text:
Reproduced below is a publication by Dr Jacob Cohen entitled "Murder at the Pike River Mine" [SECOND EDITION], and below it are links to further information and other relevant websites:
The incestuous collusion between corrupt, fascist, international corporations, banks, global mining companies & compliant politicians – And how the inexorable love of money by those who run them supersedes everything else.
What was the real truth behind the Pike River coal mine disaster in New Zealand killing 29 men? – Was the tragedy simply an "accident" or was it premeditated murder? – Involving people at the highest level of the New Zealand Government and international business and banking community? Does this case have implications for the world?
by Dr Jacob Cohen
This book is copyright ©. However, as it is written in the public interest, it may be freely reproduced or used by whoever may wish to use it without contacting the original author or publisher. First published in New Zealand on December 24, 2010, this new Second Edition includes a Postscript first published on January 21, 2011. All underlining or emphasis is the author's unless otherwise stated:
The Pike River Mine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pike_River_Mine disaster occurred at a location 46 km north-northeast of Greymouth on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. Commencing on Friday, 19 November, 2010, it resulted from a huge methane gas explosion in the mine tragically leaving 29 people trapped and presumed dead, and was followed by subsequent explosions and a fire. It was arguably one of the greatest mass media's globally publicized disasters of 2010.
Now that the dust has largely settled after the tragedy, and the plethora of chief City of London-controlled global mass-media propaganda spin-doctors have had their say – and all the controlled mainstream TV stations, newspapers, aligned government officials, big business leaders and their subservient puppets have added to the litany of lies – this author shall add a few home truths of his own that these supposedly shining, outstanding paragons of human integrity have deceptively not told to the world public!
Although a difficult and complicated subject, (which many may simply find overwhelming), because it involves extremely complex commercial collusion and conspiracy at the highest level largely by extremely wealthy, educated men – for the sake of urgency and brevity, while the event is still fresh in people's minds, this book has been written and published little more than one month after the event and is only 50 odd pages long. It is certainly far from being a complete work on the subject, but hopefully, at least for the average reader it shall be provocative enough to at least set forth an alternate view other than that provided by the controlled media.
Before any attempt is first begun to outline what has happened and why it has happened, it is important to first comprehend the basic, historical, incestuous, highly corrupt relationship between global big business and the government in the mining industry, particularly the coalmining industry.
City of London Corporation
Although a very esoteric subject indeed, and difficult for many to fully understand, over the last 800 years or so, all global business, banking, and commerce has gradually been transferred from the control of the Roman Catholic Church in Rome to come under the control of the British Sovereign in London. Now when the author refers to the "City of London" in the UK, he is not referring to the "Greater City of London" itself that most people normally identify with – he is referring to the City of London Corporation which is entirely different. The City controls the global financial world today and is a separate, giant, Protestant, religious, Masonic, Fabian Socialist, banking kingdom inside the old Roman walls of ancient London. The City governs itself and is not responsible to the British Parliament.
The Sovereign controls the City through his or her control of the Lord Mayor, who is elected each year and officially heads the Corporation. In this way the Protestant Sovereign rules the world. At present Queen Elizabeth II heads the City. Some people controversially believe St. John prophesied she would do so (Revelation 18:7) and subsequently he also prophesied that she finally would be judged, removed from power and made desolate in one hour according to Revelation 18:10,17,19. Time will tell. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London http://www.london-footprints.co.uk/artliverycos.html
Guildhall: Worshipful Company of International Bankers
Within the Corporation itself are Twelve Great Companies and their many subsidiary companies domiciled at Guildhall that control the commercial and political world. Amongst these many subsidiary companies, for example, and one of the most recently established is The Worshipful Company of International Bankers.
http://www.internationalbankers.co.uk/content/history.aspx It was incorporated by Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth II on 10th December 2007 and now controls, either directly or indirectly, every major bank in the world, including those in the Commonwealth, EU, USA, China, India, Japan, Russia etc. Although many of the Twelve Great Companies have been operating for over 800 years or so, the Worshipful Company of International Bankers is a relatively new one. It has only recently been formed, because it wasn't fully considered that until 2007 the City truly controlled the whole global banking world – as it does now. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livery_Company
Guildhall: The Worshipful Company of Fuellers
Most of the other companies are either very old or have grown out of much older companies. Amongst these is The Worshipful Company of Fuellers
The Fuellers, or coal traders, were originally members of the Woodmongers' Company in the 14th century, which ceased in the 18th century. Its Royal Charter was granted by King James I in 1605. Today the Company controls all of the global energy industries including the major oil giants and corporations dealing in coal, oil, and gas like BP and Shell. Because it originated in the coal industry, its Latin motto is; In Carbone Robur Nostrum' 'Our Strength is in Coal.'
For about the last 400 years the coal companies held under the jurisdiction of The Worshipful Company of Fuellers, owned by the British aristocracy, headed by the British Sovereign, have been amongst the most corrupt, devious, inhuman, murderous organizations on earth. Under Queen Victoria, during the Victorian era till the 1840s, children as young as five were forced to work underground in the coal mines for up to 12 hours per day in horrific, dark, wet, noisy, poorly ventilated, hazardous conditions. It wasn't just dark, filthy, and noisy or rat infested working in the mines. Children often became severely deformed from their back breaking work, developed crippled legs, curvature of the spine, skin irritations, heart disease, lung cancer, asthma, bronchitis and rheumatism. Fatal accidents and disasters were common. Many died from roof collapses, poisonous gas, flooding, methane explosions and fire. Maximum life expectancy for miners then was about twenty-five.
Mines Act 1842
As a result of Evangelical Christian pressure, in 1842, the Mines Act was passed. (The Bible Old Testament is full of laws outlining the onerous responsibilities of all employers to properly care for and provide safe working conditions for workers. For example, Deuteronomy 22:8 (KJV) warns, "When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thy house, if any man fall from thence."). The act was far from perfect, but it did prevent women, girls and boys under the age of 10 from working underground. But boys aged 10 or older still continued to work in the mines throughout the 19th century. Much of the workers' union movement that we have today grew out of the gross hypocrisy of the British Protestant Christian wealthy aristocratic families' abuse of their employees in the coal mines of the 19th century.
Today it is still largely the modern "heirs" of these same old rich British banking and mining families that control the giant energy and mining corporations around the world. While they have improved somewhat, largely as the result of outside, public, union or political pressure, their inherent tactics, greed and corrupt practices haven't changed much in the last 150 years! This can be best illustrated by the glaring fact that in spite of the development of modern technology to much more accurately measure dangerous gas levels in mines from around the time of the Second World War onwards – the miner's canaries as a harmful gas warning system to test the air quality in British mines were only just phased out in 1987.
Today many of these old 19th and 20th century giant British banks and companies, and their US subsidiaries, also heavily invest in coal mines in China, to exploit the country's low wages, use of unsafe mining practices, and work with corrupt officials to make huge profits. In 2009, China lost 2630 coal miners, 77 times more than the US. China's current coal output amounts to about 35% of the world's production, but China has 80% of the world's coal mining deaths. Every year four times the number of coal miners die in China as die in the rest of the world combined. This is caused by endemic corruption and collusion at the highest levels between Chinese government officials and wealthy commercial interests working in tandem together to extract maximum profits at the exclusion of worker safety and interests. In fact, in China today if you do not pay off or bribe government officials, there is no way you will ever open a mine. A common practice is for mine owners to gift (bribe) valuable mining shares to government officials to get them to agree not to implement expensive safety standards. The Yanzhou Coal Mining Company is a good example of foreigners operating there. It is one of the top 50 Chinese companies listed in US stock exchanges in terms of highest profit margins and greatest deaths. In all these operations, miners are simply "sacrificed' as "cannon-fodder" in preventable "accidents" for ever more profits. The coal mining industry is therefore one of the most corrupt industries in the world, second only to banking. N.M. Rothschild & Sons in London just happen to be Yanghou's financial advisors!
Deliberately caused "accidents:" Pearl Harbor & 9/11
However, there is another, much more sinister aspect of this inherent lust for money and greed for global power centered in the City of London. It is the practice of not just killing people "accidentally" for profit, but of deliberately sacrificing or "murdering" entire large groups of people to manipulate public opinion through the global media (which they control as well) to achieve a predetermined goal. These devious tactics have long been used by the British banks and corporations to extend the City and Sovereign's power. For example, it is now well known that Sir Winston Churchill and President F.D. Roosevelt colluded together in 1940 – early 1941 to destroy the entrenched "isolationist view" of American public opinion to bring the US into the Second World War in support of Britain. This was done by deliberately setting up the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7, by killing (murdering) over 2,000 innocent American servicemen. Roosevelt knew that an attack was coming at least 3 months in advance before the event, but deliberately didn't tell his commanders at Pearl Harbor. In reality, all the servicemen who died were murdered to "change" American public opinion to agree to America joining the war in support of Britain.
Again, later, the 9/11 attacks by the fascist US government (and not Osama bin Laden) on September 11, 2001, which murdered nearly 3,000 people, was to help President George Bush Junior promote the passing of the draconian new US "anti-terrorist" legislation and laws against the American public. Hitler arranged the burning of the Reichstag in a similar fashion, so to, Emperor Nero, in his burning of fascist Rome. History is full of evil men carrying out such acts. http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/911_reichstag.html
Fascism: "Merger of Socialism with Corporatism"
Fascism is best described as the "merger of socialism with corporatism." It is created when corrupt leaders, monarchs, emperors or presidents, collude with wealthy business families, corporations and government together to form a fascist dictatorship – and that's what we have now developing all around the world including even here in little New Zealand.
All this can be proven without a shadow of doubt. Today usually when the Queen officially enters the City of London Corporation she travels in her Gold State Coach. On the rear of the coach, two Tritons, sons of Neptune, are each carrying the Roman fasces – ancient symbol of fascism which symbolize her power – previously used by both dictators, Hitler and Mussolini. Fascism is the rule by tyranny and dictatorship.
In ancient Rome the fasces symbolized the supreme authority and power of the emperor who alone had the power 'at once to scourge and decapitate.' Reproductions of these two fasces on the rear of the Queen's Gold State Coach are now mounted on the rear wall behind the Speaker's Rostrum in the US House of Representatives, showing that the US government is now also a fascist government headed not by the US President – but indirectly by the British Queen. This fact cannot be disputed. Have a look at a photo of the inside of the US House of Representatives? The US Capitol Building, the center of the US government, is crowned with the Statue of Freedom with the base supported by Roman fasces – symbol of Nazi fascism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Freedom www.rexcurry.net/pledgerome.html
When the Sovereign, with his or her corrupt, supporting lords, knights, barons, wealthy families, governor generals, judges, police, bankers, corporations, media and government bureaucrats etc. all conspire to work together – what you have is fascism. When it is done on a global basis through international agencies such as the Commonwealth of Nations (which controls the UN), UN, EU, World Trade Organization, IMF, World Bank, militarily through NATO, and financially through private corporations of the City of London Corporation – it is then become "global fascism!" This is the case dominating the political and financial system throughout the world today, including in New Zealand. This explains why rarely, if ever, the real truth about anything important ever gets out to the general public or ordinary working class citizens.
Hence the reason why, in the public interest, the author has been motivated to write this little book about the Pike River Coalmine tragedy, with details that the Queen's rich, mass-media barons and journalistic spin-doctors have deliberately not told to the general public.
The Pike River Mine is an underground coal mine, owned by Pike River Coal Ltd. Coal in the area was discovered in the 1940s, and the consenting process for mining the coal in the area goes back to the 1970s. The mine is located on Crown land administered by the Department of Conservation, adjacent to the Paparoa National Park. Because of the location, Pike River Coal Ltd had to obtain the Minister of Conservation's agreement to an access arrangement for mining the area under Section 61(2) of the Crown Minerals Act 2001. On 12 March 2004, the Minister of Conservation Chris Carter approved the access arrangement for Pike River Coal Ltd to develop the mine under strict conservation restrictions. Effectively this required the main access tunnel to be driven 2.3km in an upwards 5 degree gently-sloping gradient, through the Hawera Fault, a 60meter wide dangerous earthquake zone of unstable, fractured, methane infiltrated rock. This runs alongside the primary coal seam holding huge quantities of fugitive methane gas concentrations, making the design of the mine development extremely difficult to ventilate properly and dangerous from the start. Since methane gas is lighter than air, the fugitive methane emissions would naturally accumulate at the working head of the mine and not naturally drift out of the tunnel without the addition of extensive ventilation shafts fitted with extraction fans running continuously.
The company nevertheless went ahead in spite of the potential difficulties and excessive costs, because the potential rewards were great with an estimated value of the mine at $2.3 billion (now over $4 billion), with an estimate in excess of 58 million tonnes of coal reserves. Initially Pike River Coal Ltd was listed on the New Zealand and Australia stock exchanges with the controlling shareholders, New Zealand Oil and Gas Ltd (29% stake plus options and bonds), with two Indian companies Gujarat NRE Coke Ltd (17% share) and Saurashtra Fuels Private Ltd (15% share), with the two latter companies intending to buy about half the projected running production of the mine's coal. Also, a $US30 million convertible bond issue to Liberty Harbor LLC (part of Goldman Sachs Asset Management) was completed on 12 March, 2008, equivalent to $NZ 37.4 million being issued.
At its inception the company claimed that the coal from the Paparoa Range, with its "low ash and phosphorus levels, top of the range plasticity and strong performing characteristics" was in huge demand for high quality steel manufacturing around the world. This had the effect of pushing the share price up from $NZ1.00 in early 2008 to $NZ2.45 six months later, making it the best performer on the NZ Stock Exchange (NZX), with a market capitalization of about $NZ400 million, becoming one of New Zealand's 50 largest companies.
However, during the development stages, the opening of the mine was beset by incessant delays and large cost overruns, pushing startup overhead costs up from an anticipated ($NZ174 million to $NZ300 million and pushing back the commencement of production by 18 months. Among the holdups was a major rock collapse in the ventilation shaft and concerns over the levels of methane. Coal production started in October 2008, and in November 2008, Gerry Brownlee, the Minister of Energy and Resources and Economic Development, formally opened the mine.
In August 2010, after many years working on the project, CEO Gordon Ward, unexpectedly resigned, and was replaced by BHP-trained Australian, Peter Whittall. By the end of September 2010, the company was burning up to $NZ8 million a month, had arrived at the limit of its bank credit and was forced to turn to its principal shareholder NZ Oil and Gas Ltd for a lifeline, a $NZ25 million short-term working facility. The loan, originally to be repaid in mid-December 2010, carried a fee of $600,000 and a 13% interest rate.
Then in October 2010, the month before the explosion, when the new CEO had only been in office for about a month, Pike River Coal Ltd's (PRC) CEO Peter Whittall was forced to halve production forecasts for the June 2011 year to between 320,000 and 360,000 tonnes. The Sunday Star-Times reported that PRC 'had recorded cumulative net losses after tax for the period July 2006 to June 2010 totaling $NZ54.1 million." In PRC's 2010 Annual Report, as of September 2010, the company had made only two very small shipments of coal, one of 20,000 tonnes and the second of 22,000 tonnes, with a total value of $NZ9 million to one of PRC's major shareholders, Indian company Gujarat NRE Coke. In short, the company was failing.
Pike River Coal Ltd was never ever going to realistically make a profit as an underground mine with such an inappropriate access tunnel rising into the hugely expensive methane gas problems at the coal face alongside a major earthquake fault. The highly restrictive environmental restrictions placed on it in the conservation park by the Department of Conservation added to the problems.
However, its special approval to operate in a New Zealand National Conservation Park was seen as a major "stepping stone" by international investors to "open the door" to extensive exploration and "opencast" mining development by foreign companies in the country's environmentally protected areas, despite widespread public opposition to such plans.
According to news reports, the giant methane explosion in the mine occurred around 3.15pm – 3.30pm on Friday, 19 November 2010. Quite simply, it was massive. The force of the explosion blew out of a 110meter deep ventilation shaft and blackened the surrounding bush 60meters away from the shaft portal. It also blew over 2km down the main access tunnel and was recorded by a CCTV camera at the portal blasting outwards for 52 seconds, so remarkably, there must have been an enormous, undetected buildup of methane in the mine prior to the explosion, but no warnings or alarms for the miners ever sounded.
Clearly, there was no proper fixed methane gas detection monitoring system in the mine connected to alarms, or if there was the system was not working. It seems there also was no monitoring system to the office outside for 24 hour constant surveillance either. All this is rather strange, since strategically located gas detectors are now a standard requirement in all Australian and US underground coal mines. There are strict requirements to provide extensive gas monitoring, safety and health management systems in all Australian mines in which the CEO, Peter Whittall, has been trained and worked. Why were there none working? The first reports of an explosion were at 3.45pm and management was not even aware that there had been an explosion until around 4.10pm, nearly an hour after the estimated time of the explosion! This is much more than extreme negligence.
Prior to the advent of modern technology, two or three male canaries, (because of their frequent singing), were placed in small, individual cages and were taken into underground coal mines as detectors of hazardous gasses. Methane is lighter than air, carbon monoxide is heavier. Cages were placed at appropriate locations. If gas concentrations were too high, at first the canaries would feel unwell and would stop singing. If the air didn't improve they would die. Sometimes mine safety lamps were used as well. These methods did work to some extent, but they were imprecise and still had some serious deficiencies. Today, however, modern technology has far surpassed the canary and this caveman approach, where in the past miners often walked straight into potentially hazardous areas to test the gases with fatal results.
Today there are now numerous hi-tech integrated systems available with state-of-the-art detectors and alarms, often connected to computers that can monitor real time information on methane and other gas levels inside and outside the mine. They can also provide a real time display showing barometric pressure, air velocity and any seismic activity as well.
Tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) technology , high sensitivity methane gas detection equipment is also available. Handheld personal BPA Laser Methane Gas Detectors are also available for miners as well that are lightweight, shock and vibration resistant, simple to operate, self calibrating, will not ignite coal dust, provide instant gas analysis, and provide REMOTE PROTECTION UP TO 500 FEET AWAY! These detectors are also invaluable in mine rescue operations. Today there is simply "no excuse" for any, properly run, safety conscious, coal mine company to have any explosion at all!
For example, there are strict requirements for alternative electricity supply, continuous gas monitoring of both portable and fixed methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and oxygen gas detectors in all underground coal mines in Queensland, Australia, and they are all clearly outlined in the Queensland Coal Mining Safety and Health Regulation 2001 (still in force as at 1st October 2010). These regulations also specify precise locations of detectors and alarms, an underground mine manager who is designated to acknowledge alarms, and at least one person must be on the surface at all times monitoring the situation when at least one person is underground. The regulations also provide precise safety requirements for the site senior executive to follow, including the monitoring of auxiliary or booster fans which are to be protected by methane detectors connected to audible and visible alarms that trip the electricity supply to the fans when the gas concentration exceeds 2%.
See: www.legislation.qld.gvt.au/legisltn/current/c/coalminshr01.pdf
According to all news reports, the Pike River Mine explosion was discovered by a mine electrician, Russell Smith, who went into the mine to investigate a power outage, and was hit by the mine blast about 1km into the access tunnel. In the United States, it is well known by all executives in the coal mine industry that Federal Mining Regulations require that all personnel must begin evacuating a mine within 15 minutes of a fan stoppage.
Since the power stoppage had occurred long before the explosion, it may have caused the ventilation fans to stop, causing the methane gas levels to build up to dangerously explosive levels very quickly, thus causing the explosion. Had the workers stopped and evacuated the mine immediately the power outage had occurred as they should have within the well-known recommended safety period, they would never have been killed, and probably there never would have been an explosion. All underground coalmines in the US and Australia must have secondary power supply. According to reports, remarkably, Pike River Mine Ltd had no proper gas monitoring system, no auxiliary power supply, and obviously no safety plan to evacuate the mine following a power failure, accident or explosion.
The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Ad Hoc Group of Experts on Coal Mine Methane and the Methane to Markets Partnership (M2M0 Coal Technical Subcommittee and Project Network produced a "Glossary of Terms for Coal-bed Methane/Coal Mine Methane in May 2008. This was produced to develop common terms and standards for the global coalmining industry. In page 3 of the glossary, they state that firedamp, the explosive range limits of methane gas in air are generally between 5% (Lower Explosive Limit) and 15% (Upper Explosive Limit). Because explosive concentrations may fall outside this range with variances in temperature and barometric pressure, 'safe" levels of methane are, therefore, generally recognized to be below 1% in mine ventilation air, 2% in bleeder shafts, and above 25% in methane degasification systems.
The most damning indictment of the Pike River coal mine operation was made by Andrew Watson, the Operations Manager of the United Kingdom Mines Rescue Operations. Publicly condemning the mine's safety standards, he told The New Zealand Herald (26 November 2010) that methane levels had to have reached 5% to 15% of the atmosphere for an explosion to occur. In Britain, he pointed out, work stopped in mines once methane levels reached just 1.25%, and they were evacuated once they reached 2%. Watson told the newspaper: "So, either the warning system was inadequate, or it was not sufficiently monitored. I've been in mines rescue for 32 years and I've never seen a disaster of this level. The eyes of the world will be on this investigation."
International Mines Rescue Body secretary Alex Gryska told The New Zealand Herald: "Having incidents like this in developing countries is one thing. Having it happen in western countries is uncommon."
The reality is, there was no power back-up generation, there was no adequate monitoring of gas levels, there were no alarms, there were no plans in place for rescue teams to respond quickly in an emergency, and there were no substantive back-up supplies of oxygen, food and water to ensure trapped miners could survive a protracted rescue operation. In short, the miners were doomed from the beginning.
All of the following key, highly experienced, educated mining executives, were fully aware of these "basic" mine safety requirements in Australia, Britain and the US, yet they deliberately and knowingly refused to implement them in the Pike River Mine.
One can therefore only reach the incontrovertible conclusion that the disastrous explosion on 19th November 2010 was quite possibly not an "accident" at all, but the result of a deliberate, carefully orchestrated plot by Pike River Mine Ltd senior directors and executives to operate the mine in an extremely highly gassed, unsafe condition so that a large explosion and disaster would be inevitable while the mine was being worked. Thus, this would allow the company to quickly close the mine, terminate its worrying growing losses, collect its $NZ100 million accident damage and loss of profits insurance (thought to be with Lloyds in London), and more importantly – help manipulate the naïve New Zealand public (after the puppet NZ Government, Reserve Bank and Treasury officials soon introduce on behalf of their foreign international banking masters severe "austerity measures" on the NZ public at large) – to persuade them to help "rectify the country's economic problems," by reluctantly widely agreeing to allow these foreign-controlled companies and banking cartels unrestrainedly in to exploit the country's vast mineral resources on conservation land in national parks using "opencast" mining methods with impunity. It really does need a proper, public, open, High Court trial to bring out the full facts and establish the truth for everyone.
In order of seniority, the following are individuals the author believes should be charged.
Prime Minister, Hon John Key: For gross negligence [and suspected business collusion and corruption] on behalf of himself or the Crown (see later).
Minister of Energy and Resources, Hon Gerry Brownlee: For gross negligence, [and suspected business collusion and corruption] on behalf of himself or the Crown, and for not ensuring the safe operation of the mining industry.
Minister of Labour & Minister of Conservation, Hon Kate Wilkinson: For gross negligence, on behalf of the Crown, and possibly her National Party and Labour Party predecessors as well, for not ensuring the proper and safe inspection of the mine.
Minister of Police, Hon Judith Collins: For gross negligence, on behalf of the Crown, for not allowing a proper rescue attempt within 24 hours. Conspiracy to cover-up evidence and pervert the natural course of justice.
Police Commissioner, Howard Broad: For gross negligence, on behalf of the Crown, for not allowing a proper rescue attempt within the first 24 hours. Conspiracy to cover-up evidence and pervert the natural course of justice.
Police Superintendent, Garry Knowles: For gross negligence, on behalf of the Crown, for not allowing a proper rescue attempt within the first 24 hours. Conspiracy to cover-up evidence and pervert the natural course of justice.
Pike River Coal Ltd Chairman and independent Director, John Dow: For first degree murder, or manslaughter as the result of extreme gross negligence. Mr. Dow is a geologist with 41 years experience as a mining executive in New Zealand, South East Asia, the United States and Latin America. His most recent executive appointment was as chairman and managing director of Newmont Australia Ltd, the Australian subsidiary of giant Newmont Mining Corporation based in the US, one of the world's largest gold mining companies. He is also non-executive chairman of Troy Resources NL, non-executive chairman of Glass Earth Ltd, and is the current chairman of Straterra, the minerals advocacy group in New Zealand representing Solid Energy, Newmont and Oceania among others, who want to open up conservation land and National Parks to opencast mining by foreign-controlled corporates.
Professor Raymond Meyer, Non Executive Director: For first degree murder, or manslaughter as the result of extreme gross negligence. He has had 42 years experience in engineering and is a former director of the Electricity Corporation of New Zealand, Transpower New Zealand and Watercare Services.
Tony Radford, Non Executive Director: For first degree murder, or manslaughter as the result of extreme gross negligence. He has had 27 years experience in resource management, with most of his career in the petroleum and mining industries.
Stuart Nattrass, Independent Director: For first degree murder, or manslaughter as the result of extreme gross negligence. He has also been a director of Fonterra Co-Operative Group since 2003.
Dipak Agarwalla, Non Executive Director: For first degree murder, or manslaughter as the result of extreme gross negligence. He is the managing director of Saurashtra Fuels Private Ltd, a coal mining family company operating for more than a 100 years, now one of India's largest private coke producers.
Arun Jagatramka, Non Executive Director: For first degree murder, or manslaughter as the result of extreme gross negligence. He is vice chairman and managing director of Gujarat NRE Coke Ltd, the largest non-captive metallurgical coke manufacturer in India and the first Indian company to own and operate coal mines in Australia.
Peter Whittall, CEO: For first degree murder, or manslaughter as the result of extreme gross negligence. He had only been in his position as CEO for about 2 months commencing in October 2010. However, he has almost 30 years experience as a coal miner and mining executive. Prior to his appointment as chief executive, he was Pike's General Manager Mines, a position he held since joining the company in 2005. During his time with the company he was responsible for all operational aspects of the business including mine design and development, the essential areas of safety and environment, and issues of coal marketing and capital-raising. Previously he was manager of underground coal mines for BHP Billiton in NSW, development of the Greenfield Dendrobium mine in Illawara Coal, and operation of the Tower and Aspin coal mines in NSW. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Mining) and a Masters of Business Administration.
Gordon Ward, [former] CEO: For first degree murder, or manslaughter as the result of extreme gross negligence. Mr. Ward was CEO of Pike River Coal Ltd from May 2007 to 1 October 2010, and suspiciously resigned less than two months before the disaster. He led Pike River Coal from its initial conceptual design 14 years ago through to the development stages up to its second coal export shipment in September 2010, and the imminent startup of the hydro-mining operations. Prior to working for the company he worked for NZ Oil & Gas Ltd for 20 years including 7 years in Australia, including 5 years as general manager during which the 50 million barrel Tui oilfield was developed. He is on the Straterra Board, the minerals advocacy corporate group that wants to open up National Park conservation land to opencast mining throughout New Zealand.
Doug White, Operations Manager: For manslaughter as the result of extreme gross negligence. He was most recently the Deputy Chief Inspector of Coal Mines with the Department of Mines in Queensland, where he was a member of the Board of Examiners and Coal Mining Advisory Council. Prior to this, he was the relief General Manager for Peabody Energy's Australian operations. Mr. White had managed a number of large mines in Queensland both long wall and board and pillar. He has over 30 years underground coal mining experience and has a senior qualification in risk management.
Stephen Ellis, Underground Mine Manager: For manslaughter as the result of extreme gross negligence. He was born in the UK, where he was a mining engineer at Doncaster. He achieved his UK 1st Class Mine Manager's Certificate of competency in 1983 and worked in operational technical roles in several underground coal mines in the UK both as a contractor and in senior management roles before relocating to Australia in 2006. He started in Australia as Superintendent of Development, where he achieved his ventilation Officer Certificate in 2007 and Advanced Diploma in Underground Mine Management in 2009. He has been in operational technical roles, including Ventilation Officer at Rio Tinto's Kestral Mine in Queensland, and achieved his Legislation Competency to be Site Senior Executive in 2009 during studies for his Australian 1st Class Certificate of Competency.
Neville Rockhouse, Safety & Training Manager: For manslaughter as the result of extreme gross negligence. He worked 21 years in underground and opencast mining operations in Australia before becoming professionally qualified in safety management. He was also National Operations and Continuing Professional Development Manager for the NZ Institute of Safety Management, and Vice President of the International Safety and Health Practitioner Organizations.
All of the above people should at least have full criminal charges filed against them for various acts. They should all jointly be brought to trial in a full, public hearing in the High Court of New Zealand to be judged by a jury of their peers.
It also should be pointed out that a leading, highly respected, West Coast mine inspector, the late Billy Brazil, previously lodged a public submission after the Coal Mines Act was repealed in the early 1990s severely warning the Government of the inherent dangers of abolishing the mine-specific safety regime and transferring responsibility of it to Occupational Safety and Health instead, now under the Department of Labour. Due to the abolition of this specific mine safety legislation by these negligent politicians, with the combination of widespread bureaucratic incompetence since then, proper mine safety regulation and inspection has been virtually non-existent. Some of the politicians and bureaucrats involved with these actions should also be brought to trial on various charges.
However, this unacceptable state and lack of proper mining legislation in New Zealand does not at all exonerate the leading executive members of Pike River Coal Ltd from charges of gross negligence. Most of these executives, if not all, are very intelligent, experienced men in their field, well aware and informed of widely internationally accepted basic coal mine safety procedures and standards, including those in Australia as set out, for example, in the Queensland Coal Mining Safety and Health Regulation 2001 (in force on 1 October 2010). These are minimum safety requirements only, and are well known in the global coal mining industry, yet they have not at all been even remotely complied with by the directors and executive members of Pike River Coal Ltd.
Both the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster in the US on April 5, 2010, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Big_Branch_Mine_disaster and the Pike River Mine disaster in New Zealand on November 19, 2010, are suspiciously identical.
Both occurred at precisely the same time, about 3.00-4.00pm in the afternoon. Both were caused by a massive methane gas explosion and both killed exactly 29 people out of a total of 31 men in the mine. On top of this, suspiciously, both companies are funded by and have the same, similar, corrupt, international banking cartels as their biggest shareholders, and both companies had or were in the process of being commercially linked to Indian coal companies.
The owner of Big Branch Mine was Performance Coal Company Ltd, a subsidiary of giant Massey Energy, the 4th biggest coal mining company in the US. This company has over $US1 billion in debt alone owed to London-based mining giant Anglo American PLC (AAL), which also has controlling shares in the company. AAL is controlled by London bankers.
Prior to the explosion on April 5 2010, Massey Energy had been charged with hundreds of serious violations of safety and had done little about them. Neither had the corrupt state mine safety authority and judiciary, because of the bribery of a corrupt judge associated with Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship. It is now well documented that before the explosion, the company, through its mine supervisors, was ordering electricians to dangerously "bridge" the automatic shutoff mechanisms on methane monitors and rewire detector boxes to shut-off gas alarms on 30-foot-long continuous mining machines to keep production up in spite of the mine's prevalent dangerous methane gas problem.
After the explosion on April 5, a host of people and organizations called on Massey Energy CEO, Don Blankenship, to be arrested and charged with first degree murder. Among them were: StopTheChamber, Democrats.com, Progessive Democrats of America, AfterDowningStreet, ePluribusMedia, BuzzFlash, the center for Media and Democracy and the Yes Men.
Only 5-6 weeks after the explosion, after which time the mine was closed, Massey Energy and Peabody Energy in the US were in secret negotiations with Coal India, the world's largest coal producer, and Sinar Mas of Indonesia, to increase India's coal supply in a $US1.7 billion joint venture funded by Merrill Lynch and Royal Bank of Scotland Group.
This same collusion in the US between corrupt international banking cartels, Massey Energy, associated government agencies, high government officials, and the aligned judiciary – is also, it is believed, being replicated in New Zealand as well.
How public companies are not "publicly" owned and controlled – but are really private
Many people naively think that all big publicly listed companies are "publicly" owned and controlled by widespread members of the public, but this is not true at all in the majority of cases. Usually it is the same small group of elect people who have been chosen to hold "cross-directorships" in a number of different companies to keep control in as few hands as possible. Less than 100 individuals control most of the big companies and banks in Australia and New Zealand. Usually the public will own only a very small proportion of the total numbers of shares issued to give the outward impression that the company is "public" when really it is not. While the big global banks and elite City of London Jewish banking families and their New York subsidiaries will predominantly own the lion's share of the stock, and control the company in other ways such as through debt, it is often very difficult to see at first glance who really owns just what. Sometimes share ownership and control is cunningly done through secret shareholdings under "street name companies," nominees, or arranged through a secret holding company owned by the New Zealand Reserve Bank called New Zealand Central Securities Depository Ltd (NZCSD Ltd) which covertly buys up shares on behalf of foreign bankers, superannuation funds and corporate clients. Sometimes the acronym "NZCSD Ltd" will just show up in company shareholding lists or in annual reports to hide the name of the real owner, and to hide the fact that the local company may be foreign-controlled, when the general public presume it is not. All countries utilize this system.
Such is the case with the relationship of Performance Coal Company Ltd and Massey Energy in the US controlled by Anglo American PLC in turn controlled by City of London bankers. The same is also the case with Pike River Coal Ltd with its biggest NZ shareholder New Zealand Oil & Gas Ltd, in turn controlled by the same Anglo/American bankers. These same bankers, in turn, are linked with another two NZ companies, that just happen to have been "waiting in the wings" all along to exploit "opencast" coal mining opportunities in New Zealand's South Island West Coast region after the disaster and demise of Pike River Coal Ltd. These two companies, L & M Coal and Bathurst Resources, are all closely interlinked with the same international banking firms, shareholders, directors and executive members running New Zealand Oil & Gas Ltd and Pike River Coal Ltd. Much more will be revealed about these people, companies and banks a little later as it will increasingly become clearer why, it is alleged, the 29 miners were surreptitiously and callously murdered.
Within the first two hours after the initial explosion was reported at 3.45pm on Friday 19th November, 2010, the police were brought in. A short time later, Police Superintendent Gary Knowles the Tasman Area Police Commander, was brought in to take over control of the disaster by the Police Commissioner Howard Broad. From this point the Pike River Mine area including the air space above it was quarantined and treated as a crime scene. From the time he took control, under the law, he was responsible, on behalf of the Crown, for all further actions taken – not Pike River Coal Ltd, thus making it much more difficult for families of the deceased miners to sue or bring criminal charges against the company for the deaths of the miners.
It is well known in the industry that the first 24 hours immediately after an explosion in a mine of this sort, provides the major "window of opportunity" to rescue any miners because most of the explosive methane gas has already been burnt up. It simply was not done by Superintendent Gary Knowles, and as time progressed after this major "window of opportunity" had closed, the gas emissions, as expected, built up again causing further explosions and a fire thus sealing the ill-fated death of all 29 miners.
A number of leading Australian observers strongly criticized the fact that, unlike in Australia, where mining companies were in primary charge of dealing with a mine crisis, at Pike River mine, the rescue operation was put in the hands of the top police officers in the region. On 24th November, 2010, Andrew Vickers, General Secretary of the Mining and Energy Division of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, was quoted on New Zealand television saying the mining company, in consultation with the unions, should have been in charge. "They are the only people who know the mine; they are the people with the technical expertise," Mr. Vickers said.
Laurie Drew, whose son Zen was one of the miners to have perished, and who had served as an unofficial spokesman for the families, said he wanted a royal commission. Speaking of a "cover-up," Mr. Drew said on the 24th November; "That mine should never have been opened in the first place." He further added, "A lot of people do not understand why the police were in control in the beginning." In angrily speaking to NewstalkZB reporter Tyler Adams, Laurie Drew claimed rescuers should have gone in straight away, saying he was unimpressed with the way Pike River Mine has operated, and "it smacks of a cover-up and he is going to take it to the highest levels."
While Pike River Coal Ltd CEO Peter Whittall was the chief company spokesman throughout the disaster following the initial explosion, Police Superintendent Knowles was accompanying him at all times monitoring all questions and vetting any potentially incriminating answers. Even an upset journalist, Ean Higgins, from The Australian newspaper, asked what a "country cop" was doing leading the rescue. The Commissioner of Police, Howard Broad, (who also later attended the crime scene with PM John Key, Minister of Police Judith Collins, Minister of Energy and Resources Gerry Brownlee and Minister of Labour and Minister of Conservation Kate Wilkinson), slammed Higgins by saying his comments were "disgraceful" when clearly they were not, as he had raised a valid point – why were the police in control? Of course, the real truth was, Higgins was closer to the truth than he may have realized. There was never to be any rescue attempt at all. Even right from the beginning, there would only be the "pretext" of carrying out one, and the further explosions and fire made sure most of any key evidence was lost. Of course, too, police superintendent Knowles was far from being just a "country cop." In fact, before moving to his position as Tasman area commander in February 2009, he was Christchurch area commander for 3 years, and before that he spent 28 years in Wellington as Officer in Charge of the Wellington City Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) and Head of the CIB at Police National Headquarters.
He was also a member of the Drug Squad, Officer in charge of the Organized Crime Unit (gang crime), Head of Police National Intelligence Unit specializing in terrorism and South Pacific Crime – hardly a "local country cop" at all – and the "ideal person" to be chosen to head up a major government/corporate "cover-up," as Laurie Drew called it in interviews with journalists.
Incidentally, throughout the supposed "rescue operation" under police control in the 3 weeks between Friday afternoon on 19 November to Friday afternoon on 10 December 2010, Pike Coal Ltd was assisted with significant financial support by its major funders and secured creditors, Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) and New Zealand Oil & Gas Ltd (NZOG). As part of these arrangements, NZOG provided Pike with the balance of the $NZ25 million facility that it previously had established, with a further $NZ12 million made available.
New Zealand's four major banks are all owned by Australian parents, which themselves have cross-shareholdings in each other and are themselves foreign-controlled by big New York banks, which themselves are controlled from the City of London Corporation.
http://www.gwb.com.au/gwb/news/banking/wpac97.html The BNZ is owned by its Australian parent, National Australia Bank, which in turn has cross-shareholdings in the other big three foreign-owned Australian banks. Most of these banks, or their shareholding banks, have major interests in the mining companies that plan to mine New Zealand's conservation park resources.
Before the disaster "rescue operations" were over and before the mine was handed back to the company from the police (since rescinded after the company's receivership), the Prime Minister John Key announced that there would be a number of inquiries into the accident, headed by a Royal Commission of Inquiry. (more about this inquiry in the last chapter).
On Friday afternoon, 10 December 2010, after exactly 3 weeks to the day, and after absolutely no rescue attempt or recovery of the bodies had even been attempted, the Commissioner of Police Howard Broad, announced he was handing the mine back to the company, Pike River Coal Ltd, to continue its operations and recover the bodies, as usual, presumably under the responsibility of the Department of Labour. At the same time, the company announced it was going to make most of the rest of its workers redundant, with the union saying the figure would be around 90 percent. The company CEO Peter Whittall, also said he was unsure if the company was going to reopen the mine or not.
Then a couple of days later on 12 December 2010, a police spokesman said the police investigation team had leased premises in Greymouth at least for another 12 months to support the families, work with other government agencies and local community groups to ensure the families' welfare needs and longer term support were catered for. Thus the police were still treating the site as a crime scene, by not allowing any independent people in to investigate it – in other words – a possible police cover-up. Subsequently, after advising the mine was being handed back to the company after the announcement of the company's announced receivership, the police by about December 20th had rescinded the original transfer decision to hand the mine back to the company and had once again regained overall responsibility. Apparently, they were to oversee work to stabilize the mine's atmosphere over the Christmas period using a GAG machine and a 20-tonne Australian Floxal nitrogen-generation unit to stabilize the environment in the mine to recover the men's bodies. Will this ever happen? Is it ever intended to happen? Time will tell.
An article in The New Zealand Herald, December 20, pg.A2, entitled, 'Nitrogen pump easing mine gas' said, "Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee said the Government was still exploring options to recover the men's remains, but it remained unclear whether such an operation would be possible. Pike River coal would submit a proposed recovery plan shortly through its receiver, PricewaterhouseCoopers … The main issue was not the cost of the recovery, but the stability and safety of the mine. Police were on-site overseeing the operation and were meeting the costs. "However, difficult as it is for families and friends of those who have lost loved ones, it remains unclear whether people will be able to access the mine…" Why were the police in control? This usually only happens in Marxist countries!
In Communist China today, whenever there is a major coalmine explosion or other industrial disaster, the police are immediately brought in for no other reason than to protect negligent corporate owners, censor the media and journalists, and quash legitimate protests of relatives and the public. Recently, for example, this happened in November 2010 at a coalmine in Hegang where 104 miners were killed. http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/545082
A book, Media Control in China by He Qinglian, about the corruption in China today between the Government and the mining and industrial companies, showing how the police are summarily brought in to suppress the media, cover-up crimes and putdown protests is simply stunning. www.hrichina.org/public/PDFs/CRF.1.2004/a1_MediaControl1.2004.pdf
One cannot forget to mention the massive power of the media. Most members of the general public have simply no idea at all about how the City of London Corporation aristocracy's global "spin-doctors" powerfully control the world media, the public's primitive thinking, views and understanding. Mind manipulation or mind-control of the masses (most members of the public) through the mass media has been going on for a very long time. It is a big, vast subject, but it must be mentioned here, be it ever so briefly, because without a basic appreciation of how it works and who controls it, it is simply impossible to be properly informed about what has been censored and covered up by the corporate mass media over the Pike River Coal mine disaster. Most deception through disinformation, misinformation or just plain lies is rarely presented without some modicum of truth in it. Even the most wary of rats can be deceived to take the deadliest bait when it is presented with 99 percent jam.
John Swinton (1830-1901) was the chief editorial journalist at the New York Times from 1860 to 1870 and for The New York Sun from 1875 to 1897. In 1880, while as a guest of honor at a banquet of leading journalists, he was offered "a toast to the independent press" and he outraged his colleagues by replying:
· "There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
During the three weeks of the disaster, while the mine was under "Operation Pike" police control, the international media companies, (which also completely control the media throughout New Zealand) including all radio, TV and print, went into full "damage control" to censor most of the major criticism of the operation from the public, and place the Pike River CEO, Peter Whittall, on a "theologian's pedestal" to provide "a live, running commentary" of the unfolding event. During the event, it was he, who was carefully presented and featured as "just a nice, ordinary man" or "just one of the workers" who was still "trying his damnedest" to "save the miners" "and bring closure for the families" from a truly tragic accident from which there "was still an unknown cause." Even one leading business executive perceptively commented, "adversity and crisis brings the best or worst out in a leader, and Peter Whittall has risen to the occasion!" And he certainly had! – for Pike River Coal Ltd.
This propaganda was so successful it went all round the world in a flash, even inspiring the Queen, Prince Charles, Pope, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and many other world leaders and eminent people to express their heartfelt grief. Even many of the victim's family members as well were emotionally drawn to Mr. Whittall during the crisis and tearfully hugged him, praising him for the magnificent job they all felt he was doing. And just to make sure everybody was happy with the great job he had done, the major newspapers widely circulated the suggestion he should actually be voted the New Zealand "Man of the Year" – yet almost unbelievably, it is alleged, this man alone, more than any other, was the very person who was personally responsible for killing the miners in the first place!
Mind control is information control, and it is those who control the media that predominantly possess this amazing power. In New Zealand, virtually the whole media, radio, TV, newspapers and magazines are owned by just three or four foreign companies. The radio stations including 6 networks and 31 local stations, Free-to-Air TV channels, TV3 and C4 are owned by the private equity firm, Australian-based Ironbridge Capital, which is funded by big City of London merchant banks. Julian Knights, the founding Partner, was previously the Managing Director of Gresham Private Equity. Before that, he was a director of merchant bankers, Hill Samuel Group, founded by Marcus Samuel, a City of London Jew, who founded Shell Transport & Trading that later became Royal Dutch Shell, now controlled by the British Rothschild and Samuel families. Sir Herbert Samuel, a member of the family, founded the BBC. Hill Samuel's Australian outpost is Macquarie Bank, Australia's biggest investment bank. This bank is buying up ports, toll-roads, airports, private hospitals, retirement homes – you name it – all around the world – including those in New Zealand! Another Director of Ironbridge Capital is Josh McKean. He previously worked for Gresham Private Equity and JP Morgan. Paul Evans, the Chief Operating Officer of Ironbridge in New Zealand previously worked for Gresham Private Equity and Barclays in London. Rothschilds, Samuels, Barclays and JP Morgan etc. are the same banking pirates that secretly own the controlling shares in not only our media – but the mining companies as well.
All the rest of the major TV stations, newspapers and magazines, apart from a mere handful of exceptions, in New Zealand are controlled by either News Corporation (based in New York) or Fairfax Media (based in Sydney) or to a lesser extent Independent News & Media (INM) in Dublin. News Corp is the world's 3rd largest media conglomerate (behind The Walt Disney Company and the Time Warner Company) and is headed by Rupert Murdoch and in 2008 it had a staff of 64,000. Once again, the controlling shareholders are City of London merchant and clearing banks, including such giants as Credit Suisse and Rothschild – not Rupert Murdoch, who is just a highly paid obedient puppet! Indeed, Andrew S. B. Knight, Chairman of J. Rothschild Capital Management Ltd, is one of the seventeen News Corp directors. The company controls 20th Century Fox in the US, and SKY Network Television (including Prime) in New Zealand. It controls over a hundred national, metropolitan, regional and suburban newspapers throughout Australia having 68% of the capital city and national newspaper market and 40% of Australia's top thirty magazines market.
Fairfax Media , based in Sydney, reaches 84.4% or 2.9 million New Zealanders, printing 90 titles and 244 million copies a year, publishing many of New Zealand's newspapers and magazines including the Sunday Star-Times and owns TradeMe. Fairfax Media's TV Guide magazine is New Zealand's 7th largest selling item in supermarkets. The company's shares are controlled by the big City banks including John Fairfax's 9% shareholding of his own which is largely borrowed, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Bankers Trust (from 1998 Deutsche Bank), Lazard Asset Management, Rothschild and 452 Capital. Gina Rinehart, mining billionaire and head of Hancock Prospecting has also been buying up a stake in Fairfax Media recently. Sam Morgan founder of TradeMe is on the Board, and his father Garth Morgan is a well-known New Zealand financial puppet and spin-doctor.
Independent News & Media (INM) is controlled by Sir Anthony O'Reilly and his son Gavin, although Denis O'Brien in 2010 became the group's biggest shareholder. However their own shares in the company are financed through heavy borrowing from Lazard and N. M. Rothschild & Sons in the City of London. INM's bankers are; Allied Irish Banks plc, ANZ Banking Group, Bank of Ireland, Barclays Bank Ireland plc, BNP Paribas, IIB Bank Ltd, Lloyds TSB Bank plc, Ulster Bank Ireland Ltd. INM had 9,600 employees in 2007. The New Zealand Herald has the largest newspaper circulation in New Zealand. The newspaper is owned by Australian Provincial Newspapers (APN) which is majority-owned by Independent News & Media (INM).
http://www.telgraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/med ...
Only a mere handful of enormously rich and powerful banking families in London control what the world reads! They ensure that their mainstream media editorial slaves and journalistic goons concentrate on day to day trivialities and irrelevant news items so that rarely, if ever, the more important issues about what is truly transpiring is ever discussed, or the real truth about what is really happening ever gets out. In short, all the mainstream newspapers are only good for lighting fires or for bird-cage liners – if that!
Typical propaganda in The New Zealand Herald on Friday, December 10, 2010, p. A11, showed an inspirationally reflective color photograph of Peter Whittall calling him "The New Zealand Herald NEW ZEALANDER OF THE YEAR" with the subtext, "UP FRONT: Pike River chief executive Peter Whittall won everybody's respect." – when clearly he definitely hadn't – and ALL of the more serious criticism of him was never ever published! – NOT BY ANYONE!
The point is, one does need to be acutely aware, that the same foul brood of international merchant bankers and their traitorous banking agents that have for so long got a deadly headlock on all the global debt, corporate debt, national debt and government debt, through the Bank for International Settlements in Switzerland, IMF, World Bank and so on – controlled from the Worshipful Company of International Bankers in Guildhall in the City of London Corporation – also have an enormous influence over a wide range of unprincipled Government officials, Treasury parasites, Reserve Bank puppets, and unprincipled newspaper editors and journalists who will endlessly lie through their teeth to make a dollar!
These people, especially the more senior ones, all have developed a particular aversion of the truth to protect their jobs or their hip pockets, and more often than not are the same highly paid group of corporate leeches that are intent on lining their own pockets at the expense of ordinary hard-working members of the public. The bankers are the people behind the scenes that control the media. They are the ones controlling the mining companies as well, and it is long past the time that they need to be exposed for who and what they are.
Maximising our Mineral Potential:
Stocktake of Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act and Beyond
An article appeared on March 22, 2010, by ENS News, entitled, "New Zealand National Parks Could be Opened to Mining." This report coincided with the release of a government discussion paper, Maximising our Mineral Potential: Stocktake of Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act and Beyond, and said, the New Zealand Government proposed to allow mining in 7,000 hectares (27 square miles) of high-value conservation land in national parks and other protected areas throughout the country.
On jointly releasing the discussion paper with Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson, Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee said; "Our mineral resources, even excluding coal and other hydrocarbon-based minerals, are estimated to be worth approximately $194 billion. The government is interested in extraction of gold, silver, gemstones and rare earth minerals such as dysprosium, terbium, erbium and ytterbium, which are used in technologies such as hybrid and electric cars, wind turbines, computer disc drives, fiber-optic telecommunication cables, low- energy light bulbs and military equipment."
Horrified, critics said many of the minerals targeted in the government's assessment are found only in low concentrations in national parks so opencast mining, not surgical (underground) mining, would be the most likely way to extract them.
The ministers said the purpose of releasing the discussion document "is to gather feedback to inform final recommendations to Cabinet before decisions are made in mid-2010, with submissions on the proposals from the public to close at 5.00pm on May 4, 2010."
Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act 1991; Submissions
About 40 percent of New Zealand's known mineral potential, other than on the foreshores, is estimated to be in areas listed in Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act, which presently are closed to most mining and mineral-related activity.
New Zealand also has by far the richest deposits of titanium in the world in its rich iron-sands along most of its west coast beaches of the North Island. As new compositions of titanium alloys are being quickly developed for a myriad of new applications, the demand and value of the sand is now beginning to rise astronomically. Of course, this fact was not mentioned by the ministers, linked with another issue – the Foreshore and Seabed Act – (which will be addressed later).
On 22 March 2010, the Government, Minister of Energy and Resources and the Minister of Conservation, released a discussion paper, Maximising our Mineral Potential: Stocktake of Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act and Beyond to seek public feedback on 7,058 hectares of land considered for removal from Schedule 4 and on 12,400 hectares of land being considered for addition to schedule 4, as well as a number of related policy initiatives.
The Government received a huge 37,532 submissions on the discussion paper – 32,318 form submissions from individuals using standardized templates provided by organizations such as Greenpeace, Coromandel Watchdog, Federated Mountain Club, Forest & Bird and the Green Party, and 5,234 unique submissions made by individuals, organizations and companies. In addition, 5,023 postcards and 4494 emails on the Stocktake of Schedule 4 were sent to the Prime Minister John Key.
Question (1) asked submitters whether the areas identified in section 7 of the discussion paper should be removed from Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act, so that applications for exploration and mining activity could be considered on a case-by-case-basis. Almost all submitters responded to this important question. Of these, 36,502, or 98% of submitters opposed the removal of all areas identified in section 7 of the discussion paper from Schedule 4. A total of 611, or 1.5% of submitters (mainly foreign-owned mining companies and their business associates) supported the removal of all areas identified in section 7 of the discussion paper from Schedule 4. About .5% of submitters supported only some of the areas identified in section 7 of the discussion paper being removed from Schedule 4.
See: http://www.med.govt.nz/templates/MultipageDocumentTOC___44107.aspx (Ministry of Economic Development Summary of Submissions)
The overwhelming response of the New Zealand public was vehemently opposed to opening up Crown land and National Conservation Parks to foreign mining cartels. Many submitters commented that the preservation and enjoyment of natural areas was part of "our natural identity" and what made New Zealand a great place to live. Submitters expressed the opinion that Schedule 4 land was a natural treasure, that it enhanced New Zealander's quality of life, and could not be assigned an economic value.
Many submitters expressed their wish to see Schedule 4 land, and National Parks in particular, preserved for future generations to enjoy. Schedule 4 land was also considered a major conservation, tourist and recreational asset. The large majority of submissions concluded that the conservation value of the areas proposed for removal far outweighed any mineral wealth.
A good, typical example of an individual submission from a member of the public opposing the removal of land identified in section 7 of the discussion paper from Section 4, was made by Robin Johnson.
see: http://rwmjohnson.blogspot.com/2010/04/my-submission-on-schedule-4-stock-take.html
In his perceptive submission under the sub-title, "The Inangahua sector of Paparoa National Park" Mr. Johnson writes, "The proposal includes taking 3,000 hectares of native lowland forest near Inangahua out of north-eastern Paparoa National Park to allow coal mining. According to the Ministry of Economic Development, 83% of New Zealand's coal production in 2008 came from opencast mines. It appears highly likely that any new Inangahua coal mine would be opencast. Opencast mining is associated with the most severe adverse environmental effects. Mr. Brownlee has stated that opencast mines cannot be ruled out in areas removed from section 4."
A good summary of the New Zealand public's overwhelming opposition to opencast mining in National Parks is that they want the land to be preserved as a valuable recreational and tourist asset for future generations.
There are a large number who oppose the mining, yet would, paradoxically, support wise economic mining development by fully New Zealand-owned, NEW ZEALAND FUNDED and operated companies in the national interest, but ask the question: "Why should we allow greedy, foreign-owned mining companies to come into our beautiful country, construct a vast network of opencast mines everywhere, rape the country of its mineral resources, destroy our world class National Parks and stunning scenery enjoyed by all including tourists, then repatriate most the vast profits to their overseas shareholders?"
As the result of this widespread and overwhelming public opposition, reluctantly, PM John Key's Government largely backed down, announcing on 20 July, 2010, "No areas will be removed from Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act 1991." Hence, this created a sharp shock particularly for the foreign-owned coal mining companies, banks and investors who wanted to close expensive surgical (underground) operations like Pike River Coal Ltd and expand the development of opencast (open-cut) mines throughout the country.
Indeed, the 3 week mine rescue preparations pretext had not even been fully completed, when Brian Fallow, the Economics Editor of The New Zealand Herald, on Thursday, December 9, 2010, page B2, contemptuously wrote a half-page leading propaganda article:
"Opening treasure trove comes at a cost"
'The tragedy at Pike River could make
open-cast mining more acceptable
than underground mining. '
Other changes by the Government to Schedule 4 were expected to be made by October 2010, (the month before the Pike River explosion coincidentally) and a number of highly suspicious, corporate events were quietly taking place behind the scenes, leading up to the disaster. However, just before a mention is made of them let's take a look at Pike River Coal Ltd's biggest shareholder (29.4%), New Zealand Oil and Gas Ltd and its shareholders. Like most big companies that masquerade under the country's name, New Zealand Oil and Gas Ltd is about as "New Zealand" as an African monkey.
Baron Josiah Stamp (1880 – 1941) head of the Bank of England and at the time one of the richest men in Britain is quoted as saying at an informal talk at the University of Texas in the 1920s:
· "Banking was conceived in iniquity and was born in sin. The bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money, and with the flick of the pen they will create enough deposits to buy it back again. However, take away from them the power to create money and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear and they ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in. But, if you wish to remain the slaves of bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create money."
Josiah Stamp, of course, was perfectly correct. Banking is still indeed "conceived in iniquity and born in sin," and this is no better illustrated than through the foreign control and shareholding of Pike River Coal Ltd's controlling shareholder – New Zealand Oil & Gas Ltd.
New Zealand Oil & Gas Ltd Top 20 Shareholders as at 30 November 2010:
1. National Nominees (New Zealand) Ltd (23,163,327 shares) or 5.88% (of issued capital).
2. Accident Compensation Corporation (22,700,105 shares) or 5.76%.
3. HSBC Nominees (New Zealand) Ltd (14,447,898 shares) or 3.67%.
4. Resources Trust Ltd (11,730,812 shares) or 2.98% .
5. New Zealand Superannuation Fund (10,048,859 shares) or 2.55%.
6. Citibank Nominees (New Zealand) Ltd (7,435,934 shares) or 1.89%.
7. NZ Guardian Trust Investment Nominees Ltd (5,435,150 shares) or 1.38%.
8. Sik-On Chow (5,181,565 shares) or 1.31%.
9. Leveraged Equities Finance Ltd (4,993,415 shares) or 1.27%.
10. Tea Custodians Ltd (4,953,723 shares) or 1.26%.
11. HSBC Nominees (New Zealand) Ltd (4,886,301) or 1.24%.
12. AMP Investments Strategic Equity Growth Fund (4,867,468 shares) or 1.24%.
13. Kevin Glen Douglas & Michelle McKenney Douglas (4,544,500 shares) or 1.15%.
14. Asteron Life Ltd (4,220,281 shares) or 1.07%.
15. Riuo Hauraki Ltd (3,715,541 shares) or 0.94%.
16. FNZ Custodians Ltd (3,586,533 shares) or 0.91%.
17. Westpac NZ Shares 2002 Wholesale Trust (2,743,332 shares) or 0.70%.
18. New Zealand Depository Nominee Ltd (2,613,140 shares) or 0.66%.
19. JP Morgan Chase Bank (2,561,438 shares) or 0.65%.
20. NZPT Custodians (Grosvenor) Ltd (2,394,462 shares) or 0.61%.
As at 31st December 2009, NZOG had drawn down $NZ57.8 million from a $NZ75 million funding facility with Westpac. Westpac is controlled by National Australia Trustees Ltd, Chase Manhattan Bank, Cede and Co etc., controlled by the Rockefellers in New York who are in turn controlled by Rothschild interests in the City of London.
Prior to the announcement the company was being put into receivership on December 13, 2010, Pike River Coal Ltd had also been kept afloat and funded through its growing financial difficulties and collapse by its secured creditors, BNZ (owned by National Australia Bank also controlled from London) and New Zealand Oil & Gas Ltd.
The giant "big four" banks that control most of the wealth in both Australia and New Zealand now are; Commonwealth Bank (Commbank), National Australia Bank (NAB), Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) and Westpac Banking Corporation (Westpac). These powerful banks, with their foreign shareholding bank owners secretly "pulling the strings" behind the scenes, are also the chief banks that own and control every key sector of our economy. They control both the New Zealand and Australian governments with their largely corrupt or incompetent politicians and bureaucrats. They control huge numbers of corporations and companies including New Zealand Oil & Gas Ltd and Pike River Coal Ltd as well.
It is a tiresome and often complex subject for the average person studying the complexities of international finance and corporate cross-directorships and it shall be kept as brief as possible. However, it is vital to know a little about how the system works if one really wants to understand or fully appreciate the "magnitude" of the problem – how big business deviously operates, and has subsequently spawned the conspiracy to summarily, it is alleged, murder 29 men at Pike River Coal. The following is just a short glimpse of a few of the biggest, money-hungry banking pirates lurking behind the scenes associated with Pike River Coal Ltd, New Zealand Oil & Gas Ltd, and the mining industry in general.
ANZ Bank
Headquartered in a plush new complex in Melbourne's Docklands precinct, with a full-time equivalent staff of over 40,000, the ANZ Bank is the fourth largest bank in Australia of the "big four" after Commonwealth Bank, Westpac Banking Corporation and National Australia Bank.
Some of the directors include: H. Y. Lee – A former member of the Merril Lynch PacRim Advisory Council (2007-2010).
Ian J. MacFarlane – A current Independent Non-Executive Director of ANZ, was previously Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia for ten years (1996-2006) and Chairman of the Asian Consultative Council for the Bank for International Settlements (which controls all of the Reserve Banks around the world including the US Federal Reserve) during the same period. He is a former Group Executive Director of Standard Chartered Plc (that was established with HSBC in the mid-1800s to launder illicit opium and heroin drug money during and after the First and Second Opium Wars with China. Standard Chartered is still the primary corrupt British bank criminally laundering most of the illicit opium drug money through the Bank of Afghanistan, in a country that produces 90% of the world's opium and heroin today being protected by our allied troops for the bankers.) He is a former Head of Citibank (UK) and Managing Director of Citicorp Investment Bank. He is also a member of the International Advisory Board of Goldman Sachs International, Woolworths Ltd, Westfield Holdings Ltd, and he serves on the Council of International Advisors to the China Banking Regulatory Commission.
P. A. F. Hay – Another director, is also Chairman of Lazard Pty Ltd Advisory Board. John P. Morschel – is the current Chairman of ANZ Bank. He is a former director of the mining giant Rio Tinto plc (1998-2005), Westpac Banking Corporation (1993-2001) and Lend Lease Corporation Ltd (1983-1995). Michael R. P. Smith – is the current CEO of ANZ. Until June 2007, he was President and CEO of Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd (HSBC), Chairman, Hang Seng Bank Ltd, Global Head of Commercial Banking for the HSBC Group, Chairman, HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad and CEO of HSBC Argentina Holdings SA.
Sir Rod Eddington, a previous Chairman of ANZ, is also a Non Executive Chairman of JP Morgan (Australia and New Zealand), and is currently a Non Executive Director of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and giant global mining company Rio Tinto.
Dr. Rod Dean, a New Zealander, a former Director of the ANZ Banking Group in Melbourne for many years, and Chairman of ANZ National Bank, is also the past Chairman of New Zealand's largest listed company Fletcher Building Ltd. He has been Deputy Governor of the New Zealand Reserve Bank, Chairman of the State Services Commission (effectively the head of New Zealand's public service), Alternate Executive Director of the IMF from 1974-1976, CEO of Telecom New Zealand, CEO of the Electricity Corporation of New Zealand. He presently is a Director of Woolworths Ltd, Chairman of New Zealand Seed Fund, and he and his wife serve as joint patrons of the IHC New Zealand, the country's largest voluntary welfare organization.
Sir John Anderson, another New Zealander, was Chief Executive and Director of ANZ National Bank from 2003 to 2005 and he now sits on the Commonwealth Bank Board in Sydney. Dr. Gregory J. Clark, a past director of the ANZ Bank, from 1994-1998 was also a member of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation's Executive Committee. Jeremy K. Ellis, a past director of ANZ, was also a Director, Executive General Manager and CEO of BHP Minerals. In 1996 he was appointed Deputy Chairman of BHP Co. Ltd and served as Chairman of the company from 1997-1999.
As a major stakeholder in the Trade Bank of Iraq, the ANZ Bank is one of a number of banks that have been profiteering from the Iraq War. ANZ is one of the biggest financiers of the coal industry, and has financed billions of dollars worth of mines, ports and power stations in the last 5 years.
Commonwealth Bank
The Commonwealth Bank, headquartered in Sydney, is now the second largest Australian listed company on the Australian Securities Exchange. As at 2009, it had assets of $AUD780.299 billion and it had 44,218 full-time equivalent employees. It owns the Auckland Savings Bank (ASB) in New Zealand. Presently the Commonwealth Bank's CEO is Ralph Norris, a New Zealander, a former CEO of Auckland Savings Bank (1991-2001), and former managing director of Air New Zealand. Currently, he is Australia's highest-paid banking CEO with an annual pay package of $AUD16.2 million.
Sir John Anderson (mentioned previously in relation to the ANZ) also sits on the Commonwealth Bank Board. He has held many high level business positions in New Zealand and has been CEO and director of ANZ National Bank Ltd (2003-2005), National Bank of New Zealand Ltd (1989-2003) and Chairman of Television New Zealand.
Yet another present Director of the Commonwealth Bank is S. Carolyn H. Kay. She has over 25 years experience working as a banker and lawyer at Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and Linklaters & Paines in London, New York and Australia. Another Director, is Harrison Young. Before he was appointed to the Commonwealth Bank Board he was Chairman of Morgan Stanley Australia, Managing Director and Vice Chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, CEO of China International Capital Corporation, Senior Officer of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in Washington DC and lest we forget, he is also a Director of the Bank of England.
Andrew M. Mohl was appointed to the Board on 1 July 2008. Previously he was Managing Director of AMP Financial Services, Chief Economist and Managing Director of ANZ Funds Management, and Senior Economist and Deputy Head of Research at the Reserve Bank of Australia.
BNZ and National Australia Bank
The BNZ, (which partly funded Pike River Coal Ltd), is owned by National Australia Bank, headquartered in Melbourne, which is the 17th largest bank in the world ranked by market capitalization. As at 2009, the National Australia Bank had 38,953 employees and total assets of $AUD 654 billion. As at November 12, 2004, the five largest shareholders were:
1. National Nominees Ltd (185,807,597 shares) or 11.98%.
2. JP Morgan Nominees Australia Ltd (160,027,320 shares) or 10.32%.
3. Westpac Custodian Nominees Ltd (159,189,478 shares) or 10.26%.
4. Citicorp Nominees Ltd (39,670,572 shares) or 2.56%.
5. ANZ Nominees Ltd (30,220,975 shares) or 1.95%.
Westpac Banking Corporation
Following the takeover of St George in December 2008, Westpac became the largest bank in Australia by market capitalization and the second largest bank in New Zealand. Based in Sydney, the bank as at 2008 had $A700 billion in assets and over 40,000 employees. Westpac's current CEO is South African Gail Kelly, who's remuneration package in 2009 was $A10.6 million and in 2010 $A9.58 million. As previously mentioned, Westpac is controlled by foreign Rockefeller and Rothschild interests.
http://www.gwb.com.au/gwb/news/banking/wpac97.html - These same banking elites also control all the supermarkets, media and mining companies.
Pike River Miners' Relief Fund to partly "buy off" the families
It is not just a coincidence that Pike River Mine Ltd, in conjunction with these big four banking pirates, ANZ, National, BNZ and ASB, started a charitable trust called the Pike River Miners' Relief Fund to help effectively "buy off" the deceased men's families with a $500,000 pledge, also matched by its major shareholder New Zealand Oil & Gas Ltd, and donations from the public. All donations were directed to these banks. The Grey District Council also set up an appeal fund calling for donations, as well as the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union.
Coal mining company advocacy groups and bribery of politicians
According to the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), in the 2008 election cycle, fully 87% of all members of the US Congress officially collected money from Americans for Balanced Energy Choices, the shadowy, supposedly independent, advocacy front group representing coal mining companies' interests. In all, from 1990 to 2010, $US10,423,347 was donated to members of Congress. Of that, the three major contributors included Arch Coal, CONSOL Energy and Peabody Energy.
In April 2010, MapLight.org released data on the US Mining Industry's donations to compliant politicians, (these donations are only the official ones that we know about), to get them to vote against the introduction of the Supplemental Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act – (S-MINER) Act, which would have supplemented existing mine provisions in the Federal Mine Act to require; "1) Emergency response plans to incorporate new technology. 2) The Secretary of Labor to require the installation of rescue chambers in underground coal mines. 3) Accident response plans to provide for maintenance of refugees." It also aimed to reduce long-term health risks facing miners, such as black lung.
After a series of amendments and debates the Bill did not pass. Later, MapLight estimated that mining interests donations to the Democrats that voted 'No' on the Bill averaged $US16,314 each. Critics later argued that had the Bill been passed the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster in April 2010 in West Virginia would have been prevented.
So, could the same thing be happening here in little New Zealand? – Are "New Zealand's" politicians and company directors as corrupt as their American counterparts? – or are they genuinely 'good, honest, ordinary family men,' all working for the benefit of New Zealand – for the benefit of all New Zealanders as they so often repeatedly tell us? – or are they in fact all betraying us by filling their own pockets with filthy mammon and jumping to the tune of their international banking choir-masters?
Did the Pike River Coal Board of Directors, Chairman, CEO, and company executives genuinely have a real concern for the lives of the miners and the deceased miner's families? – or did they have another much more sinister ulterior motive? Who is the Chairman anyway? These questions need to be answered and brought out into the light of day.
John A. S. Dow – Chairman and Independent Director: Pike River Coal Ltd
So who really is Mr. John Dow? Is he a just an 'ordinary' local bloke and West Coast resident who has become the Chairman of the Board for Pike River Coal Ltd? – He is a geologist with 41 years experience, and there's nothing wrong with that. But what are his other connections?
Well, for a start, he's also currently the Chairman of Straterra (the advocacy group that is representing foreign mining companies that want to open up our conservation parks to opencast mining throughout New Zealand). He is Non-Executive Chairman of Troy Resources NL, and Non-Executive Chairman of Glass Earth Gold Ltd. He is also a former Independent Director of New Zealand Oil & Gas Ltd that is controlled by the international bankers. His most recent executive appointment was as Chairman and Managing Director of Newmont Australia Ltd, the Australian subsidiary of Newmont Mining Corporation headquartered in Denver, Colorado. In 2007, the company had revenues of $US5.526 billion and 15,000 employees.
Interestingly, some of the directors of Newmont Mining Corporation are: Noreen Doyle – she was the first Vice President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development from 2001 to 2005. She currently sits on the Board of Directors of Credit Suisse Group (owned by the House of Rothschild). Michael S. Hamson – He is the retired Joint Chairman of McIntosh Hamson Hoare Govett Ltd (now Merrill Lynch Australia), and served as the firm's Chief Executive from 1972 to 1986. John B. Prescott – is the retired Managing Director of Broken Hill P/L Ltd, Australia, where he served as CEO from 1991 until March 1998. Donald C. Roth – was past Vice President and Treasurer of the World Bank for four years. He is also a former Chairman and Chief Executive of Merrill Lynch Europe Ltd (1983-85) – and he currently serves on the Advisory Committee to the National Treasury Management Agency, which just happens to be the international banking agency, right now managing the Republic of Ireland's national debt!
Newmont Mining Corporation currently owns and operates the underground/opencast Martha gold mine complex located at Waihi in the North Island of New Zealand. According to The National Business Review of August 23, 2010, Glass Earth Gold Ltd (of which John Dow is Non Executive Chairman) in July 2010, confirmed gold deposits potentially worth $NZ20 billion in the WKP prospect in Waihi, a joint venture with Newmont Mining Corporation.
On 27 March 2009, the Ministry of Economic Development announced "Newmont Waihi Gold has recorded one of biggest gold production years from its Waihi operation with a total yield of 144,000 oz for the 2008 year."
At present world gold prices at around $US1400 an oz, this is remarkably over $US200 million – and that's without the additional proceeds from silver!
Little more than a year later, The Standard on 29 June 2010, published a revealing article, 'Mining royalties pathetic.' It said, "That Newmont pays no royalties on the gold and silver it digs up at Martha mine. That's gold and silver that belongs to the New Zealand public and we get nothing for it. Now, that is the result of grandfathering of a previous special permit when the Crown Minerals Act was passed in 1991. New permits, including Newmont's other mines do have to pay royalties. But here's the rub, those royalties are so pathetic that Newmont openly doesn't give a crap about paying them. Newmont's man – in what was surely a move that earned him some trouble with the boss – said that as a $193 million a year concern they don't give a damn about paying $3.6 million a year in royalties on their other mining and would happily pay the less than a million per annum that would be due if the Martha mine's production was subject to royalties too."
The article continued, "I don't know about you but it struck me as incredible how blasé Newmont is about paying royalties. But why wouldn't they be? After all, paying royalties on Martha would amount to just 0.5% of Newmont's turnover from gold mining in New Zealand and bring their total royalties bill to a pathetic 2% of the value of our gold that they get to dig up to sell. This is an industry that made a 29% pre-tax profit in 2008, while paying just 7% of turnover on wages and 1% on royalties. Mining conservation land (or offshore mining and drilling) is even more profitable – no private landlords so no leases to pay – which is why they're so for it. They're making off like bandits, and it's our common treasure they're stealing."
"The first principle is we don't dig up our most valuable conservation estate – ever. We've had the debate on which land should be protected. National, supported by the conservation movement and Labour, created Schedule 4 in the 1990s to protect the most precious land. It must stay protected. Our mineral wealth is a one-off endowment. Once we let someone dig it up, it's gone forever. We need to get the most for it. Where we do allow mining, which is most of New Zealand and contains most of the mineral wealth, we have to make sure we are getting far larger royalties for our minerals. And, when that mining takes place on Crown-owned land, the Crown must charge leases as private owners do."
The following month, Voxy News on 13 July 2010, published an article about Newmont entitled, 'Mining Company Stuck in the 19th Century.' The article said, "HWE Mining Pty Ltd wants gold miners working at Newmont Waihi Gold's Favona Decline mine to endure nineteenth century working conditions by remaining underground during 11.5 hour shifts with no access to hygiene facilities, says the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU)… HWE Mining Pty Ltd should get on with fixing the dispute, not treating the members like mining companies used to treat workers in the nineteenth century." http://www.voxy.co.nz/national/mining-company-stuck-19th-century/5/54934
So is Mr. John Dow 'just a good ol' ordinary kiwi bloke' chipping out coal for a living on the picturesque Westland hills of New Zealand's South Island? Dear reader, are you beginning to get the picture?
In ancient Rome, agents of magistrates who investigated a crime were first told a maxim in Latin (that is still used by police investigators today) to ask themselves one very important question to help find the felon – Qui bono? – Who benefits? (Cicero).
We know that the Pike River Coal Mine was turning into an endless "money sink hole" long before the explosion. Because of its complicated gas and ventilation problems it had become a precarious development for the directors and major foreign shareholders with very little hope of it ever realistically showing a profit. According to the media reports, we know that the company had taken out an extensive $100 million accidental damage and business interruption insurance cover and had its compliance checked not long before the explosion.
We also know that the coal mining companies, their directors and shareholders all through Straterra had overwhelmingly been lobbying in favor of mining development in national parks using opencast methods, which are far more efficient, safer and more profitable for them than (surgical) underground mining – and at current prices, the Pike River mine coal seam alone was worth about $NZ4 billion. http://www.straterra.co.nz/Straterra+-+Home
On top of this, an article listed on Straterra's website taken from the Otago Daily Times 15 November, 2010, entitled, Year of silly advice on climate change explained: "…There are around 9 billion tonnes of lignite (author's note: 'in New Zealand') that can be recovered, with an energy content of around 40 Maui gas fields. At likely future prices, this resource could be worth $3 trillion. That's just lignite…" http://www.straterra.co.nz/Perspectives
So the Pike River Coal Ltd Directors, Chairman and CEO on behalf of their foreign shareholders, then, clearly had a huge incentive to deliberately neglect to monitor the methane gas and safety levels in the mine hoping that it would only be a "question of time" before there was a major gas explosion and disaster. What better way to do it than to abruptly close the mine down as the result of such a terrible explosion – collect the substantial amount of insurance to help underwrite the company's previous losses – put the company into receivership, have the receiver transfer the $NZ4 billion coal seam, insurance claim payment and assets to another associated mining company – and as the result, in the process psychologically intimidate not only the people of the West Coast – but the whole general population of New Zealand (who have so clearly expressed their wishes they do not want foreign companies carrying out unrestricted opencast mining in the nation's scenic conservation parks) to support any future development of the coal-seam and others like it on conservation land by having the Minister of Energy and Resources Gerry Brownlee – override the normal democratic parliamentary process and dictatorially "fast-track" the approval of opencast mining in these areas for the foreign shareholders of these foreign-controlled companies – as they have been repeatedly advocating previously quite openly on the Straterra Board.
It is also thought likely that shortly before Pike River Coal Ltd CEO Gordon Ward suspiciously stepped down from his executive position after such a long period of service, that the Directors and some executive members of the company made the "final decision" to deliberately work toward creating the disaster to bring about the mine's tragic closure. A close investigation of events and actions of the company and its directors surrounding this particular time and thereafter could be very revealing.
And surprise of surprises! – quietly lurking "waiting in the wings," were two more foreign-owned coalmining companies ready to take over in Westland where Pike had so abruptly closed down, owned and controlled by the same bankers!
Bathurst Resources and L & M Energy
On June 19, 2010, the Australia mining firm, Bathurst Resources announced it was planning to invest $US60 million in development of a new coalmine in New Zealand. It would involve two companies Bathurst Resources and L & M Coal (a subsidiary of L & M Energy) based in Christchurch in a joint venture. From 2008 they had been in the process of seeking an access agreement from the Department of Conservation to develop a large new opencast high value coking coal coalmine on the Denniston plateau, 13km east of Westport. In the agreement L & M Energy would sell its subsidiary L & M Coal (which holds the exploration and mining permits for the area), to Bathurst and retain a 5% share.
According to The Press 27 September 2010, L & M Coal was seeking 16 consents from the West Coast Regional Council and eight from the Buller District Council for the proposed $NZ84 million mine which was expected to last about 30 years based on recent drilling by Bathurst. Submissions were to close on 22 October 2010.
L & M Energy:
L & M Energy, which owns L & M Coal a New Zealand focused energy company, is listed on the Australian and New Zealand stock exchanges. The Chairman of the L & M Group of private energy companies based in Christchurch is A. Geoffrey Loudon. He says he is an international investor with New Zealand family roots going back to the Hokitika gold fields in 1875. He has over 40 years vast experience as a geologist and as a mining professional and is based in Queenstown, New Zealand. He is also Chairman of Nautilus Minerals Inc., a Canadian-based seabed minerals developer; is a Director and founder of Lihir Gold Ltd, a PNG gold mine developed by Rio Tinto in 1995, and is a founder and investor in Peru Copper Inc. He also spent 19 years in mining finance with Kleinwort Benson Group based in the City of London and Channel Islands (now owned by RHJ International). Kleinwort Benson, incidentally, managed the re-privatization of British Aerospace the first of the British Government's state asset sales organized by N. M. Rothschild & Sons. It also managed the flotation of Cable & Wireless, and advised the British Government on the sale of British Telecom etc. etc.
Just a quick look at a couple of the other directors on L&M Energy's Board of Directors provides a good insight as to who really is in control of the company behind the scenes. Douglas W. Ellenor, a Non Executive Director, previously spent 25 years working for Royal Dutch Shell in executive positions. Charles P. Lutyens, a Non Executive Director, based in London, was formerly Managing Director of Rio Tinto India, Head of Project Finance for the Rio Tinto Group.
Geoffrey Loudon is also the Chairman and a Non Executive Director of Nautilus Minerals, based in Canada with operations offices in Brisbane Australia, Port Moresby Papua New Guinea and Nuku'alofa Tonga. The company holds tenements in territorial waters and Exclusive Economic Zones of Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Fiji and New Zealand for a total area of about 524,000 sq. km. The company's largest cornerstone shareholders are three of the world's largest resource companies, including Anglo American (11.1%), Teck Resources (6.8%) and Gazmetall Holding (Cypruss) Ltd (21%). The giant global mining company Anglo American, based in London, is controlled by JP Morgan, the Oppenheimer and Rothschild banking syndicates. It had a market capitalization at June 2009 of around $US25 billion. Teck Resources is another London-controlled mining company based in Vancouver, Canada. Gazmetall is a subsidiary of the giant Metalloinvest Group, one of Russia's largest iron ore producers headed by one of Vladimir Putin's Oligarchs, Alisher Usmanov, and funded by Deutsche Bank, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and the Russian bank VTB Capital. Usmanov also owns TV stations, newspapers and the British soccer club Arsenal. L & M Energy Ltd and NZOG are partly owned by a covert subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, New Zealand Central Securities Depository Ltd.
See: http://www.coys.co.nz/company/?no=644859-NEW+ZEALAND=CENTRAL+SECU (click on: "owns other companies") to see what other companies are secretly owned as well.
So once again, it is the foreign international banking pirates that are really in control – not Mr. Geoffrey Loudon living in Queenstown!
Bathurst Resources:
Bathurst Resources Ltd shares are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. The major shareholders in the company are: Bank of America Corporation, Merrill Lynch International (based in London), Merrill Lynch (Australia) Ltd and Merrill Lynch (Australia) Futures Ltd (based in Sydney). Immediately before and after the Pike River Mine disaster, someone was buying up shares in the company. As at mid-December 2010, the last 'Notice of change of interests of substantial holder' was on 29 November 2010 increasing shareholding from 11.90% to 13.0% in name of Bank of America Corp signed by the bank's Vice President. Merrill Lynch is owned by Bank of America. http://www.bathurstresources.com/ - then click on 'Investor Information' then 'Announcements' then 'Change in Substantial Holding' Pdf.
New Zealand Prime Minister Hon. John Key, in the Government's Register of Pecuniary Interests of Members of Parliament: Summary of Annual Returns J7 for 2010 states that he has interests in Bank of America. So what's going on?
Interestingly, the New Zealand Prime Minister Hon. John Key, up to 2001, before he headed back to New Zealand to fulfill a long held ambition to stand for Parliament for the National Party, was working in an executive capacity as a currency trader / investment banker at Merrill Lynch offices in London, Singapore and Sydney. On 28 May 2010, The Standard published an article, 'Key attempts misdirection, blind trust questions remain unanswered' about Key's "Whitechapel" assets hidden in his blind trust "Algate."' What is the New Zealand Prime Minister doing? Shouldn't he be openly declaring his financial interests like everybody else? What is he hiding? These things should be properly investigated and brought out into the light of day should they not?
A report written by Ross Louthean on 1 December 2010 entitled, 'Bathurst chairman tells shareholders open pit mining will negate mining concerns' stated; "The Chairman of Bathurst Resources Ltd told shareholders in Sydney on Monday (29 November 2010), that the company by developing open cut mines would not face the same issues that hit Pike River Coal Ltd as its underground mine in the nearby Paparoa Range… Munro said that with the growth of Bathurst's share price its market capitalization now stood at more than $A350 million ($NZ450 million) and the company was on the doorstep of being in the ASX top 300 companies. He said that as the company neared 2011 it had advanced the obtaining of regulatory approval from the NZ Government and was expected to announce soon an offtake agreement with offtake finance agreements with major corporations…" PM John Key is head of the New Zealand Government. What has the New Zealand Prime Minister and his associates been doing behind the scenes? – with his blind "Algate trust"? Surely, it is time for this sort of secret "blind trust" chicanery to stop? Did he, too, have a vested interest in putting Pike River Coal into receivership? – Closing the mine down? Did he, too, have some sort of nefarious behind-the-scenes involvement with Bank of America/Merrill Lynch increasing its shareholding in Bathurst on 29 November 2010? This whole process going on behind the scenes is very "fishy" to say the least. Is this what the public of New Zealand really wants?
Linked to the Government's discussion paper, Maximising our Mineral Potential: Stocktake of Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act and Beyond, where the Government in collusion with foreign big business wants to legislate for and allow opencast mining for minerals and coal in 7,000 hectares of high value conservation land in national parks – comes an even greater proposed piece of devious legislation, unveiled in September 2010 – the Common Marine and Coastal Area Bill which aims to repeal the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004.
Paradoxically, the Pike River Coalmine disaster, and proposed Bathurst Resources opencast coalmine development consent under changes to Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act also are profoundly closely connected to the repeal of the Foreshore and Seabed Act as well.
Essentially, what the new Common Marine and Coastal Area Bill proposes to do is "fast-track" the repeal of Crown ownership (on behalf of the nation) of the country's foreshore and seabed out to the 200-mile EEZ limit and "privatize" it to Maori tribes. Unless the public pressure PM John Key and Parliament to stop it, once this surreptitious process is completed, possibly as early as March 2011, the indigenous Maori tribes will privately own this asset.
So why are PM John Key and the Government so urgently proceeding to undemocratically "fast-track" this highly contentious legislation? – when 77% of public submissions were clearly opposed to repealing Crown ownership and 91% were opposed to the new Common Marine and Coastal Area Bill. http://www.nzcpr.com/CoastalCoalition.html
The true answer is not, of course, to patronizingly help any indigenous Maori tribe or settle any past treaty grievances at all. It is exclusively to clandestinely transfer the entire ownership of New Zealand's vast natural resources to greedy foreign-owned banks and mining companies. The process is incredibly deceptive, and even the Maori leadership are almost completely unaware that they are just being used as mindless pawns for what soon is to come. This stealthy, extremely cunning process can best be described by using an outstanding similar Australian example taking place at present:
In June 2007, Chip Goodyear of mining giant, BHP Billiton, went to Russia to speak with Sergei Kiriyenko about building a nuclear waste dump at Muckaty, Northern Territory. Then later, on 7 September 2007, Segei Kiriyenko, head of Rosatom (Russia's Nuclear Agency) signed the Australia-Russia Nuclear Cooperation Agreement with Australia's Alexander Downer, which will allow Russia to build a huge nuclear reprocessing facility and waste dump in Australia against overwhelming public opposition.
Well, what happened, is that after the Australian Government handed the former cattle station and land back to the indigenous Aboriginal clans in the area, one of the clans, the Ngapa clan, was effectively bribed by Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson (his counterpart in New Zealand is Minister of Energy and Resources Gerry Brownlee) representing the Government and paid $A12 million. Most of it was paid in cash, in a secret agreement to allow the nuclear dump to be built on their land. Because the land had been transferred out of Crown ownership, the public of Australia therefore had no longer any say in the decision because the agreement was private.
Not long ago, other Aboriginal clans that have missed out on their share of the money, headed by Mark Lane Jangala, launched a Federal Court challenge against the Government and the Land Council to try and stop the development from proceeding. As the result the Court has ordered, by consent, the parties enter mediation by the end of January 2011. Most of the general Australian population have absolutely no idea of the level of corruption and serious ramifications of what is happening – in that if the dump and reprocessing plant goes ahead virtually all of Russia's and Europe's most deadly radioactive material and potentially still explosive nuclear waste may end up being trans-shipped through the Port of Darwin and be dumped forever just north of Tennant Creek – controlled not by the Australian Commonwealth but directly by Russia.
At present Russia is the only country in the world that receives depleted uranium hexafluoride (with a half life of 24,000 years) from abroad on an industrial scale handling imported waste from foreign nuclear reactors at the Mayak nuclear fuel reprocessing plant about 80 kilometers north of Chelyabbinsk. The territory around the plant is now a literal wasteland, with generations of residents suffering from sterility, cancer, asthma, leukemia, serious physical abnormalities and mental disabilities. In short, Mayak is become a nuclear nightmare and is now considered the most polluted place on earth. It just stuns the mind to see that this Mayak waste dump and reprocessing facility may soon be transferred to Australia. Andrew Bartlett, a former Queensland Senator from 1997-1998 has an outstanding website on the issue:
John Key continues to treat the families and friends of the men inside the mine with utter contempt and total nonchalance, leading them up the garden path and back again with his recommendations to sell Pike River mine to Solid Energy and all would be well - we all know how that ended! And still he tries to talk honest Kiwis into his insane asset sales program, as the Tiwai smelter holds us to ransom and Warner Brothers laugh all the way to the bank. He continues to manipulate the media with grand but hollow announcements and vague proclamations - declaring that he rates himself with a nine out of ten for his handling of the fiasco that caused the deaths of twenty nine men and left grieving wives, mothers, fathers, brothers and sister and children all over the world. The media fawn over John Key's embarrassing "Gangnam style" dancing - Andrew Little clearly cares more about this rubbish than the Pike River miners' families too - and then there's John Key's gay marriage to some bloke called Bryce.
Political puppet Graeme Axford exhorted the families of the Pike River miners to support the sale of Pike River Coal Ltd to Solid Energy Ltd, which was the very worst thing to do. The assets were stripped to pay for a life of luxury for the very people responsible for the deaths of the 29 miners and the executives laughed all the way to the bank.
Peter Whittall was the only person ever charged regarding the deaths, and his prosecution was abruptly dropped after the payment of a bribe to the Court basically.
The Families of the Pike River miners tried to take legal action to challenge the decision to drop the charges against Peter Whittall. The Court told them that they had "lost parts of the Court file" - how convenient for the government!
More information regarding this matter and more links are here. Information is also at Wikipedia.
Here is a link to the Trust set up to assist the Families of the men who remain to this very day in the Pike River mine - while the Navy jumps in to recover the bodies of a civilian plane crash, and an Army helicopter is commandeered to transport Ralph Hotere's body to his marae - but Key continues do absolutely NOTHING about organising a recovery of the twenty nine men, something their Families have been campaigning for since the explosions that killed their Husbands, Partners, Fathers, Sons, Brothers, Nephews, Uncles, Beloved Role Models - Key should get on with it!