 16th March 2005. Also Bombardier goes shopping for gov't subsidies: Will ask Canada, Britain, Quebec for money to help finance new 'CSeries' regional planes - National Post, Montreal (as reported in the Edmonton Journal; Business, 20th July 2004) and Peter Hadekel, 2004; Silent Partners: Taxpayers and the Bankrolling of BOMBARDIER, Key Porter Books Limited (Toronto)]. Meanwhile, “Bombardier has seen its order book for the CRJ 700 and CRJ 900 regional jets shrink steadily. Formerly it supplied half the world regional jet market, but its share dropped to about 25 per cent. Rival Embraer of Brazil, with new models from 70 to 110 seats, has been more successful, with an order book topping 400 aircraft” [Bombardier looks to new regional jet production: Company to shift production to Mexico – The Ottawa Citizen, 19th October 2006]. “President of the Aerospace unit, Mr Pierre Beaudoin, ‘said because of the high Canadian dollar, soaring aluminium and titanium prices, and its domestic cost structure, Bombardier will shift more manufacturing to its new Mexican plant, now making electrical harnessing…We must use low-cost countries and more outsourcing as we work to double aerospace margins in a few years…Business jets continue to be Bombardier’s ace card and it sees no let-up in demand before 2008. It is the world market leader but admits it may face a threat if Embraer gets a full line on the market by 2010, including very light jets…Business jet demand, up nearly 20 per cent in the first half, is so strong internationally that delivery times on many Bombardier, GulfStream, Raytheon, Cessna, and Dassault models may stretch out three years’” [Ibid. Also Bombardier to slash production of regional jets: Planemaker to cut 1,330 jobs in Quebec, Northern Ireland – The Ottawa Citizen, 25th October 2006]. Business jets Business aviation is also “growing rapidly, as companies realize the real value of executives’ time. ‘That’s the bottom line’ according to Rich Gage, president and CEO of the Canadian Business Aviation Association (CBAA)…Bombardier is one company benefiting greatly from business aviation growth. Business aviation is a major business unit…with $4 billion a year in total revenues…The growth in this segment of the industry has meant that Canadian components suppliers such as Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) and Avcorp Industries are finding small jets increasingly important to them…While the commercial and regional sectors have experienced decline in the last three years, There has been tremendous stability and consistent growth in business aviation” [Business aviation fastest-growing segment of market – Aerospace (A Special Report for the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada); The Globe and Mail, 27th September 2005]. Several aerospace companies are also developing a Supersonic Business Jet (SBJ) for tomorrow's high-flying travelling executives. Lockheed Martin boasts that the aircraft being devised in the inner sanctum of its legendary Skunk Works will be “faster than any private airplane now in existence, faster even than many of the world's military jets. In fact, the new business jet will fly at near-Concorde speeds...Total demand for business jets during the coming decade could exceed an impressive 10,000 aircraft, creating a $135 billion industry” [Fast Company - Popular Mechanics, November 2004]. “Lockheed Martin's ability to keep a secret has been honed for decades. After all, this was the outfit that developed the F117 Stealth Fighter and the awesome...SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft that became a star of the Cold War. However, the company's silence on its supersonic business jet was breached...when the U.S Patent and Trademark Office granted Skunk Works...a patent for a tail-braced wing aircraft and configuration for achieving long supersonic range and low sonic boom” [Ibid]. Higher… Both NASA and the U.S Air Force have employed extensive use of the aforementioned SR-71 (the Blackbird). SR-71 aircraft have been used by NASA as test-beds for high speed, high altitude aeronautical research, and are still the world’s fastest and highest-flying production aircraft, flying at speeds of more than 2,000 miles per hour (more than three times the speed of sound), at altitudes of over 85,000 feet! This operating environment makes the aircraft excellent platforms for conducting research and experiments in a variety of areas – aerodynamics, propulsion, structures, thermal protection materials, high-speed and high-temperature instrumentation, atmospheric studies and sonic boom characterization. Data from SR-71 high-research programs may be used to aid designers of future supersonic / hypersonic aircraft and propulsion systems, including high-speed civil transport. The SR-71 airframes are ideally built, almost entirely of titanium and titanium alloys to withstand heat generated by sustained Mach 3 flight [Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird - www.sky-flash.com/sr.htm]. In a related report, an unmanned NASA jet screamed into the record books high over the Pacific Ocean by reaching speeds of almost 7,000mph, “brightening hopes that humans might one day be able to fly across a continent in minutes instead of hours” [NASA's 'scramjet' travels almost 7,000 Mph - The Globe and Mail (Canada - electronic edition), 17th November 2004]. It is worth noting that NASA’s previous related tests entailed the use of a scramjet projectile made of titanium [Hypersonic Scramjet Projectile Flies In Missile Test - www.spacedaily.com, 4th September 2001]. Higher… “As a structural member of the Apollo spacecraft”, titanium is credited for facilitating the first moon landing [www.titanium.net], and NASA’s $400 million Martian rovers rely heavily on their titanium wheels for enhanced mobility [Titanium allows MARS rover to tackle extreme terrain - ITA NEWSLETTERS, . The U.S space agency is also building its next-generation re-usable spacecraft (named the Space Orbital Plane), as a replacement for its ageing Space Shuttle, which has been described as “the dinosaur of the space-age”. Engineers are “developing metallic alloys…that don’t melt - or even lose strength - at any temperature they might encounter during space flight...a new type of heat-resistant tile, composed of layers of titanium and other metals, which might eventually replace tiles now on the space shuttles” [Building a Better Shuttle: NASA turns to new designs and materials - Science News Online, 5th April 2003 and NASA fixes one glitch, ponders another: Engineers review possible problem with thermal blanket – CNN.com, 3rd August 2005]. Meanwhile, Japanese researchers appear to have “shattered the glass ceiling of alloy development limitations [Space Age Metal: New Titanium Alloys Near “Magic” Strength Threshold - SPACE.com, . “Their titanium-based alloys exhibit ‘super’ properties, such as ultrahigh strength and super-elasticity” [Ibid]. Already, “alloys of myriad mixings are used in various parts on satellites, deep-space probes, and the shuttle fleet” [Australian Space Development in focus – The Lowdown, www.lowdown.com.au/sat_optusB.html]. Australia’s Optus B satellite is a good example. Its integral propulsion system runs on a bio-propellant stored in spherical titanium tanks. The United States recently announced ambitious plans to establish a base on the moon, as a launching pad for a manned Mars mission [Impelled by fear of Communist dominance of cosmos, U.S may resurrect space race: Bush expected to target Moon, Mars - National Post, 8th December 2003]. This bold vision is based “on a new Crew Exploration Vehicle, or CEV, a spacecraft that so far only exists as a number of competing concepts” [Space shuttles to be scrapped by 2010, Bush says - The Globe and Mail (Canada), 15th January 2004]. When President John F. Kennedy first called for a mission to send a man to the moon, many dismissed the idea as lunacy, but in three years, twelve Apollo astronauts would reach the lunar surface, collecting rocks, driving buggies, and practicing a little golf. Presently, many high-ranking U.S officials believe that commercial human space flight will follow the same trend, and that soon, NASA will not be the only game in town [Debate on Space Tourism Heats Up Congress - . The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has also announced that it “has its own plans for a Canadian Mars mission.” [Canada could star on Mars, experts say: Robotic, geophysics expertise fits well with requirements of U.S mission – The Globe and Mail (Canada), 15th January 2004 and Ottawa aerospace firms flourish in niche markets - Ottawa Business Journal (Special Report On Defence & Aerospace), 8th November 2004]. For close to a decade now, “several small aerospace companies have been hard at work at creating the first private craft that can travel above the earth’s atmosphere and back” [Space 2100: To Mars And Beyond In The Century To Come - Popular Science, edited by Morin Bishop]. After a closely contested race with the Canadians, it was the American-built SpaceShipOneTM that won the highly coveted $10-million Ansari X-Prize; a competition modeled on the great contests of the early days of aviation, and meant to “spur the development of…commercial human space flight” [Private rocket soars to space, brings home $10-million: Prize-winning flight could herald new era of out-of-this-world commercial travel – The Globe and Mail [Canada], 5th October 2004]. About a century ago, the Aero Club of America and the Scientific American (magazine) offered a prize “to the first person who could take off and fly one kilometer in a straight line” [The Equivocal Success of the Wright Brothers - Scientific American, December 2003]. With time, “the burgeoning field of aviation rapidly overtook the Wrights, as money and talent poured into this exciting new industry”, and “by 1911 several companies…were manufacturing aircraft” [Ibid]. It is expected, that this century of flight will see “the speed of innovations pointed towards space” [Space 2100: To Mars And Beyond In The Century To Come - Popular Science, edited by Morin Bishop]. Some have even said that “in view of the potentially great economic benefits of developing a passenger space travel industry, permitting the current leadership of space agencies and their political overseers to continue to delay its development would be a further, large waste of economic resources…The fact that space tourism would particularly use skills in which rich countries still have a relative advantage is a further benefit, since it will give them a breathing space before lower-cost countries take over - if they move quickly” [Growing Popular Interest In Space Tourism: Challenge And Opportunity For Space Agencies – www.spacefuture.com and www.spacefuture.com/tourism/tourism.shtml]. The more low-cost strategies arise, the less likely it is that ‘space enthusiasts’ will wait for cumbersome government agencies to get mankind out of the ‘gravity well’ [Space 2100: To Mars And Beyond In The Century To Come - Popular Science, edited by Morin Bishop]. There are already reports claiming that, “space tourism is now within reach for those with very deep pockets” [Space Tourism: Making Space more accessible - www.nbc4.com/technology/2780656/detail.html]. Sub-orbital flights may begin in a couple of years and will cost about $100,000. Reusable Launch Vehicles (RLV) that can take two to four passengers 62 miles up are still being developed by several U.S. companies, including Scaled Composites [http://www.scaled.com/], while another company, SpaceDev [http://www.spacedev.com/newsite/templates/homepage.php?pid=2] is working on engines to power RLVs. “Canadian companies are also among those developing craft to profit from the new era of space travel” [Private rocket soars to space, brings home $10-million: Prize-winning flight could herald new era of out-of-this-world commercial travel – The Globe and Mail (Canada), 5th October 2004]. On the other hand, some experts have responded to the American team’s successful flight by stating that the accomplishment is “exciting and interesting, but we've already been to earth...sub-orbital space flight refers to a mission that flies out of the atmosphere but does not reach the speeds needed to attain continuous orbiting of the earth” [Moon Advocates Say Private Rocket Flight Is Not Enough - Lunar Journal: News of the moon and beyond, 8th July 2004]. Only titanium can tolerate such speeds, and it may not be an exaggeration after all, to say that it is the metal that “makes space travel possible” [RMI Titanium Company’s 50th Anniversary – . --- NEXT: Military Applications
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Post by wanyee on Jan 1, 2007 11:47:56 GMT 3
"People shouldn't be afraid of their government, governments should be afraid of their people" [Vendetta] THIS ANALYSIS HEREBY FOLLOWS A DIFFERENT, BUT IMPORTANT COURSE Mr. Gichira Kibara is presently the Director of Legal Affairs in the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs. He is the former Chairman of the National Council of Non-governmental Organizations. “The natural resources of Kenya belong to the people of Kenya. The government merely holds them in trust for the people. Indeed, this is the letter and the spirit of the draft Constitution of Kenya that is undergoing debate. For this reason, the government must have a clear position on how it intends to deal with Kenya’s vast natural resources. This must certainly mean re-looking at the country’s policies and laws on natural resources. Gladly, the government appreciates this fact. In the budget speech, for instance, the government informed Parliament that it intended to draft Kenya’s mining policy and come up with appropriate legislation. The review of the Ming Act, a colonial relic, is long overdue. This is also recognized in Kenya’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and the recently released Economic Recovery Strategy for Wealth and Employment Creation” [Gichira Kibara in Titanium Mining in Kenya: The Unresolved Questions; Press Release, 10th July 2003 - Please refer to the 2nd last posting in 'The Titanium-Mining Scandal' thread]. --- Kenya: How Govt is Killing the Civil Society Movement The East African Standard (Nairobi) September 6, 2006 Otsieno Namwaya Nairobi Part of President Kibaki's re-election strategy is to weaken, if not altogether kill, the once powerful civil society, The Standard can authoritatively report. This is in addition to the Government's publicly stated intention to reduce the powers of the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (Kacc) and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR). Already, Kacc is preparing abuse of office charges against Mr Maina Kiai, the KNCHR chairman, in a move likely to be interpreted as aimed at harassing the human rights campaigner into silence. In an elaborate strategy targeting the money hitherto available to democracy and human rights NGOs, the Kibaki administration has ensured donors line up to fund State as opposed to NGO activities. Also targeted are the brains behind the vibrancy of the NGO sector. So serious is the cash crunch in the sector that its hitherto Sh3 billion-plus a year budget has been whittled down by 83 per cent - to Sh500 million. Investigation by The Standard reveal that the Kibaki Administration has ensured that donors no longer pump sufficient funds into the human rights and democracy sector, as was the case during the Kanu regime. To compound the civil society's predicament, the Kibaki Administration has also been raiding NGOs, incorporating key civil society personalities into Government, thereby compromising NGOs or depleting their human resource base. The result is that Kenya's civil society is unable to meaningfully blow the whistle on the Government's human rights abuses nor can it mobilise mass action to push through desired change as happened in 1991 (to reintroduce multi-partyism), 1997 (to force through the IPPG deal) and 2002 (to conduct civic education). If the current trend persists for another two years, the already weakened civil society sector will be no more. This is being seen as part of the Government's strategy to muzzle criticism and consolidate power ahead of President Kibaki's second term, which his key strategists believe is within sight in view of what they consider to be an elaborate re-election strategy they are already rolling out. "Part of their strategy is to ensure the civil society is in a perpetual state of paralysis. And in this they have been aided by donors who, when Narc took power, radically shifted their policy of supporting democracy and governance through civil society. They have instead been supporting the Government even though it has become clear that Kibaki is a reluctant reformer," says Mr Kepta Ombati, the executive director of Youth Agenda, a Nairobi-based civil society organisation. However, the Government insists it has nothing to do with the woes afflicting civil society. In an interview with The Standard, Ms Mary Ngaruma, the Public Relations Officer in the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, said the Government is only trying to integrate with civil society so that they can work together. "The Government wants them to participate in the reorganisation of the governance structures through the Governance, Justice and Law Order Services (GJLOS) programme," she said. At the same time, the British Department for International Development (DfID), one of the lead donors of the GJLOS programme, denied claims that donors had abandoned the civil society since Narc came to power. Through its Communications Officer Mr John Ndubi, DfID was however quick to add that the donors had been funding key Government programmes that they could not just abandon in order to fund the civil society. "The civil society has to get its house in order. Look at the NGO Council for example. It is just in a shambles," Ndubi told The Standard. He said even though donors had been supporting the Government, they had been forthright in criticising it on pertinent issues such as corruption. Our investigations trace the problems of civil society to the moment Narc came to power, whereupon the then Justice minister Kiraitu Murungi - previously a prominent personality in civil society - established the ambitious GJLOS programme. The five-year legal reform programme was used by the Government to persuade donors to channel human rights and democracy funds not through NGOs but through the Government. "The Government told donors the work that NGOs were doing was now being done by the Government and the donors fell for it. Thus, most NGOs were asked by donors to join the Government-fronted GJLOS. But the Government didn't want any input from the NGOs," says Ombati. Ombati was until last year the executive director of the National Convention Executive Council (NCEC), known for its campaigns in the 1990s for constitutional and legal reforms. GJLOS saw donors sign a memorandum of understanding with the Government in 2003 according to which, out of the over Sh3 billion per year that donors were pumping into NGOs dealing with human rights and democracy, Sh2.6 billion per year was to go into the JGLOS project, leaving a paltry Sh500 million per year to the NGOs. "The NGOs had been instrumental in pushing a reluctant Government to accept legal and constitutional reforms. But most of the NGOs now find themselves in a situation where, even just on a shilling-to-shilling basis of the money from donors alone, they could not match the Government," says Ombati. But Ngaruma said the GJLOS programme was a great idea and civil society ought to look elsewhere for the cause of its woes. GJLOS, she said, has a "thematic group" whose main responsibility is to deal with civil society, although details of how the Government should co-operate with them were still being worked out. The European Union, she said, was funding a study programme on how this could be done. "This is to avoid conflict of interest, because if the GJLOS is doing everything, what will the civil society be doing?" she posed. Yet, our investigations reveal that the currents run deeper. The Government has not even been allowing the donors to release the Sh500 million to civil society to carry out human rights and democracy work. "Before this money is released, it has to be approved by the Ministry of Finance. The Government has been reluctant to approve this funding, a situation that has seen most NGOs fold up," says Ombati. The situation could be worse for the civil society next year as Treasury sources indicate the Finance minister could have declined to approve funds for the next financial year. Some individuals in the NGO sector could not hold on any further, according to Ombati, and thus accepted consultancy jobs from the Government, especially in the JGLOS programme. "This is what completely finished off the NGOs. These individuals can no longer criticise the Government's excesses because they are in dire need of the consultancy jobs," says Ombati. Prior to the Government's dangling of consultancy jobs, it had lured senior NGO figures into its ranks in the hope of using their influence to temper the perceived radicalism in the sector. This, according to Mandera Central MP Billow Kerrow, seems to have handed the Government its first success in containing criticism. Some of the civil society personalities who have since joined the Government include ministers Prof Kivutha Kibwana (Environment) and Dr Mukhisa Kituyi (Trade); Information Assistant minister Mr Koigi wa Wamwere; Ms Martha Koome, now a Judge; Dr Smokin Wanjala (deputy director Kacc) and Mr Gichira Kibara, who works in the Attorney General's Chambers. Besides, other people who backed up the civil society including Justice minister Martha Karua and lawyer Gibson Kamau Kuria are either in Government or closely allied to it. According to the JGLOS contract signed with donors, the Government is the senior partner. As such, Ombati says, the donors do not want to offend the Government by appearing to be going against its wishes. This is being cited as the explanation for the donors' decision to radically reduce funding to and then reluctantly fund democracy and human rights NGOs for the better part of the Narc era. Source: allafrica.com/stories/200609060346.html --- New NGO Council Chairperson Elected The National Council of NGOs has elected Amb. Orie Rogo-Manduli as its new chairperson. Amb. Rogo-Manduli beat other five contestants during the election held on Thursday, July 29, at AMREF Training Centre. She will be the Executive Committee chairperson until April 2006 when the next elections will be held. The position of the chairperson fell vacant by resignation on May 21, 2004. The former chairperson, Mr. Gichira Kibara, joined the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs as Director of Legal Affairs. The National Council of NGOs is a membership organisation comprising about 3,500 registered NGOs in Kenya. www.ngocouncil.org/news_more.asp?id=18 ---- Titanium Mining in Kenya: The Unresolved Questions; Press Release, 10th July 2003 [Please refer to the 2nd last posting in 'The Titanium-Mining Scandal' thread] N.B: A search on 'Tiomin' or 'Titanium-mining' on the website of the National Council of NGO's [http://www.ngocouncil.org/] presently does not yield any results.
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Post by wanyee on Jan 3, 2007 9:50:39 GMT 3
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Post by wanyee on Jan 4, 2007 10:59:41 GMT 3
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Post by wanyee on Jan 4, 2007 18:56:48 GMT 3
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Post by wanyee on Jan 5, 2007 9:02:33 GMT 3
Even when not at war in a military sense, countries are generally engaged in a struggle for economic power, today’s key index of global power, and players in the international system are increasingly regarding the health of their economies as a priority. Despite the Cold War having long ended, the primacy for insecurity - has not. It is presently manifested in both economic and psychological realms, as countries seek to increase economic competitiveness and to reduce unemployment within their borders. Historically, the goal was to secure and extend the physical control of territory, and to gain diplomatic influence over foreign governments. Today’s corresponding geo-economic goal is not to attain the highest possible standard of living, but rather the conquest and protection of desirable roles in the global economy (e.g who will develop the next generation of jet airliners, computers, bio-technology products, advanced materials etc).
There are expected to be long-term (perhaps permanent) ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ in today’s battle for the system’s power positions, with the spoils of victory including industrial supremacy, technology & information leadership, and the economic capacity to sustain a modern military. The losing states, on the other hand, will face the problems resulting from reduced fiscal sources, reduced economic growth and a smaller economic pie, permanent relegation to the ranks of ‘the resource extraction/branch plant/cash-crop economies’, second-rate technology & information systems, and a lack of the economic means to escape the poverty cycle. It is expected that this economic war will be based on ‘zero-sum’ terms, whereby gains for one side would mean an equal amount of losses for the other. It has been argued that states are concerned with relative economic gains, because their economies are the foundation of their power. Nation-states worry that a decrease in their power capabilities relative to those of other nation-states will compromise their political autonomy, expose them to the influential attempts of others, or lessen their ability to prevail in political disputes with allies and adversaries. Consequently, states will compete for economic advantage, not only seeking absolute gains, but relative gains in their favour, to prevent other countries from surpassing their own economic power (and therefore their position in world affairs).
As in war, offensive weapons are expected to dominate the new struggle for economic power; a mercantile world with states using unilateral actions to alter the balance of trade in “desirable” economic sectors, particularly high technology. Governments and their self-interested bureaucracies will use a combination of “incentives” and trade barriers, such as tariffs on value-added imports. Owing to the severity of the stakes involved in the future struggle for economic power, states will find themselves in an incredibly ‘cut-throat’ competition for economic development. This, in turn, could compromise their political relationship. A study of twelve 20th Century conflicts, for instance, found that access to oil or strategic minerals was an issue in ten of those conflicts! Pursuant to this, it is worth noting that oil and strategic minerals are the lifeblood of industrialized economies, whereas modern military capabilities are considered to be the defining factors with regards to the power of a state.
Adapted from Allen Sens and Peter Stoett, 1998; Global Politics: Origins, Currents, Directions - ITP Nelson (Toronto)
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Post by wanyee on Jan 9, 2007 2:21:54 GMT 3
Bank private sector arm under fire from NGOs, Congress www.brettonwoodsproject.org/art.shtml?x=15912 “…The report gives an interesting example of how MIGA insurance works in practice. Last year the Indonesian government postponed construction of a power plant in the wake of the Asian financial crisis and the country's democratic transition. U.S.-based Enron Corporation made a successful claim alleging government interference in its investment which MIGA had backed with a $15 million insurance policy. MIGA paid Enron $4 million, with $800,00 from the government of Indonesia and the rest paid by reinsurers. MIGA then announced that it would not provide political risk insurance for any further projects in Indonesia, prompting the government to agree to reimburse the whole $15 million insurance claim. The report comments ‘in the end Indonesia will have paid MIGA at least $15 million, with nothing tangible to show for it’...MIGA has not given any concrete sign of becoming more transparent or accountable, or changing its operations to cover risks for investments in fields of new environmentally friendly technologies, renewable energy, clean production and the transfer of adapted technology for local indigenous enterprises to facilitate their development.” --- MIGA facts and stats • Only 12 percent of MIGA funds support investments in sub-Saharan Africa. • 70% of companies getting MIGA guarantees are from 5 industrialized nations. • MIGA's net income (profit) was $10.9 million in 2001. • MIGA undertook 53 technical assistance advisory activities in 40 countries. • MIGA has hosted six meetings to promote mining investments in Africa. • In 1997 MIGA claimed the 70 guarantees it approved catalyzed an additional $4.7 billion in foreign investment and created 4000 jobs. This amounts to $1.175 million invested per job created. The top four sectors receiving MIGA guarantees over the past 12 years are financial services, infrastructure, mining, and manufacturing. --- Canada and MIGA; w01.international.gc.ca/canadexport/view.aspx?isRedirect=True&id=372122&language=E --- Tiomin and MIGA; www.bicusa.org/Legacy/Africa%20EI%20projects%20May%202006.xlsContact person: Mrs. B. Bocoum b.bocoum@afdb.org
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Post by wanyee on Jan 10, 2007 23:54:10 GMT 3
Kenya -- Rodgers Muema Nzioka v. Tiomin Kenya Ltd (97 of 2001) High Court of Kenya at Mombasa 09/21/2001 REPUBLIC OF KENYA IN THE HIGH COURT OF KENYA AT MOMBASA CIVIL CASE NO. 97 OF 2001 RODGERS MUEMA NZIOKA & 2 OTHERS PLAINTIFFS Versus TIOMIN KENYA LIMITED DEFENDANTS RULING... www.elaw.org/resources/text.asp?id=2254
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Post by wanyee on Jan 11, 2007 9:35:32 GMT 3
Court restrains agency from licensing Tiomin By Patrick Beja, The Standard, Nairobi, March 03, 2003
The High Court has restrained the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) from issuing the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) licence to Tiomin Resources Inc of Canada. Tiomin Resources is seeking the EIA licence in respect of titanium mining project.
Mr Justice Andrew Hayanga issued the order last week following a civil case filled by Centre for Environmental Legal Research and Education (Creel) Executive Director, Mr George Mulama Wamukoya.
The order restrained Nema from issuing the EIA to Tiomin company or its subsidiaries pursuant to section 63 of the Environmental Management and Co-ordination Act.
The order remains in force until Nema complies with section 59 of the Act which provides for public review of the Environmental Management Plan (EMP).
Nema now cannot issue the EIA to Tiomin Resources which intends to start titanium mining in Kwale district pending the hearing of the application inter-partes on March 12, 2003.
Wamukoya moved to court to compel Nema to make public the EMP by also giving it to him.
He argues in court papers that EMP is a public document by a select stakeholders' workshop held late 2002 and that there is no basis for the refusal of access to it.
The applicant claims that Nema Director General, Prof Michael Koech, denied him a chance to review EMP in respect of the EIA licence which is being sought from the Authority.
Wamukoya says Creel wanted the EMP to make its recommendations known to Nema on the appropriateness of the EMP in safeguarding and enhancing the environment for the good of present and future generations.
He said he was acting on the basis of section 3 of the Environmental Management and Co-ordination Act No. 8 of 1999 which confers an entitlement to a clean and healthy environment.
Wamukoya also said he was acting on sections 59 and 67(3) of the Act which provides for public reviews of EIA study reports of which EMP is an integral component.
He argued that the alleged refusal by Nema to allow for a public review of the EMP as a deliberate move to facilitate authorisation to commence mining without considering the views of interested parties.
He cited the public notice in the local dailies for a special mining lease by Tiomin Resources Inc.
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The NEMA regulations were gazetted in 2003, but Tiomin's EMP was approved in January of that year, so it was approved before the regulations had been gazetted. Tiomin's CEO, J.C Potin, has attested to this.
Tiomin has NOT produced an EIAP (Environment Impact Action Plan) to support its EMP (Environmental Management Plan). This means that both Tiomin and the Kenyan Government have violated the Environment Management & Co–ordination Act 1999 (EMCA 99).
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2.2.1 Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
Any project proponent is required to undertake an EIA study at their own cost in accordance to the set regulations, guidelines and procedures. An EIA study report should provide the on envisaged project impacts on environment and the appropriate mitigation measures. The Authority shall issue an environment impact assessment license after it is satisfied that the environmental management plan is satisfactory.
[NEMA Policies]
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Post by wanyee on Jan 13, 2007 8:17:20 GMT 3
Hmm... --- Tiomin Reviewing Options for the Development of the Kwale Mineral Sands Project, Kenya TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (CCNMatthews - Jan. 10, 2007) Tiomin Resources Inc. ("Tiomin" or the "Company") (TSX:TIO) is currently reviewing its strategic options for the Kwale mineral sands project in Kenya (the "Project") and expects to make a decision regarding the development of the Project by the end of January 2007. The Project has suffered legal and bureaucratic delays that are negatively impacting the Project's rate of return to Tiomin's shareholders. Although the majority of the issues causing the delays have been, or are likely to be, resolved in the near future, the incremental costs of the delays mean that it is unlikely that Tiomin will be able to satisfy the lenders' financial conditions to meet the February 2007 deadline to begin drawing down on its US$155 million debt package. As previously indicated, the Company can no longer meet the previously published development schedule and budget. Tiomin is currently assessing the full financial impact of the recent events. During the delay period, the Company has incurred several months of additional overhead costs and, in addition, the value of the Company's development funds in United States and Canadian currencies declined against a basket of foreign currencies resulting in increased costs. The Company has not hedged its foreign exchange risk exposure and only planned to hedge the US$155 million debt facility once drawdown had been achieved. As part of its review, Tiomin has requested Ausenco, the primary contractor, to review the capital cost estimates and development schedule for the Project. Ausenco expects to complete its evaluation within two weeks. Tiomin will also review the impact of having delayed the orders of long-lead items on the start of production, which may potentially affect some customer off-take contracts. The Government of Kenya ("GoK") made significant progress in resolving outstanding issues after Tiomin declared Force Majeure in December 2006 and is working to complete the remaining steps required to develop the Project. Significantly, the GoK won its legal dispute regarding access to the eight disputed plots of land, as described in the press release of December 19, 2006. The Company understands that the GoK will immediately proceed with compulsory acquisition of the land once the required compensation payments have been made. The GoK has granted Tiomin acceptable port tariffs and an exemption from paying certain stamp duties. It has also written to Tiomin indicating its intention to complete and gazette the remaining items required by the lenders. Other outstanding items include an agreement with the GoK on withholding taxes and the modification of the existing mining lease to encompass all land required for the Project. Tiomin continues to work closely with the GoK to satisfy these conditions but remains in Force Majeure, as provided for in the Special Mining Lease issued to Tiomin by the GoK in July 2004. The Board of Directors of Tiomin is committed to acting in the best interests of the shareholders in this challenging situation. Certain of the information contained in this news release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to those respect to the prices of rutile, zircon, ilmenite, estimated future production, estimated costs of future production and the Company's sales policy, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any forecast results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the actual prices of rutile, zircon and ilmenite, the actual results of current exploration, development and mining activities, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be evaluated, as well as those factors disclosed in the Company's documents filed from time to time with the Ontario Securities Commission. CONTACT INFORMATION Tiomin Resources Inc. Jean Charles Potvin CEO (416) 350-3779 ext. 227 or Tiomin Resources Inc. Robert Jackson President (416) 350-3779 ext. 230 or Tiomin Resources Inc. Laurie Gaborit Investor Relations (416) 350-3779 ext. 222 Email: lgaborit@tiomin.com Website: www.tiomin.com
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Post by wanyee on Jan 13, 2007 22:13:43 GMT 3
BUSINESS
Titanium firm may pull out
Story by MICHAEL MUGWANG’A Publication Date: 1/13/2007 The future of the titanium mining project in Kwale now hangs in the balance after the company behind it announced it may pull out.
Tiomin Kenya Ltd, the firm that has invested in the multi-billion project, last evening said it might not be able to raise the Sh 10.85 billion (US$ 155 million) extra cash it needs to start of the project.
In a statement released to the Press, the company’s management says it might not be able to meet the conditions set by its financiers within the time agreed on to get the funds.
“It is unlikely that Tiomin will be able to satisfy the lender’s financial conditions to meet the deadline to start drawing down on its debt package,” the statement read in part.
The Canadian company now says it is reviewing its options on the investment following the bottlenecks it has encountered. The company complained that it had been met with numerous legal and bureaucratic delays, which have affected the profitability of the project.
It also says it has undergone financial expenses it had not envisaged and the value of its assets in America and Canada had also gone down due to the delays. The company said it will decide whether or not to continue with the project before the end of this month.
Since its inception about 10 years ago, the titanium mining project has been dogged by controversies that have delayed its take-off.
The firm has withstood many problems with both the Government and the residents, but has managed to set heavy machinery ready for work.
Put on hold
But yesterday statement now puts that on hold.
Last month the firm got a shot in the arm when the Government got the go ahead to acquire land that it needs from the reluctant owners.
High court judge Joseph Nyamu last December 19 ruled that the Government was justified to take over the land by force “in public interest”.
Over eight Kwale farmers had gone to court to bar the Ministry of Lands and Settlement from taking over the land saying the money being offered for compensation was too little.
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Post by wanyee on Jan 14, 2007 9:45:47 GMT 3
Such publications as the Sunday Nation's editorial ["Tiomin case frustrating to potential investors"], actually serve to frustrate the very struggle of the poor. Why mislead the public, for instance, by calling these neocolonialists, "investors" instead of THIEVES, which is what they really are and have been with respect to our various natural resources?
The media has thus forsaken its greatest responsibility, by not telling us 'the truth' that will set us free.
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Post by wanyee on Jan 14, 2007 22:15:23 GMT 3
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT (ESIA) KWALE TITANIUM PROJECT IN KENYA AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK Source: www.afdb.org/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/ADB_ADMIN_PG/DOCUMENTS/OPERATIONSINFORMATION/KENYA-%20KWALE%20TITANIUM%20PROJECT%20-%20ESIA%20SUMMARY.DOC--- We shall analyze the above document in due time. Meawhile, it is evident that both Tiomin Resources Inc. and the Government of Kenya, have broken the law, particularly with respect to the environmental standpoint: “Submission of both Project Report and Environmental Impact Assessment is crucial and failure to do so is a criminal offence under Section 138 of the Act. Without delivery of these studies any project that affects environment like the present mining project cannot be assessed. Its potential danger can be as vast and as gruesome as can be imagined nor can it be positively contained within principle of sustainable development. In fact without these assessments the project is against that principle of sustainable development as it was argued that this project is an investment and is beneficial, but this is not near to saying that no changes can be made on environment” [Kenya -- Rodgers Muema Nzioka v. Tiomin Kenya Ltd (97 of 2001); High Court of Kenya at Mombasa 09/21/2001, REPUBLIC OF KENYA IN THE HIGH COURT OF KENYA AT MOMBASA, CIVIL CASE NO. 97 OF 2001 - www.elaw.org/resources/text.asp?id=2254]. --- Indeed, there appears to be nothing African abouth the African Development Bank. Arguments will be presented later. In the mean time, consider the following: Court restrains agency from licensing Tiomin By Patrick Beja, The Standard, Nairobi, March 03 2003 The High Court has restrained the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) from issuing the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) licence to Tiomin Resources Inc of Canada. Tiomin Resources is seeking the EIA licence in respect of titanium mining project. Mr Justice Andrew Hayanga issued the order last week following a civil case filled by Centre for Environmental Legal Research and Education (Creel) Executive Director, Mr George Mulama Wamukoya. The order restrained Nema from issuing the EIA to Tiomin company or its subsidiaries pursuant to section 63 of the Environmental Management and Co-ordination Act. The order remains in force until Nema complies with section 59 of the Act which provides for public review of the Environmental Management Plan (EMP). Nema now cannot issue the EIA to Tiomin Resources which intends to start titanium mining in Kwale district pending the hearing of the application inter-partes on March 12, 2003. Wamukoya moved to court to compel Nema to make public the EMP by also giving it to him. He argues in court papers that EMP is a public document by a select stakeholders' workshop held late 2002 and that there is no basis for the refusal of access to it. The applicant claims that Nema Director General, Prof Michael Koech, denied him a chance to review EMP in respect of the EIA licence which is being sought from the Authority. Wamukoya says Creel wanted the EMP to make its recommendations known to Nema on the appropriateness of the EMP in safeguarding and enhancing the environment for the good of present and future generations. He said he was acting on the basis of section 3 of the Environmental Management and Co-ordination Act No. 8 of 1999 which confers an entitlement to a clean and healthy environment. Wamukoya also said he was acting on sections 59 and 67(3) of the Act which provides for public reviews of EIA study reports of which EMP is an integral component. He argued that the alleged refusal by Nema to allow for a public review of the EMP as a deliberate move to facilitate authorisation to commence mining without considering the views of interested parties. He cited the public notice in the local dailies for a special mining lease by Tiomin Resources Inc. --- See also, New Kenyan Government Holds Tiomin to Account, Tuesday June 3, 2003 MiningWatch Canada www.miningwatch.ca/index.php?/Newsletter_12/New_Kenyan_GovernmenAnd, The Press Release, "Titanium Mining in Kenya: The Unresolved Questions" [2nd last posting in 'The Titanium-Mining Scandal' thread, elsewhere in this forum], by the National Council Of NGO's.
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