In our previous issue Herb Thompson examined the political and social impacts of mining and the land rights struggles o f Aborigines in Western . In this concluding article, he gives some insights into the attitudes o f the mining companies and the impact of the resources boom on Aboriginal communities already struggling to survive....

Herb Thompson

Police arrest blockaders at Noonkanbah Station, 1980.

4 A u s t r a l i a n L e f t R e v ie w 86 n the Kimberley region of northwest diversify within the sectors of natural "/ run an oil business and Australia, minerals have, until resources and energy. In 1978, about / recently, played a minor role in the 75 percent of its $3 billion worth of we have never had these region's development. This will property, plant and equipment was problems before — not change dramatically in the 1980s. The less than five years old. Its principal with Indians. We are sick of full weight of mineral development, affiliates include Alumax — 50 percent; construction camps, and all of the Botswana RST Ltd — 30 percent; being given hell by the social chaos that goes with this for Tsumeb Corp. Ltd. in Southwest Africa press and the communists Aboriginal people will be seen over the — 30 percent; Roan Consolidated next decade. The only major projects Minesi n Zambia — 20 percent; and over there (in Australia). If in this region during the 1970s were the O'okiep Copper Co. in Southwest the Aborigines want to talk BHP iron ore mines on Koolan and Africa — 17 percent. In 1975, Standard to me I am in my office any Cockatoo Islands in Yampi Sound, Oil of California (one of the Seven offshore from Derby. These islands are Sisters) purchased 20 percent of time, in Houston accessible only by boat and aircraft AMAX. British Petroleum also holds 7 and have not been a source of percent of the company. After AMAX disruption for Aborigines in the area. had earned record profits of $771 Recently, however, there has been million in 1980, Standard Oil attempted an explosion of interest by a numberof a complete take-over, making the corporations in the entire Kimberley largest single offer in history of $4.3 region. Mining claims and exploration billion. AMAX directors recommended activities are now scattered right a rejection of the offer to shareholders across the Kimberley in the name of and Standard Oil later withdrew it. companies such as CRA, BHP and he company first entered AMAX; and a host of other smaller Australia in 1963 to examine the Australian companies or larger iron ore deposits at Mt. transnational representatives. This T Whaleback in the of Western exploration and mining activity Australia. In 1964, AMAX was joined by directly threatens Aboriginal control CSR Ltd., and in 1966 by BHP Pty. Ltd. over the land, their culture and their in order to establish the Mt. Newman self-reliance. Mining Co., the only major project In the northern section of which A M A X . has moved into the Noonkanbah station, more than 30 production stage in . companies, among them AMAX, CRA, The Mt. Newman Mining Co. began BHP and MIM have lodged mining producing iron ore in 1969, and claims for diamonds alone. Ellendale between 1972-79, the iron ore station, a few miles to the north, was company contributed a total of $266 the site on which CRA discovered the million to AMAX's total pre-tax first major diamond pipe. Because of earnings, at a yearly average return of the large number of claims and 19 percent.1 companies involved, activity at The major components of success Noonkanbah has sometimes been for AMAX were outlined in an article in frenetic. Also, onshore oil exploration 1976.2 According to this article the permit EP97 covers Noonkanbah and elements of success included: surrounding areas. The permit is held diversification of its natural resource by a consortium led by AMAX base; avoiding environmental conflict; Petroleum. pursuing extensive research' and With reference to Noonkanbah and development programs; investing in the Kimberley, this section will politically stable areas; and using a concentrate on examining the two 'direct hands-on' management style. corporations operating with the To these components Ritchie Howitt highest profiles, AMAX, Inc. of the adds: financial practices; and united States and CRA Ltd., a treatment of indigenous people.3 subsidiary of the Rio Tinto Zinc mining It was two weeks after Ralph Nader empire of England. had visited Australia and warned that AMAX, Inc. began as the American the corporate state was upon us — "the Metal Co. in 1887, changing its name to unholy alliance of government and American Metal Climax after acquiring multinational corporations against the the Climax Molybdenum Co. in 1957. people” — that West Australians were The name was changed again to AMAX provided with a striking example of Inc. in 1974. AMAX is an integrated theory in action. The state government producer of base and specialty metals. of Sir Charles Court went to It is the world's largest supplier of extraordinary lengths to help AMAX molybdenum and a major supplier of Petroleum to fulfil its contract to drill Tungsten. In addition to its interests in for oil on the Noonkanbah Aboriginal non-ferrous metals, AMAX is the third cattle station 1,400 miles north of largest coal company in the U.S. and . AMAX was acting as the owns 50 percent of Alumax Inc., a large managing component of a joint aluminium company. venture which also included AMAX continues to invest heavily to Whitestone Petroleum International — ALR Su m m er 83 5 ihe Gallagher Michael

• Protesters at Noonkanbah, 1980.

32 percent; Pennzoil Aust. — 29 19, 1979. This action claims damages population must accommodate itself percent; Australian Consolidated of $10 million for personal injury or to contemporary conditions.5 Minerals — 5 percent; Yom Oil — 5 wrongful death resulting from The agreement with the Colville percent; and AMAX held 29 percent. employment in certain underground Tribes is reminiscent of the situation mines on the Navajo Reservation with the Ashton Joint Ventre in the uring this confrontation the which were operated by the Climax Kimberley. AMAX offered members of president of AMAX Petroleum Uranium Corporation (merged into the Colville Confederated Tribes was contacted by reporters at AMAX in 1961) between 1950-65. $6,000 each per year, plus money for his office in Houston, Texas, U.S.A. ANAMAX, a 50 percent subsidiary of tribal development programs in return The response to questions by Mr. AMAX in Arizona, U.S.A., has been a for the right to turn Mt. Tolman into a Lloyd Parks was very revealing. He defendant in a legal action sicne 1969, 1,200 foot deep pit two miles long and made the point that "the State brought by the Papago Indians. The one mile wide. In the words of the Government was telling AMAX what to action seeks to restrain the company Indians themselves: do at Noonkanbah". He then went on and other water users in the Santa Cruz further to say: "I run an oil business River Basin from using excessive water .... land is the only certainty. This is and we have never had these problems and interfering with the water rights of what impels persistent opposition to before — not with Indians. We are sick the Indians. mining despite the promises of of being given hell by the press and AMAX successfully negotiated a payments from AMAX. Money is tempting said one tribal member.... but communists over there. If the mining agreement with the Colville the future of our children is at stake Aborigines want to talk to me, I am in Confederated Indian Tribes of my office any time, in Houston."4 here. I'd rather leave them a homeland Washington, U.S.A., to mine a than buy them a motor bike.6 If we take only part of the above mountain of low-grade molybdenum statement that "we have never had on the Reservation. The problem is that An interesting difference in these problems before" and subject it the mountain, Mt. Tolman, is sacred to sentiments was elicited by Ritchie to closer analysis, we find that, in fact, traditional Indians in the area. As one Howitt in an interview with AMAX's nothing could be further from the truth. observer of the negotiations argued: Western Australian Regional According to Howitt the following Exploration Manager in May 1980: information is pertinent since "AMAX This mining project has been the focus faces legal challenges from Indians all of serious divisions in the tribal .... the prooiem (at Noonkanban) was over the United States". population with many of the older at least partly caused by do-gooders members opposing further develop­ such as teachers and university people AMAX has been named as a ment and modernisation and the going up to places like Noonkanbah defendant in an action brought by a younger, more educated members and telling people they should stand group of Navajo Indians in the U.S. favouring economic development up for their rights. There is, of course, District Court in Arizona on December believing that the reservation nothing wrong with that, but the same

6 A u s t r a l i a n L e f t R e v ie w 86 people are very strongly opposed to basis as any other labour. Since most apartheid in South Africa, and yet recruitment is in Perth such a policy "Patriotism " and "nation­ they are saying that Aborigines in would seem to exclude Aborigines alism" are used to deflect Australia should, for example, get from their work force, and our own royalties from mining on leasehold respondents believed that the the discussion away from land — a riqht which no European has company policy was not to employ Aboriginal land rights, or .... (He said that while he) recognises them. Cliffs , whose plant is that Aborigines are a special group, much nearer to Roebourne, appeared the relationship between which should have reserves and so on, to accept rather more responsibility. the cultural survival of a they should also accept that they are a We were told that at one time Cliffs had conquered race, (Howitt's emphasis). actually provided a bus to transport people and the pursuit of Aboriginal employees from Roe­ CRA Ltd. has been one of the bourne to Cape Lambert but that the profit by mining com­ dominant institutions in Western Aborigines were incapable of panies. Australia since the early 1960s when it attending regularly for employment.7 established the Hamersley iron ore project. Since then the economic and Another official report noted in 1978 that: political position of CRA has been solidified through the establishment of The mining developments (in the some of the largest mineral projects in pilbara) have not as yet provided a the world, a number of them in Western great deal of direct employment for Australia itself. Aboriginals due partly to the absence It is pointed out by the companies of appropriate skill and partly to the fact that many of the new areas of and state government that the Pilbara development are remote from the few has provided immense social and major centres of Aboriginal population economic benefits to the state in the form of infrastructure, wage payments, royalties and export income. At the At the present time, Hamersley Iron same time, Pilbara development has does not have more than a few shown even more clearly the vast Aboriginal employees, and does not differences between the living have an effective Aboriginal standards of most non-Aboriginal employment program. A small number people and the poverty and social of men are employed at the 7-mile degradation of the Aborigines. One workshop of the company — normally need only compare the company about 9 workers per day. The towns of Dampier and Wickham with leramugadu Aboriginal community the predominantly Aboriginal has a contract with Hamersley to hire community at Roebourne. This workers on an hourly rate/daily basis. situation will likely become even more The contract is separate from awards disparate during the next decade with covering other workers in the iron ore the development around Karratha industry. The workers bring home associated with- the production of about $240 each fortnight ($3 per hour) Northwest Shelf gas. and some of the proceeds are put into a community fund. Although the i om the very beginning, in 1963, relationship between the company and when Hamersley Iron began the community has existed for five Fconstruction, Roebourne was years it is still handled on a token basis used as a regional bordello. with little concern for expanding the Roebourne had the only significant numbers of Aborigines employed on hotel in the area and the only major a full-time basis. concentration of females, Aboriginal women coming into town with their ■ M ery few Aboriginal people live in families as they moved off the pastoral the mining towns of Wickham, stations. Prostitution offered the only W Dampier or Karratha. They are means of survival for some Aboriginal still primarily concentrated in women, and for others the only means Roebourne, seen as outcasts by many to gain access to the high-living, fast- workers living in the mining spending of the 4,000 construction communiites. There is every reason to workers newly located in the area. assume that, ten years from now, a During the construction phase, similar situation will exist in the Hamersley did employ a number of Ellendale, Argyle, Kununurra Aborigines on the railway line being geographic triangle of the Kimberley. built between dampier and Tom Price; Few lessons appear to have been but since then very little employment learned with Roebourne standing out has existed for Aborigines with the as a clear example of what to expect, mining companies. It has been pointed on a larger scale, both geographically out that: and in numbers of people, as 'development' proceeds unfettered in The policy of mining companies the Kimberley. As Howitt concludes: concerning the employment of Aborigines differed somewhat. Fundamentally, my assessment is that Hamersley Iron stated that their policy mining, like so many other things was to employ Aborigines on the same happening to and around Aborigines

A L R S u m m e r 8 3 7 ihe Gallagher Michael

Children at Noonkanbah protest, 1980. in Roebourne, is not seen as a thing definitions of sacred site boundaries for other mining companies in the area. over which they can have any control by Aboriginal community represent­ In 1979, Roderick Carnegie, or influence. It is something to be atives, in meetings with CRA staff, on chairman of CRA Ltd., made the point accepted and coped with rather than the basis that the information was that: actively resented. Like all the verbal and unauthoritative; 'government people' and so on. it is Aboriginal landholders are consulted just there. After so many broken 2. omitted to employ an Aboriginal before exploration is commenced on promises, it seems the people cope at elder to define the site boundaries their land and care is taken to least partly by dis-engaging from despite two written requests from the safeguard their sacred sites." attempts to control change and by W.A. Museum to do so; putting all their effort, quite owever, his points ot emphasis reasonably, into surviving.9 3. refused to await the outcome of the company's application to the Museum and priorities seemed to Shifting our attention from CRA's for permission to mine the site; and, H change slightly when speaking activity in the Pilbara during the 1970s, 4. was able therefore to plead the at CRA's annual general meeting in we must note CRA's move northwards defence, under Section 62 of the 1981. There, he said that "Australians to the Kimberley, which will be a focus Aboriginal Heritage Act, of Jack would face a day of reckoning if they of activity for the company in the of knowledge that the area was a could not show the world that they were developing their resources". He 1980s. In the Kimberley, CRA is sacred site. presently engaged in two major was replying to a Uniting Church CRA then divided the Aboriginal projects: the Ashton Joint Venture, minister, Noel Preston, who said in a people in the area by making a soon to become the largest producing statement that "CRA was engaged in a monetary settlement with one of the diamond mine in the world; and the second phase of invasion". "The first communities to confirm their rights to Mitchell Plateau Bauxite Co. which is invasion phase by Europeans had mine in the area. While AMAX virtually doing feasibility studies on the large taken other resources and now mining ignored the Noonkanbah Aborigines, bauxite deposits at Mitchell Plateau resources were being taken at cost leaving the state government to handle and Cape Bougainville in the far from Aborigines," Mr. Preston the dispute, CRA carefully developed northwest. continued. strategies to bolster its image and With respect to the Argyle diamond Carnegie responded: create divisions between and among deposit, and keeping in mind the the three major Aboriginal .... to tne north of Australia where one Australian Mining Industry Council billion people wno would enter the communities at Argyle (Turkey Creek (AMIC) guidelines, CRA has been workforce in the next 25 years and — Warmun comunity; Dunham River accused by the Kimberley Land would need resources. In the history of — Woolah community; and Glen Hill — Council of the following violations:10 the world there is no nation that is as Mandangala community). fortunate as Australia to have such a 1. CRA refused to accept repeated CRA is clearly setting the example small population with so much. In the

8 A u s t r a l i a n L e f t R e v ie w 86 history of the world when people have Aboriginal Reserves being converted A b o rig in a l sacred sites are had so much wealth they have been into a mining lease by the Act. For called upon to defend it. While there purposes of legal and financial being destroyed, their land are problems in the relationship with simplicity, they didn't exist. Dr. Noble, is being bulldozed, fenced Aborigines and while there is a Minister of Health and Home Affairs, requirement of trying to make certain and carved up, their dismissed any notion of royalties for that the ways in which we operate fishing holes and game alongside the Aboriginal communitry Aborigines on the grounds that the are to their benefit, there are also other royalty rate was too low to support the areas are being decimated. responsibilities to the world and to the Aborigines.'4 Australian community,'2 During the first five years of The companies are doing operation, Comalco earned over $160 This response is very much in line it, the governments are million in profits and paid $27 million in with the rhetoric and strategy of public permitting it and trade taxes. Over the years, bauxite at Weipa persuasion outlined in the AMIC public has been a major profit spinner for unionists are ig n o rin g i t .... relations campaign. 'Patriotism' and both Comalco and the CRA Group. In Another culture is being 'nationalism' are used to deflect the 1979, profits amounted to $59 million discussion away from Aboriginal land followed by record profits of $75 sacrificed to the golden rights, or the relationship between the million in 1980. Vet, after 20 years of calf of profitability. cultural survival of a people and the operation, only 25 Aborigines out of pursuit of profit by mining companies. several hundred in the area have jobs In the bill passed by state parliament with Comalco. (Diamond Ashton Joint Venture What Roderick Carnegie would do Agreement Bill, 1981) no specific differently may be portrayed by the reference is made with regard to the AJV strategy at Argyle, some of which Aboriginal population. However, in the has already been outlined above. First second reading speech, it is noted that, of all, the Aboriginal community was "after 25 September 1980 when, split into factions by isolating small following an agreement with the groups of individuals and offering recognised Aboriginal custodians of money payments; individual Argyle Aboriginal sites, the Aborigines were made into power government gave its consent to the brokers with some of the resources joint venturers for work to proceed on gained relative to the resource starved its tenements covering the Argyle communities surrounding the area; the prospect". original agreement with the There is an element of deja-vu in the Mandangala community was extended Argyle Agreement based on a to include the Warmun and Woolah statement given by Carnegie some communities but only on the basis of years ago at Trinity College, separate negotiations. Those people Melbourne. In his address he stated: who signed first received the best It is quite possible that if we had looked conditions; Department of Aboriginal at the problem of the Aborigines in Affairs officers and ex-Aboriginal Weipa in 1959 in the way in which we community advisors were put on the would now, that we would do CRA payroll as 'liaison officers'; and a something different,'3 public relations campaign was started In Weipa, on the western coast of to show CRA as a 'good neighbour'. Cape York in northwest Australia, are The Mandangala community is to found the largest and richest bauxite receive $240,000 for capital works and reserves in the world. These reserves $100,000 per year for the life of the are controlled by Comalco, an mine. The Turkey Creek and Woolah associate company of CRA Ltd. communities received money for capital works and programs of $100,000 and $40,000 respectively. To omalco began negotiations in exert control over the communities, early 1957 for the mining rights CRA is working with the Aboriginal at Weipa with the Queensland C Development Commission and the Mines Department. There were no negotiations with the Aborigines Department of Aboriginal Affairs to make sure the money is well spent. whose Reserve sat right on top of the This strategy is very different from the bauxite under consideration. While the one used at Weipa, or that used at government was mildly responsive to Noonkanbah by AMAX. the Mission authorities in charge of the Reserve, for some compensation, The corporate activity and style of Maurice Mawby, the exploration CRA Ltd. is very much in keeping with director, refused to attend any meeting its parent RTZ Ltd. in England. The to discuss compensation. management style was developed by In 1957, the Commonwealth ' Sir Val Duncan, ex-chairman of RTZ as Aluminium corporate Agreement Act is clear in the quote below: was passed allowing Comalco (Sir Val Duncan) believed we should leasehold over the bauxite deposits for create a Rio Tinto company in each of 105 years. The Act made no mention the principal mining countries, which whatsoever of Aborigines, or of the in turn would control a series of ALR Su m m er 83 9 .... operations witnin its own territory. the ore and to determine the best way encouraging community acceptance The local Rio Tinto companies should of beneficiating the ore. of the company's policies towards its .... be totally identified with their host People within the Kimberley Land Aboriginal neighbours". It is evident countries. The directors .... senior Council have indicated serious that the original occupants of the land management.... (and) operators would as far as possible be local people and concern with the increased mining have been redefined as 'neighbours' there would be representatives from company activity in the Mitchell throughout the brief. local companies on the Parent Plateau area. A group of elders from Further, "the path to success on the Company Board. Thus there would the Mowanjum and Kalumburu Aboriginal issue is not via active always be.... agreement on the aims of communities were brought south as participation in the broad public the individual companies and the guests of the Mitchell Plateau Bauxite debate on Aboriginal land rights .... Group as a whole. Local participation Co. to view the Alcoa bauxite mining (but rather) through a vigorous in the equity of the overseas and refining operations. These two lobbying campaign of key decision­ companies was .... essential .... to communities comprise the Worora, makers at state and federal levels", ensure local identification with the Ngaringin and Wunambul tribes and fortune of various operations.15 according to the AJV.17 are the traditional owners of land in the It is now clear that the Australian This style of management is Mitchell Plateau area of the northern Mining Industry Council, rather than transferred to the local level wherein Kimberley. A spokesperson, Mr. specific companies is to take up the CRA has control of the AJV which is William Balgowan, of the company 'broad public debate'. The AMIC, in identified as a company indigenous to said that when they launched the late 1981, began to enter the public the Kimberley. Operations of the AJV feasibility study they got in touch with arena vociferously, arguing the are "as far as possible" represented by the communities. A community potential irreparable damage which local people with knowledge of the advisor to Mowanjum, Mr. Patrick would be done to the mining industry area and of Aboriginal people. Local Pohla, said representatives from the should Aboriginal land rights be taken participation is purchased in the form communities want to co-operate fully seriously in the political sphere. of pay-offs to the Aborigines most and had worked with the W.A. Museum The so-called 'resource boom' has immediately affected by mining so as to determine the Icoation of sacred resulted in a mining invasion on the to minimise disruption and criticism of sites in the area. "The leaders of the lands inhabited by Aborigines for over the transnational control. communities want to co-operate so 50,000 years. Aboriginal sacred sites that the area will be developed and are being destroyed, their land is being rom the 1960s, it has been a basic community members can be employed bull-dozed, fenced and carved up, their component of RTZ's strategy to in the mining operation."16 How this fishing holes and game areas are being Fconcentrate investments in operation can possibly be any different decimated. The companies are doing politically conservative, white- from Weipp has yet to be explained. it, the governments are permitting it dominated former British colonies The main difference appears to be in and trade unionists are ignoring it. The such as Australia, South Africa, the emphasis on public relations. crisis of capitalism exists in the Zimbabwe and Canada. This style of The AJV recently rejected a Kimberley, albeit in a more subtle and investment is not conducive to any real submission from a firm which advised less publicised manner. Another understanding of people who wish to it that Aborigines would ultimately win culture is being sacrificed to the be left alone, such as the indigenous their battle for a better royalties deal. golden calf of profitability. people of the Kimberley. The firm, International Public A spokesperson for the Warnum The final area of concern, relevant to Relations Pty. Ltd., had tendered for Aboriginal community, Mr. Rammel CRA's economci expansion, is the the venturer's public relations Peters, recently said: "It's hard for Mitchell Plateau area in the far north of account. Instead, the $315,000 white people to believe, butthis mining the Kimberley. CRA's interest in the lobbying and publicity accountwentto has been bad for us. We would like the bauxite-aluminium mineral base has a rival firm of Eric White Associates. miners to leave, but we know we must been evident in CRA's buy-in to the have them about for at least 30 years.” Mitchell Plateau Joint Venture. The iven the relative merits of the He said the miners had recently Joint Venture consists of CRA Ltd. — public relations tenders, an unearthed two old Aboriginal graves 52.5 percent; Billiton Aluminium — 10 GAJV brief observed that the near a drilling site. "All the people think percent; Sumitomo Aluminium — 10 "Eric White Associates' perception of that was bad dreaming and now percent; Marubeni — 5 percent; and the scenario is consistent with regard everybody is angry."18 Sumitomo Corp. — 5 percent. to our own. IPR, on the other hand, It is hoped, dependent on the believe that those dedicated to international market, that production securing a larger share of mining of bauxite and alumina could start in revenues for Aboriginals will ultimately 1987. Feasibility studies in 1981 are succeed and that our best policy is to thought to have cost $15 million. The position ourselves to conduct these deposit itself holds 410 million tonnes negotiations. This is a fundamental of bauxite. Siting a plant near the difference of view — and IPR is to be deposit would require a townsmp or commended for its candor." The brief 750 people. There is a natural harbour then eliminates IPR on the grounds at Port Warrender capable of taking that it would not work effectively for ships up to 70,000 tonnes. goals it considered unattainable. CRA has also increased its share in According to the AJV brief, the the Cape Bougainvilledepositclose by primary public relations objective is to 67.5 percent. Others include Alcoa "sustaining the Argyle Agreement — 22.5 percent; and Billiton Aluminium signed with the Glen Hill Aboriginal Herb Thompson la a senior lecturer — 10 percent. During 1982, work in community and isolating this In Political Economy at Murdoch both areas has concentrated on agreement from the general debate on University. extensive field programs to evaluate Aboriginal land rights, while

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