The news broke of Chilean miners trapped some 700 meters underground as their mine shaft collapsed around them and trapping them as a result. 33 miners then were given the bleak news that it would not be until December that an alternative escape route could be dug and be rescued. Despite this dismal news the 33 miners all Chilean bar one of Bolivian background remain cheerful with their families camped above ground living on the makeshift tents ‘Camp Hope’.
‘Camp Hope’ has been established by the trapped miner families with their children, grandchildren and friends who have started to camp in the hope of sight of their loved ones. The right wing Chilean Government, mainly composed of millionaire businessmen, the first since the Pinochet era, is desperate to demonstrate that they can connect with the ordinary Chileans. This has been demonstrated by the Chilean mining minister Lawrence Golborne. He has been keen to get the trapped miners to sing the Chilean national anthem and to show the world media and Chileans generally that the Government cares. It is ironic to note that this is happening when the UK Government has just released documents that relate to its handling of the ‘coal miners’ strike during the 1980’s that makes for some interesting reading. The papers show the lengths the friend of Pinochet; the then Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher went to break the stronghold of the National Union of Miners (NUM). The NUM leader Arthur Scargill it seems not only outsmarted the Government but went on to humiliate them in the way he used his skills to communicate clearly to the media his key messages on the plight of the miners and the industry. Today he faces expulsion from the same Union he helped to lead during one of the most important episodes of recent British history.
The miners in Chile remain cheerful with supplies being provided and families being able to speak to them via a phone link and CCTV footage of their ordeal broadcast around the world.
The episode of Chilean miners is not an isolated case where miners are either trapped or in some recent cases miners have lost their lives in performing their jobs. Accidents in China, India and parts of Africa confirm that it is a dangerous and hazardous industry. As world prices of mined coal, metals and minerals heats up with China and India being the two leading consumers of what comes out of the ground. The economic slowdown in the world markets has put a brief dampener on the sky rocketing prices of industrial and precocious metals. However the price of gold is at all time high and it is forecasted to go even higher as the world’s central bank money printing presses go into overdrive to stave off a world economic downturn. It is remarkable to note that one of the biggest mining companies in the UK has made a hostile grab for the Canadian mining company Potash Corporation in the last fortnight at a value of £26bn for a majority stake in the company. A strategy to diversify their interest away from their core activity of slow revenues from their iron-ore based business. It will be interesting to see who else joins the scramble to acquire the same company.
Mining is big business and world’s thirst for what they produce grows by the day as the world led by the likes of China, India and Brazil’s economic growth is fuelling higher prices the world over. Technology advances together with the investments attracted by the higher prices make inaccessible and deeper exploration possible thereby increasing the risks for those involved at the cold face even higher. A recent US Government report estimated mineral wealth of Trillions of dollars below ground in the troubled Afghanistan.
During a recent visit through the Covered Bazaar in Istanbul it was astounding to see how many shops there were that have spawned gold bar trading and related businesses. The shops are heaving with the shiny metal mostly fashioned into jewellery, some into coins and some in raw gold bars for the large investors. Turkey is not alone. In London, Paris and Berlin similar scenes are being repeated. You can seldom sit through a television programme without seeing an advertisement asking you to recycle your broken or unwanted gold jewellery for cash through the post. Shops advertising the same have appeared specialising in old gold for money and traditional jewellers have also started a side line in the same business. Talking to some industry insiders they reveal that recycling old gold is the cheapest way to get gold as the cost of extraction from the ground takes a long time and to bring a mine into production, large investment. This may be a good indicator as to where the price of this shiny metal that has fascinated the world throughout time as a form of money and continues today as it did since it was first mined. India recently acquired half of the IMF’s gold reserves as it becomes more prosperous with China following close behind and now Russia declaring to do the same.
Mining Industry is of interest to politicians for another reason too. As we have seen in Venezuela and Bolivia, private local or foreign owned companies can soon become a target for nationalisation for the benefit of the domestic economies. Questions are being asked with the aftermath of the recent Australian General Election where the Labour Party had publically stated taxing their huge mining industry higher taxes. The attraction for the politician is clear as are the risks as seen with the frequent news of mining sector accidents that hit our media.
Whether it is the trial involving the supermodel Naomi Campbell accused of accepting ‘blood diamonds’ mined in Africa and traded in return for weapons. The exploitation of mother earth has happened for the benefit of human kind and this will continue as the world prospers with a hint of sustainability and environmental management. News of horrific rape of more than150 women and children in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Luvungi, North Kivu has started to trickle through to the western media since the last month. These crimes have been linked to the mining that has shadowed the region and despite the presence of UN protection force in the area. There is growing interest and influence in different parts of Africa by China and India through their business and trade activity with the mineral rich nations of Africa.
Waiting to be rescued 700 meters below ground in Chile is not likely before Christmas. Rescue work has begun and the company responsible for the rescue shaft intends to have the miners above ground before the end of October and well before what the politicians are prepared to say publically.
Semra Eren-Nijhar 