It were impossible to understand Howard’s present NT “intervention” without understanding the phenomenal mineral wealth over which the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (ALRA) granted custodianship to the Aboriginal people, who now own 53% of the NT’s land and a sizeable portion of its seacoast. By the ALRA, Aboriginal people did not own the mineral wealth, but no minerals could be mined on their land without their approval of both the initial exploratory licenses, and then of the actual mining projects themselves. (Those powers still exist, although they were later watered down in an amendment to the ALRA which specified that the grant of an exploration license also signified granting approval to mine.)
In a 2005 survey of 150 international mining companies, the Northern Territory was deemed the eighth most prospective area for mining in the world. (See Map 1.) Mining is by far the largest industry in the NT, accounting for 20% of its GDP (as opposed to 4% nationally). The Territory has several worldclass mines and ore bodies, including the world’s third-largest managese producer (Groote Eylandt); one of the world’s largest known ore bodies of zinc, lead and silver, at the McArthur River mine; Australia’s third-largest bauxite mine, near Gove; and Rio Tinto’s Ranger mine, which supplies 11% of the world’s uranium. Enquiries for geoscience data on NT mineral deposits have risen 300% in the last two years, while the Territory has just granted its 1000th exploration license, with another 500 in the pipeline.
Speculation on minerals exchanges along with central banks’ present, hyperinflationary money-pumping to try and bail out a collapsing international monetary system, and the oligarchs pouring investment into raw materials and food, has caused prices of petroleum and some minerals to skyrocket. And, although the price of uranium has recently fallen after soaring for the last two years, uranium is particularly valuable because dozens of countries around the world have announced ambitious plans to construct nuclear power plants, while supplies of stockpiled uranium (including that recycled from decommissioned nuclear weapons) are only sufficient to supply 55% of current need. Reflecting this, the value of uranium stocks has jumped 83% over the past year, and a staggering 700% over the past three years as The Australian reported on July 26, much of which are in the Territory. Putting aside for the moment the ongoing financial collapse, it is this worldwide shift into nuclear power which lies behind Howard’s recent move to a nominally pro-nuclear position, whose actual purpose is not so much for the construction of urgently-needed nuclear power plants for Australia, so much as it is to open up Australia’s vast supplies of uranium— which are concentrated in South Australia and in the Territory— for exploitation by the Crown’s minerals cartel.
Australia has a staggering 40% of the entire world’s identified resources of uranium recoverable at low cost, and now produces 22% of the world supply, second only to Crown colony Canada’s 29%. The bulk of Australia’s present output comes from Rio Tinto-owned Ranger mine in the NT (11% of world production) and BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam in SA (9% of world production). In addition to its 40% of the world’s low cost recoverable uranium, Australia also leads the world in overall known recoverable resources of uranium. ( See Table 1)
Rio Tinto’s Ranger and Jabiluka uranium reserves were excluded from the Kakadu Park when the park was declared in 1979, as was the very-rich Koongarra deposit, which otherwise sits within the park. The company is chomping at the bit to open its $50 billion mine at Jabiluka, over which Aboriginal people still maintained their veto as of July of this year, the same month Howard announced his NT intervention. The French company Areva also intends to open its deposit at Koongarra which holds at least 14,500 tonnes of uranium worth over $5 billion, but which has also been blocked by an Aboriginal veto. In August 2005, the Howard government seized control of uranium from the NT, and declared it open for new uranium mines. Already during 2005, some 70 companies were exploring for uranium in over 280 projects, compared to only five companies and 17 projects in 2003. In 2006, the Howard government signed deals to supply uranium to China (1.4 billion people) and India (over 1 billion people), and signed a similar deal with Russia in 2007. Even before these deals, Australian uranium supplied a substantial percentage of the electricity of numerous nations. (Graph 1)
Although much of the Northern Territory is highly-prospective for minerals, it is nonetheless curious that numerous of the coordinates cited in the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act 2007 for Aboriginal communities targeted for intervention, lie precisely on top of major mineral deposits. After the passage of the ALRA in 1976, former Reserve Bank governor Nugget Coombs, known as the “father of land rights” and his hordes of anthropologists encouraged to set up small, inherently unviable outstations over as much territory as possible, all the better to stake “land rights”. The establishment of these outstations on any significant scale was made possible only along with the passage of Community Development Employment Programme (CDEP) legislation by the Fraser government in 1976. Now that that phase of occupying the land and securing the land rights has been accomplished, Howard and the ALP are simply sweeping them off that land by canceling all CDEP grants and related measures.
A classic case of Howard’s land and minerals grab is that of the Tiwi Islands (Bathurst and Melville Islands north of Darwin), whose traditional people signed the nation’s first longterm lease on August 30 this year. Since 2004—long before any issue of sexual abuse and its accompanying 99-year leases over Aboriginal land hit the news, the Howard government had been arm twisting the Aboriginal people there to lease their land, or they would not get 25 new houses, $1 million in health programs, or a desperately-needed new school. The lease will open up some very rich mineral sands deposits for mining. The islands have the highest suicide rate in Australia, so its inhabitants were understandably desperate to get the assistance which they should have received from the Federal Government in any case.
The NT intervention is a classic case of how Howard and his mates in the ALP function as British imperial stooges, whatever minor squabbles they might otherwise have. Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Anglo American/ De Beers are all headquartered in London and are the very essence of British imperialism, in which local populations are oppressed, little or no infrastructure is built, and raw materials are stolen from the native population. The awesome control which these British imperial giants exert over Australia’s government and resources is less surprising, when you look at their sheer financial muscle. BHP Billiton’s share value (on the London and Sydney exchanges) is A$488 billion, more than the combined share value of all of our Big Four banks, while Rio Tinto’s share value is A$236 billion. The two together are therefore worth A$724 billion. When you add the A$98 billion of Anglo American/De Beers, which is also controlled out of London, that totals A$822 billion. By comparison, the world’s most valuable company, the oil cartel’s Exxon Mobil, is worth A$558 billion. Also bear in mind that, like the oil multinationals once known as the Seven Sisters, these top three minerals giants also constitute a worldwide cartel, and deploy themselves that way, and all three are active in the NT. In combined tax and royalties paid to the Australian government, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton accounted for almost $5 billion in 2006 out of a total for the entire mining sector of $7 billion.