I had another crack at this article. This version tells you a few things different to the first version.
I hope it's not too technical or confusing... It may surprise you. Enjoy.
A minerals fortune in NZ waters - Submissions invited
by Bronwyn Llewellyn
30 May, 2014
Submissions to NZ Petroleum and Minerals
are invited from the public as part of the Partial Fees Review 2014
which closes on June 6. Thorium deposits
in our seabed are valued between 5 -20 trillion dollars.
New Zealand's deep sea
mining basins contain up to $20 trillion in rare earth minerals, former CEO of
Solid Energy Dr Don Elder told attendees at a 2010 petroleum conference in
Auckland.
Attending the conference was Rod Young from Tokoroa,
a mining enthusiast who holds claims around Coromandel, Thames, Paeroa, Waihi and
north Fiordland.
"New Zealand is the wealthiest per capita
populations on the planet behind Saudi Arabia," Young said recently on a visit
to Hamilton.
“One of the things I’ve researched is a thing
called thorium. Gram for gram it’s got a million times more energy than coal,
with no CO2 given off. China’s picked up on this thorium and [will] basically replace
all its coal-fired power stations. When people are saying they’re going to get
iron sand, they’re not. They’re after rare-earth minerals, and one of them is
thorium.”
Overseas mining operations currently pay the Crown
as little as 1% in royalties from minerals mined in the NZ’s offshore sedimentary
basins.
Young’s submission to the Fees Review says royalties
from mining in New Zealand should be 99% to help increase living standards for
all New Zealanders, and to honour The Treaty of Waitangi.
Young said that Indonesia had negotiated for 97% in
mining royalties and still, the multi-nationals had lined up to develop
Indonesia’s oil and gas reserves.
“Norway banked $400 billion dollars over 40 years
for the old people super fund. So why is [MP Simon] Bridges keen to give it all
away?"
Hamilton business owner and anti-mining campaigner
Tom MacRae said, “There’s a part of me that’s not against making a dollar. I’m disgusted that we only get 1% from the
oil and gas companies. What we have is
all these corrupt people doing deals that are not beneficial for New
Zealanders.”
When Young was at the 2010 Crown Minerals conference, he talked to some
people described as being very high up, who advised the government.
“They told me that Cabinet has been forbidden to use the word ‘thorium’,
which I thought was quite interesting.”
Young said after the government’s review
of fees process is finished, the
multi-national mining companies will all be jockeying for claims, looking for rates
reductions and what their total payments will be for the next 47 years.
The timing coincides with NZ’s general elections in September.
“While we’re talking about who won and what the coalition arrangements are going to be, all the multi-nationals will be claiming up large, all of the Crown Minerals, 20 thousand billion dollars.”
“While we’re talking about who won and what the coalition arrangements are going to be, all the multi-nationals will be claiming up large, all of the Crown Minerals, 20 thousand billion dollars.”
Image source: http://www.thegwpf.org/japan-breaks-chinas-stranglehold-rare-metals/
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