Zambia: A New Kind of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) - Uncompensated Poor Being Evicted for Prestige Projects

Zambia's open-door investment policy is coming under criticism from rights activists for passing on the real cost of development to the poor, who are being evicted to make way for the new prestige projects.

Campaigners describe the victims as 'internally displaced persons' (IDPs) - a description usually applied to people made homeless as a result of conflict or disaster. But it's an analogy that Joseph Chilengi, executive director of the Africa Internally Displaced Persons' Voice, a lobby group championing IDP rights, claims is appropriate.

"Zambia's IDP situation is actually even worse than in conflict-prone areas," said Chilengi. "[At least these] populations have the potential to return to their places when the situation stabilises."

President Levy Mwanawasa's administration has courted foreign investors, offering land and tax breaks as inducements. The policy has been credited with helping fuel an annual growth rate of five percent over the past five years, cutting inflation to single digits, and appreciation of the kwacha against foreign currencies.

But critics argue that the country's growth, as well as a string of environmental protection and tourism promotion programmes, has come at a cost: turfing people out of informal settlements when they are in the way of the developers, with little hope of compensation from the authorities.

The backlog in affordable public housing has compounded the problem and led to mushrooming squatter camps. "We have a deficit of housing units for 1.2 million people, who are now resorting to living in unplanned settlements," acknowledged Local Government and Housing Minister, Sylvia Masebo. With limited rights, the residents are vulnerable to eviction.

George Salano, 57, is one of thousands of Zambians to have lost out to commercial development. His informal settlement in the capital, Lusaka, is located on land that has been allocated to the Chinese government for the construction of a multimillion dollar Chinese economic zone, the second of its kind in Zambia.
"I have personally lived here for many years; my children were born here. Some of my friends have lived here even longer. Now we have been told to relocate to Chongwe town [about 50km east of Lusaka], but we have nowhere to start from - we have no houses there, and we have no farms there," he said.

Compensation was not on the cards, said Masebo. "We don't allocate formal residential land to investors ... but as long as land is illegal [occupied without formal ownership], it can be planned or allocated for anything else."

James Siakalima, 54, is another victim of the developers. He was one of over 2,500 residents of Mazabuka town in southern Zambia, whose homes were erased to make way for Zambia's only nickel mine, Albidon Mine, owned by Albidon Limited of Australia.

The area's opposition member of parliament, Gary Nkombo, encouraged Albidon to build some houses, but the quality was allegedly shoddy. "I lived in their [Albidon] house for just about five months. When the rain started it developed a crack, three weeks later part of it collapsed," said Siakalima. The two cows he was given died because of the lack of pasture in the area where he was relocated.

"We all know that nickel is about the most expensive base metal on the world market, [so] how do you allow such poor quality houses to be built for the people who are the owners of the land?" asked Nkombo.
Dependence

"We are still very far from attaining economic independence because of the manner in which we are displacing our people, who are actually supposed to benefit from all our economic activities. The issue of IDPs resulting from economic activities is very real in Zambia."

Zambia's first experience with large-scale internal displacement was in 1959, with the construction of the Kariba Dam. It created the world's largest man-made lake on the border with Zimbabwe, and cost 57,000 Tonga farmers and pastoralists their homes and livelihoods.

Attempts to help the resettled Tonga have achieved little; a US$50 million project, sponsored by the World Bank, is currently stalled due to the landmines in parts of the resettlement area.

Thomas Mabwe, head of Development Studies at the Zambia Open University, said internal displacement "has been a huge cost to this country; it repeatedly forces government to divert resources meant for other developmental programmes ... It affects people's productivity, causes loss of land and contributes to the culture of over-dependency."

Masebo argues that the vulnerability of the poor is in part the fault of the previous administration of president Frederick Chiliba. Ahead of the 1996 election, the government sold off public housing to sitting tenants for as low as US$3, leaving hardly any money for investment in new homes.

"To address the situation of poor housing we are now encouraging all our local civic authorities [municipalities] to open up more formal land, with basic services being provided, to try and cover the housing deficit quickly," said Masebo.

Here is the full article.

Green Campaigner Uses Shame Tactics - Growing Environmental NGO Power in China Starting to Make a Difference

For a company, a brand matters the most.

Environmentalist Ma Jun, who is well aware of the dictum, has used it to pressure polluters to mend their ways.

He created a website to name and shame companies, and even local governments, that pollute the environment.

"Companies which may ignore fines or other punishments cannot afford their brands being blacklisted," Ma said Thursday.

"The pressure exerted can help stop pollution at its origin, because the public will penalize polluters by shunning their products."
On Saturday, the 39-year-old was selected as one of 50 people - including four Chinese - who could save the planet by The Guardian, a leading British newspaper, because of his green efforts in the past decade.

"The award was a surprise to me, and the honor belongs to our team," said Ma, who in 2006 set up the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a Beijing-based non-governmental organization with five staff members.

The awards to the four Chinese send out a message, Ma said.

"It shows that the world cares about the environment in China, and how this developing country can play a role in solving environmental problems."

The other Chinese on the list are Pan Yue, 47, vice-minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration; Jia Zhangke, 37, actor/director credited with raising public awareness of the environment; and Shi Zhengrong, 44, a scientist who owns Suntech Power, one of the world's 10 biggest solar panel producers.

Ma said: "The new interaction between the government, public, enterprises and NGOs will benefit environment protection in China."

As one of the leaders of environmental NGOs, which are estimated at about 3,000 in the country, Ma said the NGOs have made up for what the government may not be doing very well, such as keeping the public better informed about polluters.

On its part, the government has set in place a series of laws or regulations regarding the environment since 2003, which have enhanced public awareness of the environment.

These efforts have contributed significantly to climate change mitigation, he said.

Ma's website features a list of polluters based on government data - placed on two web pages widely reported by the media.

On the blacklist are more than 10,000 water-polluting enterprises and over 4,000 that pollute air.

Up to now, about 50 enterprises have approached Ma, explaining their situation and promising to clean up their act.

Eight enterprises have asked independent environmental groups to audit their environmental management system and pollution control facilities. Of them, two have been removed from the blacklist after they passed the audits.
Ma is no stranger to lobbyists from blacklisted enterprises.

"Some come and say they want to support our project. I tell them to check their pollution first."
But given the fact that 15,000 enterprises remain on the blacklist, "domestic and foreign-funded enterprises in China still have a long way to go to come clean," he said.

His goal for this year: First, to create a database that categorizes products by type and industry.

"Consumers can check online the products they want to buy and select products from clean companies."

Second, he wants to set up a new list of polluting suppliers as a reference for big companies.

"I hope big names such as Wal-Mart could one day stand up and say: 'We don't buy from polluting suppliers'."

Ma, a former researcher with Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, published a book, China's Water Crisis, in 1999. He shifted from journalism to water protection during his field trips to polluted rivers and lakes in the 1990s.

"China has been facing rising challenges in terms of water shortages and pollution," he said.

About 400 of 600 cities lack water, and water in about 30 percent of waterways is neither drinkable nor suitable for irrigation.

About 300 million farmers do not have accesses to safe drinking water, according to government figures.

Here is the full article.

China is overtaking the United States as the world's largest source of greenhouse gases even though its economy is only one-sixth in size

Treasury's McCormick Says China's Growth Harming Environment

Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- China must do more to prevent its booming economy and rising energy consumption from further damaging the environment, the U.S. Treasury's top international official said.

"China's rapid economic growth has come at a terrible cost to its air, water and soil," David McCormick, Treasury's undersecretary for international affairs, said in the text of a speech at a forum at the University of California, San Diego.

McCormick directed some of his criticism at China's Three Gorges Dam project on the upper reaches of the Yangtze, Asia's longest river. "The dam has created extensive environmental problems such as water pollution and landslides, and has come at a tremendous human cost, with the displacement and relocation of over 1 million people," he said.

McCormick's rebuke comes as China prepares to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, in Beijing in August. He noted that 16 of the 20 most polluted cities are in China, and said 26 percent of the country's surface water is "totally unusable." The U.S. and other countries must help China find "sustainable solutions" to its problems, he added.

"China is overtaking the United States as the world's largest source of greenhouse gases even though its economy is only one-sixth in size," he said.

Here is the full article.

China's push for hydropower dams sparking grassroots backlash

Jan. 7, 2008 -- The Chinese government's recent decision to scrap controversial plans for a huge dam at Tiger Leaping Gorge on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River represents a milestone for growing grassroots political movements in China, suggests the author of a new book on the politics behind China's epic dam-building campaign.

Mertha, an assistant professor of political science in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, bases his book on extensive field research in some of the most remote parts of Southwest China. Filled with first-hand accounts of widespread opposition to dams in Pubugou and Dujiangyan in Sichuan province and the Nu River Project in Yunnan province, the book documents dramatic changes in critical policies surrounding China's insatiable quest for energy.

"As China has become increasingly market driven, decentralized and politically heterogeneous," he argues, "the control and management of water has transformed from an unquestioned economic imperative to a lightning rod of bureaucratic infighting, societal opposition and open protest."

Although bargaining has always been present in Chinese politics, Mertha shows how actors once denied a seat at the table — media, nongovernmental organizations and grassroots activists — are emerging to become serious players in the policy-making process.

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In the final days of 2007, the Chinese government made a surprise announcement abandoning plans for a controversial dam that would have submerged Tiger Leaping Gorge on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, one of China's most renowned tourist areas. While the decision represents an obvious victory for the burgeoning Chinese environmental movement, Mertha considers the impact and occasional success of such grassroots movements and policy activism to be signals of an important and much broader shift in China's domestic politics.

Here is the full article.

Three Gorges History Drowning in Rising Reservoir

As the reservoir from China's Three Gorges Dam reaches its maximum height this year, it will inundate more than 400 square miles of land.

More than a million people are being moved along with homes, schools and hospitals. But this part of China is home to a unique culture, not all of which can be moved.

Some parts of the culture are being saved — and some are being lost.

Historic Sites at Risk

An impressive Stone Treasure Fortress dominates the shoreline of the reservoir in the county of Zhongxian. There aren't any fortifications any more. The main structure is an early 18th century, multitiered pagoda with curly eaves.

It's perched on a cliff looking out over the Yangtze River. On the front of the gateway is a water level marker that says 175.1 — the number of meters above sea level and the level to which the waters will rise when the dam is completed.

This was once the stronghold of the Deng clan, and an ancient village once sat at the feet of the fortress. The village has now been razed and its residents relocated.

One of them is Deng Shuhua, who sells drinks and souvenirs outside the site. He recounts a local legend about how the place got its name.

"The legend goes that the Goddess Nuwa was fixing a hole in the sky. She was carrying some stones in a basket, when one of them dropped out, fell on the river bank and became this mountain. That's the 'Stone Treasure,'" he says.

New Defenses for an Ancient Fortress

Nearby, workers cut and chisel stone, part of an effort to protect the fortress from the rising waters.

Engineer Qiu Guogui works close to the site. He says the fortress will be surrounded by 222 concrete and steel pillars — and a wall connecting them will keep the river from submerging the fortress.

"The fortress will become an isolated island, accessible either by boat or a connecting bridge," Qiu says.

Downriver from the fortress is a temple dedicated to a third century general of the Three Kingdoms period, Zhang Fei.

"The entire temple was moved with the aim of preserving it in its original form," says Wu Qiongying, a tour guide. "Every stone and brick you see here was removed piece by piece, numbered, moved and then used to reconstruct the temple."

Here is the full story and audio: National Public Radio

Peru, China Agree to Boost Investment at Business Forum

LIMA, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) - Peru and China held an investment forum here Tuesday to shore up bilateral trade and investment.

Around 200 entrepreneurs and business people from both countries took part in the gathering to discuss more opportunities in two-way trade and investment.

Peru's Cabinet Chief Jorge del Castillo said in the opening speech that Peru welcomes Chinese investments in such sectors as mining and setting up new factories.

Chinese Ambassador to Peru Gao Zhengyue said bilateral trade and investment developed at a fast pace and China has become Peru's second largest trading partner and exporting market.

The two countries's trade has reached 4.4 billion US dollars so far this year, up 800million dollars from the total of 2006, according to the ambassador.

Here is the full article.

Bitter memories above the Yangtze

Bitter memories above the Yangtze

The Amazon may be larger, the Nile longer, but no river flows through the lives of as many people as the Yangtze, known in China as the Chang Jiang.

Despite the spectacular views, for many it brings back memories of bitterness and pain.

Zhang Zheng Jun now lives with his wife in one room overlooking the river, his only belongings spilling out of a suitcase.

In March he was forcibly relocated - his home demolished to make way for a bridge over the new reservoir created by China's Three Gorges Dam.

When he refused to accept the governments compensation offer he was arrested and his house torn down.

Up to four million people may lose their homes before the project is completed in 2009.

Over a million and a half have already been forcibly resettled, but many complain they have yet to see any compensation.

Allegations of corruption are also widespread, with reports emerging that tens of millions of dollars of resettlement money are being pocketed by corrupt officials.

Here is the full article.

Chinese three gorges dam project - The Human Cost - Video

At final completion, the Three Gorges Dam is expected to displace upwards of 5 million people, 1.5 million in the first wave followed by 3.5 million more as the reservoir fills. The population displacement is huge, analogous to removing and resettling the entire population of the state of Colorado. China has four more dams of this size planned for the upper Yangtze.

China plans four more mega dams to harness the Yangtze

ANOTHER four mega dams are expected to appear on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and together they will have the capacity to produce double the amount of hydropower created by the Three Gorges facility, a senior engineer of the projects' construction body confirmed today.

The dams are expected to create a new world record with a total installed hydropower capacity of 32 million kilowatts, surpassing the 18.2-million-kilowatt Three Gorges Dam.

The dams will lie along the lower reaches of the Jinshajiang River, the biggest tributary to the Yangtze between Yunnan and Sichuan provinces.

Plans of Wudongde Hydropower Station and Baihetan Hydropower Station are now still under consideration, Zhang Shuguang, deputy general engineer of China Three Gorges Project Corporation, confirmed to Shanghai Daily this afternoon.

Water diversion has already begun for Xiluodu Hydropower Station, the country's second largest dam. Construction began on November 26 for Xiangjiaba Hydropower Station, the third biggest, Zhang added.

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More than 7,300 residents have been relocated for the 50.3-billion-yuan Xiluodu project. It is expected to bring extra fiscal revenue of 30 million yuan to Sichuan Province, Wang Huaichen, deputy governor of Sichuan, said in previous interview.

Xiangjiaba, a plant with an investment of 18 billion yuan, will have a total installed hydropower capacity of six million kilowatts and will be completed in 2015, the New Express said.

It also added that planners will probably start the construction of Wudongde and Baihetan in 2010 and that research for both will end next year.

Wudongde has a planned installed hydropower capacity of 7.4 million kilowatts while Baihetan has 12 million kilowatts.

Here is the full story.

China's giant dam unleashes landslides - 31 killed in latest report

LAST year, Chinese officials celebrated the completion of the Three Gorges Dam by releasing a list of world records. As in: The Three Gorges is the world's biggest dam, biggest power plant and biggest consumer of dirt, stone, concrete and steel. Ever. Even the project's official tally of 1.13 million displaced people made the list as record No10.

Today, the Communist Party is hoping the dam does not become China's biggest folly. Chinese officials have admitted that the dam was spawning environmental problems like water pollution and landslides that could become severe. Equally startling, officials want to begin a new relocation programme for four million people - a new record they don't really want.

In the latest incident, the death toll from a landslide near the dam earlier this week soared yesterday when state media revealed the collapse had crushed a bus, killing 31 people.

The bus was found three days after Tuesday's landslide. Early reports from the Xinhua news agency had put casualties at the railway tunnel construction site at one worker killed, one injured and two missing.

Officials are now sending mixed messages about the project's environmental impact.

A report in the official China Daily newspaper earlier this week quoted the project's director saying that problems along the dam's 410-mile-long reservoir were no worse than expected and that no major geological problems had been recorded in the area since water levels rose to 512ft last year.

"The impact has not gone beyond the scope predicted in a 1991 feasibility report. In some aspects, it is not as severe as predicted," Wang Xiaofeng, the director of the central government's Three Gorges Project Construction Committee, said in the state-run newspaper.

The comments marked a stark reversal from recent warnings by Mr Wang and other officials who said China faced a catastrophe if it failed to stop riverbank erosion and other environmental problems caused by the dam, the world's largest hydropower project.

Mr Wang was earlier quoted in state media telling a seminar in September that China could not afford to "lower our guard against ecological and environmental problems caused by the Three Gorges project."

Begun in 1993, the dam was seen as the fruition of a century-old dream to harness the Yangtze, the world's third largest river, for electric power and to control flooding.

Construction has gone ahead despite complaints about its $22 billion cost and massive environmental impact. The government has forced 1.3 million people to move out of areas to be flooded by the reservoir.

But Beijing has been doing damage control since accounts emerged of the September meeting of officials and experts that raised surprisingly critical questions about the dam.

Participants warned of increasing landslides and pollution, possibly requiring the relocations of millions of more people in the reservoir area - issues critics also raised during the dam's planning and construction when they were quashed by Beijing.

Seismic activity has increased as water pours into formerly dry slopes composed of rock, soil and sediment, some of it highly porous. That is causing fissures, often deep below the surface, weakening hillsides and causing soil and shale to come loose.

The warnings about a higher environmental and human toll have raised concerns that the dam, promoted as a cure-all for Yangtze flooding and an alternative to coal-fired power generation, was exacting a price beyond its $23.6 billion construction cost.

Mr Wang's office announced this week that it was taking new remedial measures to protect the environment around the dam to prevent pollution discharge and ensure drinking water quality.

"We want to build not only a first-class hydropower project, but also a good environment," he said in China Daily.

State media and local government have also sketched out new relocation schemes, saying as many as four million people may have to be moved from areas adjacent to the dam's reservoir. Among those migrants were many from the 1.3 million who previously had to move, often to remote areas where the farmland was of poor quality.

The impact of the Three Gorges Dam is obvious in many communities along the river. Residents are worried about the cracks in house walls and some have felt the ground shift.

In the mountain villages above the reservoir, farmers have heard nothing about resettlement. For many, the immediate concern is the land beneath their feet. Landslides are striking hillsides as the rising water places more pressure on the shoreline, local officials say. In Fengjie county, officials have designated more than 800 disaster-prone areas. Since 2004, landslides have forced the relocation of more than 13,000 people in the county.

Not far from the dam itself, residents in the tiny village of Miaohe felt a major tremor in April beneath their farmhouses. Officials ordered them to relocate for three months into a mountain tunnel for lack of any other night time shelter.

Here is the full article.

Three Chinese firms to develop Afghan copper mine - biggest investment in Afghanistan history

China Metallurgical Group Corporation, Jiangxi Copper Corporation and Fujian Zijin Mining Group Company Limited jointly obtained the right to develop the biggest Afghan copper mine, Aynak copper deposit, with their offer of over US$2.87 billion, the Afghan Ministry of Mines announced recently.

Aynak copper deposit is one of the world's largest copper mines with proven reserves of 690 million tons of copper ore containing about 1.65 percent or 11.3 million tons of copper. The Aynak reserves consist of about one third of China's total proven copper reserves. Some geologists even believe that Aynak might be the world's largest copper mine.

Afghan Minister of Mines Ibrahim Adel said that this deal was the biggest investment in Afghan history, with about 10,000 people expected to work there. Its present copper reserves are more than 10 million tons and are likely to rise to 20 million tons, with copper values at about US$ 30 billion under present prices, he said.

China Metallurgical played the main role during bidding; Jiangxi Copper Corporation and Fujian Zijin Mining Group Company acted as shareholders. China Metallurgical will invest US$3 billion in this project over the next few years, a related responsible person inside the company claimed.

Jiangxi Copper Corporation also stated that the successful bidding would guarantee its sufficient supplies of copper over the following ten years.

International copper prices have risen twice since 2004. Enormous profits have lured world's mine giants to Afghanistan searching for copper. Nine mining companies from China, Canada, Russia, America and India took part in the competitive bidding for Aynak mine.

Due to rising domestic demands China has become the world's largest copper consumer, consuming about 4 million tons or 22 percent of the world's total supply last year.

Here is the full article.

China leaders petitioned on Burma dam projects

Burma anti-dam activists sent a petition to Chinese President Hu Jintao urging him to better regulate Chinese companies involved in the construction of 10 hydropower projects worth $30 billion in military-run Burma.

The Burma Rivers Network petition - endorsed by 50,000 ``affected people,'' 98 Burma organizations and 24 international organizations - called on the Chinese government to require the 10 Chinese companies involved in dam building in Burma to conduct proper social and environmental impact studies and reveal details on the projects to the affected communities.

``The dams would represent over 30 billion dollars in investment, `` the petition said.

``This would be by far the biggest inflow of money to a military regime that Transparency International rates as the world's second most corrupt.''

China is currently under considerable pressure from the international community to use its close economic relations with Burma's ruling junta to bring about political reform in the country after a brutal crackdown in September on peaceful anti-government protests led by Buddhist monks.

``These Chinese dams will cause huge environmental and social damage for the peoples in Burma and will damage China's international image,'' said Aung Ngyeh, spokesman of the Burma Rivers Network.

The Burma Rivers Network, a non-governmental organization comprised of representatives of ethnic organizations from potential dam-affected communities in the country once known as Burma, has used its petition to highlight the extent of Chinese companies' involvement in Burma's hydropower sector, which has been largely ignored because of a lack of publicity and transparency surrounding the deals.

Here is the full article.

Mine tailings dam collapse kills six, seven missing in China

BEIJING (Reuters) - A dam collapse in northeast China sent a torrent of mud and debris into two nearby villages, killing six and leaving another seven missing, Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.

The collapse of the dam, holding back waste from iron ore production, in Liaoning province's Shiqiaozi village injured another 17, all of whom were in a stable condition.

Rescuers were searching for the missing as 10 bulldozers cleared mud and ore.

An 80-metre wide river of debris spilled across fields and into two low-lying villages, destroying cropland and 33 houses.

"The priority of our work is to look for the missing and resettle the homeless," Xinhua quoted Yang Jinfang, head of the publicity department in the nearby city of Anshan, as saying.

The dam, which Xinhua said belonged to the Dingyang Mining Co. Ltd, an iron ore producer, was supposed to be used to contain waste ore, but over the years there had been a buildup of water.

Authorities had sent inspectors to check four similar dams in the area, the report said.

China is frequently beset by industrial and environmental disasters.

Last week, 31 people were crushed in a landslide in central China, most of them trapped in a long-distance bus that was buried under an avalanche of boulders, earth and mud at the entrance to a railway tunnel being built near the site of the Three Gorges Dam.

Here is the full article.

Massive resettlement planned for Three Gorges region...again

Rural unemployment and environmental problems aggravated by China’s Three Gorges dam have prompted authorities to announce a second massive resettlement scheme affecting millions of people along the dam’s 600-kilometre long reservoir. Already, 1.13 million people have been resettled to make way for the Three Gorges dam, about half of them farmers.

Now the Chongqing government plans to move another 2.3 million rural people living along the Three Gorges reservoir into nearby cities.

(To try and come to grips with this population figure, imagine the entire state of Connecticut (pop. 3,504, 809) needing to be uprooted, rehoused and resettled. )

The plan, approved by Chongqing last August, aims to encourage rural people to move to the cities where they have better chances of finding employment. Officials claim this will relieve environmental pressure in the Three Gorges reservoir region, which is plagued by frequent landslides, severe soil erosion, and water pollution – exactly as critics have warned since the 1980s.

Unlike Three Gorges resettlement, where people were forced to move, the slogan this time is: “guided by government, selected by the market, and decided by the people to move voluntarily.”

“The fundamental objective is to change farmers to urban citizens and get them settled in the cities permanently by encouraging them to give up the farmland in the reservoir areas,” Miao Wei, vice director of the Chongqing Development and Reform Commission, said in a September 11 interview with the Beijing-based news magazine, 21st Century Economic Herald.

Chongqing, a large port city at the western end of the Three Gorges reservoir, had its jurisdiction extended in 1997 to encompass almost the entire Three Gorges reservoir region, an area twice the size of Holland (82,000 square kilometres). Chongqing municipality, as it is now known, has a population of 28 million, roughly half of whom live in rural areas.

Here is the full article.

Why China fears the BHP Billiton / Rio Tinto Merger

BANGKOK -- BHP Billiton's bid for rival resources giant Rio Tinto shows how Western mining companies are increasing their clout as the world's commodity boom marches on, a trend that is in stark contrast to developments in the global oil business and one that could put China -- Asia's biggest and fastest-growing minerals consumer -- in a bind.

For all of their big profits, Western oil companies have seen their long-term prospects dim in recent years. That's because much of the world's remaining oil is controlled by foreign governments, which are tightening their grip on supplies even as it gets harder to find new deposits. The national oil companies and governments of countries such as Saudi Arabia and Venezuela have seen their influence grow, often at the expense of the West, as oil prices soar.

The opposite is true in mining, which increasingly is dominated by a handful of Western, publicly traded companies that are consolidating to create global supply juggernauts. BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Companhia Vale do Rio Doce of Brazil and Anglo American PLC of the U.K. control many of the world's biggest mines -- notably in Australia, Chile and Canada. And Western capital is funding much of the exploration needed to add supplies in the years ahead.

The trend enhances the earnings potential of Western mining companies. But it also complicates the economic outlook for resource-hungry economies, particularly China's, where high demand has helped drive the global commodity boom.

"A BHP-Rio Tinto merger could cause commodity prices to remain stronger through greater supply discipline and reduced competition for market share amongst the major mining houses," John Meyer, a resources analyst at investment bank Fairfax IS in London, wrote in a note to clients on Friday. If these Western companies move slowly to expand output -- as they have to date during the current commodity boom -- it could put China and other big metals consumers at a disadvantage.

Western market dominance is most pronounced in iron ore, with three companies -- BHP, Rio and CVRD -- controlling roughly 75% of international trade. The companies are also strong players in copper, coal and some other commodities. BHP and Rio already own more than 85% of the world's largest copper mine, the Escondida deposit in Chile, and Western companies are behind the development of many of the largest new sources of nickel, copper and iron ore.

(This is the driving force behind China's hydroelectric project in Gabon, Africa: Chinese 3.5 Billion “Hydroelectric – Iron Mine” complex slated for Africa’s Gabon National Park )

China is especially vulnerable in the case of coal. Although domestic mining companies produce enormous quantities of the commodity, they haven't always kept pace with China's rocketing demand. Earlier this year, the country became a net coal importer, helping push prices to record highs. Unlike oil supplies, much of the coal that China could tap is produced by Western outfits, including BHP.

Here is the full article.

Chinese National Bank buys shares in Rio Tinto Group after BHP Billiton bid

Sunday Telegraph, a London newspaper, reported the CDB had bought less than 1% in Rio Tinto, a tiny stake but significant owing to BHP Billiton's earlier three for one shares offer. The Sunday Telegraph did not name its source.

And in a report by The Times, BHP Billiton is said to be preparing the sale of its petroleum arm to either Chinese or other buyers for at least $40bn, funds that would be used to finance the takeover of Rio Tinto.

"It is the first time a Chinese state-backed group has taken a direct stake in a global miner and will fuel speculation that China may intervene in the bid battle," the Sunday Telegraph said.

Tom Albanese, Rio Tinto's CEO, was on a trip to China, arranged before BHP Billiton's bid was made public.

Rio Tinto's share price rocketed up by a third on November 8 after BHP Billiton confirmed market speculation it had approached Rio to combine their assets worth an estimated $350bn.

A combined company would have iron output similar to that of world number one CVRD and would be in a similar position with copper, rivalling Chile's Codelco for the number one spot. This would be negative for China, which consumes about half of the world's iron ore, because it would given the combined company huge pricing power.
Already, iron ore prices have increased by double digits every year for the last four years and are tipped to increase by 20% plus in current contract negotiations effective from April.

Quoting an Investec report from earlier this year, Miningmx said one possible takeover scenario for Rio Tinto would see the Japanese and Chinese participate in the business. The diversified mining business would retain overall management control, Investec said.

China's efforts to secure its own sources of raw materials are well known with some $5bn in trade surplus earmarked for African investment.

Standard Bank and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Limited (ICBC), China’s biggest bank by market capitalisation, were planning to set up a global resource fund to target investment in mining, metals, oil and gas, projects, and associated industries anywhere in the world.

Here is the full article.

China completes river damming for world's 2nd largest hydropower plant project

XILUODU, Sichuan, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- China successfully dammed the Jinsha River on Thursday, marking a key step in the construction of the Xiluodu hydropower plant. When completed, the dam will be the second largest of its type in the country after the massive Three Gorges Project.

Wang Shukai, deputy director of the project under the China Three Gorges Project Corporation, said it took workers 30 hours to complete the damming at 15:38 p.m. at Xiluodu in the southwestern Sichuan Province. At that spot, the river is 47 meters wide and runs at a speed of seven meters per second.

"This power plant will contribute to the country's drive of developing undeveloped western regions and to the promotion of a sustainable development of society, economics and environment," he said.

With a designed installed capacity of 12.6 million kilowatts, the Xiluodu plant will be the nation's second largest hydropower plant following the Three Gorges Plant and the third largest of its type in the world.

When finished in 2015, the dam will stand 278 meters high with a reservoir containing 11.57 billion cubic meters of water.

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China’s Green Energy Gap - Economic Expansion at Any Price

BOXING, China — By next autumn, a muddy construction site here in a rural part of eastern China will give way to a small power plant that burns corn stalks and cotton stalks to generate electricity for nearby villages and steam for a neighboring industrial complex.

The plant would be ready sooner, but only four companies in China make the specialized precision boilers that the biomass plant requires. And all those companies are plagued by backed-up orders and delivery delays. Similar problems bedevil the wind turbine industry in China.

The same big utility company building the green plant in Boxing, CLP, has just opened a coal-fired plant in southernmost China. On schedule and built for half what it would cost in the West, that plant will generate 1,200 megawatts of electricity — compared with 6 megawatts from the Boxing biomass plant. CLP is so impressed that it is bidding to build coal-fired plants in India with Chinese technology.

These are the realities faced by companies seeking to make themselves more environmentally friendly in China, where coal is king. Coal-fired plants are quick and cheap to build and easy to run. While the Chinese government has set goals for increasing the use of a long list of alternative energies — including wind, biomass, hydroelectric, solar and nuclear — they all face obstacles, from bureaucracy to bottlenecks in manufacturing. CLP’s differing energy choices are a case study in how one company grapples with the need to provide electricity to hundreds of millions of impoverished Asians even as it is under a self-imposed goal of trying to limit emissions of global warming gases.

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The problem is particularly acute because governments across Asia, from China and India to Indonesia and the Philippines, are turning mainly to coal to meet their soaring electricity needs and prevent blackouts, even though coal produces more global warming gases than any other major source of electricity.

China’s increase has been the most substantial. The country built 114,000 megawatts of fossil-fuel-based generating capacity last year alone, almost all coal-fired, and is on course to complete 95,000 megawatts more this year.

For comparison, Britain has 75,000 megawatts in operation, built over a span of decades.

The most talked-about alternative to coal in China involves plans to quadruple the country’s share of power from nuclear energy by 2020. But the plan, which contemplates dozens of reactors, still amounts to just 31,000 megawatts of nuclear power over the next dozen years.

“That’s minuscule,” said Jonathan Sinton, a China expert at the International Energy Agency. China builds more coal-fired capacity than that every four months.

(For purpose of comparison, when the Three Gorges Dam is fully operating it will generate 18,000 megawatts. When the Rio Baker and Rio Pascua are fully dammed they will generate 2355 megawatts. The coal plant they discuss in China will generate 1200 megawatts. )

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The future of hydroelectric power in China is clouded by severe environmental problems at the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River.

One of the strangest features of China’s energy policy is the paucity of environmental controls on coal-fired plants, because rules governing them were written long ago. Renewable energy projects actually face a more stringent review of their environmental impact.

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Chinese 3.5 Billion “Hydroelectric – Iron Mine” complex slated for Africa’s Gabon National Park

Gabon: Central Africa's 'Most Beautiful Waterfall' Under Threat

Government reportedly views the environmental groups as puppets for Western multinationals opposed to China's exclusive involvement in the project.

Described as the most beautiful waterfall in Central Africa, Gabon's Kongou Falls are also at the heart of an environmental controversy that some believe has far-reaching implications for conservation in the country.

Kongou has apparently been earmarked as the site for a hydro-electric dam to power the Bélinga project, a 3.5 billion dollar initiative to mine iron ore in north-eastern Gabon that is being carried out with financing from Chinese firms in a consortium headed by CMEC.

Work on Bélinga is scheduled to get underway before the end of the year, with the first cargo of ore making its way to China by 2011. China will be the sole client of the project, which also involves the construction of 560 kilometres of railroad and a deepwater port. In addition, some 30,000 jobs are said to be in the offing.

Such figures understandably galvanize politicians in a country looking to diversify its economy in the face of dwindling oil revenues, long the economic mainstay of Gabon.

But, conservation groups fear the construction of a dam at Kongou, located in the Ivindo National Park, could have a negative effect on this forest environment. While an official decision on the hydro-electric site is still pending, Brainforest -- a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in the Gabonese capital, Libreville -- claims in the Sep. 1 issue of 'Brainforest Info' that the director-general of energy and hydraulic resources has confirmed the choice of Kongou.

List of Concerns

The concerns of the conservation groups were laid out in a document presented to President Omar Bongo towards the end of September under the auspices of a coalition called Environnement Gabon (Environment Gabon).

The groups question why a decision on dam location appears to have been made before an environmental impact assessment of construction was undertaken, as required by law.

The statement further calls on the Ministry of Mines to make public the feasibility study which indicates that about 30,000 jobs stand to be created. Of these jobs, it asks, "how many are reserved for the Gabonese, when we know the natural tendency for Chinese firms...to bring in, extensively, workers from their country...?"

Furthermore, "if we consider the state of impoverishment of most Gabonese, in spite of significant oil, mining and logging revenues, we may think that it will be the same for revenues from the iron exploitation of Bélinga!"

Gabon's oil sector has been surrounded by allegations of corruption, and claims that oil revenues have not fully benefited the country's citizens.

"It is difficult to trace how oil monies have been spent -- even for the International Financial Institutions," notes a 2003 report from the global aid agency Catholic Relief Services, titled 'Bottom of the Barrel: Africa's Oil Boom and the Poor'. According to the document, "Gabon was the epicenter of a string of scandals associated with (French oil company) Elf Aquitaine throughout the 1990s, including allegations of hidden oil deals and the use of its banks for massive money laundering linked to French politicians and party financing...".

Conservation groups suggest that the dam rather be built at the Tsengué-Lélédi falls, a site recommended in a study dating back to the 1960s that was carried out by Electricité de France (Electricity of France), a public enterprise. They claim that construction of the dam at this site would be cheaper, and more beneficial for local communities.

The Tsengué-Lélédi falls are located outside the Ivindo park. But, they are also further away from Bélinga -- an added distance that will increase project costs, says Mines Minister Richard Auguste Onouviet. He claims that about 1.2 billion dollars are needed to build a dam at Tsengué-Lélédi and 435 million dollars to conduct electricity from this location to the Bélinga mine, compared to 754 million dollars for construction at Kongou.

Other points raised in the September statement include concerns about how the contract for the Bélinga project has yet to be made available for public consideration.

Here is the full article.