The Journal of Pacific History Inc

Review: Mining in the Pacific: Past History, Present Practice, Continuing Troubles
Author(s): Gill Burke
Review by: Gill Burke
Source: The Journal of Pacific History, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Jun., 1994), pp. 105-109
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25169207
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 Review Article

MINING IN THE PACIFIC: PAST HISTORY, PRESENT PRACTICE,

CONTINUING TROUBLES

Bougainville: the mine and the people. By Paul Quodling. St Leonard's, NSW and Auckland,
Centre for Independent Studies, Pacific Papers 3, 1991. 114 pp, bibliog., appendices ?
chronology, transcripts, documentation. ISBN 0-949769-71-1.
Mining and Indigenous Peoples in Australasia. Edited by John Connell and Richard Howitt.
Sydney, Sydney University Press, 1991. 200 pp, notes. ISBN 0-424-00177-2.
Mining politics and development in the South Pacific. By Michael C. Howard. Boulder,
Westview Press, 1991, 234 pp, notes, appendix on seabed mining, bibliog. ISBN 0-8133
8170-3.
Nauru: Environmental Damage Under International Trusteeship. By Christopher Weera
rnantry. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1992. 374 pp, maps, illus., endnotes, bibliog.,
documentary appendices. ISBN 0-19-553289-9.

Some common themes run through these four very different books. All deal with the
impact of mining during the fairly recent past; all focus on environmental and social
aspects of this impact, but with strong economic underpinnings; all raise the question
'who benefits?' from mining development; and all have been written with some degree of
passion.
All should be welcomed for the contribution they make to a sparse field. Mining
history has not figured much in the writings of Pacific historians. A quick glance through
back numbers of this distinguished Journal shows plenty of concern with trade and with
missionaries, lots of anthropology and ethnohistory but virtually nothing discussing
mining per se. Where mining is mentioned at all it is as a by-product ? for example, as
part of discussions of labour relations, or as one of the consequences of colonialism.
Those Pacific mining history studies there are make up in quality for this lack of
quantity. The most important are Ion Idriess's and Edmond Demaitre's 1930s classics,
and modern works by Nelson, Williams and Macdonald, and O'Faircheallaigh. * In
addition there is 'Atu Bain's thesis on gold mining in Fiji (with its 'Confidential Appendix'
kept from the general reader like an erotic work)2 and a scattering of articles ? but these
apart, specific works are rare.
This is not altogether surprising. Apart from stone knapping, mining seems to have
been unknown to South Pacific islanders before the arrival of Europeans. There was no
extraction of minerals and no metallurgy. As Michael Howard says in his Introduction:
'If asked about the primary resources of the South Pacific, most people would think of
cocunuts or fish, few would mention timber, much less minerals'.3 Yet, as he goes on to

i Ion Idriess, Gold Dust and Ashes: the romantic story of the New Guinea Goldfields (Sydney 1933). Edmond
Demaitre, New Guinea Gold: Cannibals and Gold Seekers in New Guinea (London 1936). H. Nelson, Black, White and
Gold: Gold Mining in Papua New Guinea 1878-1930 (Canberra 1976). Maslyn Williams and Barrie Macdonald, The
Phosphateers: a history ofthe British Phosphate Commissioners and the Christmas Island Phosphate Commission (Melbourne
1985). Ciaran O'Faircheallaigh, Mining and Development: Foreign-financed mines in Australia, Ireland, Papua New
Guinea and Zambia (London 1984).
2 'Atu Bain, 'Vatukoula ? rock of gold: labour in the goldmining industry of Fiji 1939-1970', PhD thesis,
Australian National University (Canberra 1985).
s Howard, Mining, politics and development, 1.

105 The Journal of Pacific History, 29:1 (1994).

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 106 JOURNAL OF PACIFIC HISTORY

point out, mineral resources played, and often still play, a vital part in several island
economies. Furthermore, they were and are dominated by a handful of powerful
companies sometimes at least as important as governments. Thus it is hardly surprising
that they are often the subject of heated controversy and frequent conflict.
Although mining in the South Pacific was a consequence of colonialism, and the
extractive process was and is largely dominated by transnational rnining corporations
(TNCs), these are hardly unique experiences. Factors such as the transformation of
economic and social relations; dispossession and disempowerment of indigenous
peoples; importing of indentured mine labour; segregation and polarisation of ethnic
groups; land degradation and environmental damage ? all of which occur in the South
Pacific context ? have been characteristic of most mineral development around the
world. What the books under review highlight are those specific factors that distinguish
mining in the South Pacific from other parts of the developing world. Of these there are
two which, without implying a homogeneity to the region, are particularly important.
Firstly, Land Rights, a vexed enough issue in many contexts, gains an extra dimension
of complexity in the South Pacific. The interrelationship of land and cultural identity,
plus multiplicity of landowning groups, means that beliefs and expectations are totally
incompatible with the concept (originally propagated by colonial governments) that
Land and Mineral Rights belong to the Crown or to the State. This inevitably means a
inining operation will, by its very nature, be in conflict with the cultural environment
within which it is operating making financial compensation for land loss a particularly
destructive process. Quodling and Connell both quote three Bougainvillean students,
who commented in 1974:
Land is our life. Land is our physical life ? food and sustenance. Land is our social life; it is
marriage; it is status; it is security; it is politics; in fact it is our only world. When you [the
Administration] take our land, you cut away the very heart of our existence ... For us to be
completely landless is a nightmare which no dollar in the pocket or dollar in the bank will
allay . . .4
The second factor is Displacement. It is axiomatic that any mining operation will
displace people, even in remote and difficult terrains. In the South Pacific context dis
placement is clearly linked to Land Rights but this can be said to be also the case
elsewhere ? Australia for example. Even so, it is hard to find parallels for the scale of
physical and social displacement that occurred in the Phosphate Islands. The turning of
indigenous peoples into rentiers that was part and parcel of this displacement appears
unique. Other small economies, Brunei for example, have received windfall wealth from
mineral development, but this reviewer cannot recall anything similar to the Banabans'
move to Rabi, nor to the situation on Nauru. Having decided against relocation in 1988,
the majority of the inhabitants ? growing obese and increasingly diabetic on income
from compensation payments invested in Melbourne and other real estate ? continued
to exploit and exhaust their phosphate resources for all they were worth.
Despite these particularities, since the 19th century South Pacific inining has been
linked to the global economy. Gold provides an example of this. In many islands it was
the trigger for mineral resource development even though subsequently other minerals,
especially nickel, copper, and latterly oil, became significant. The development of gold
mining laid the foundations for many later post-independence events. Although

4 John Connell, 'Compensation and Conflict: the Bougainville copper mine, Papua New Guinea', in Connell
and Howitt, Mining and indigenous peoples, 60. Quodling, Bougainville, 12.

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 REVIEW ARTICLE: MINING IN THE PACIFIC 107

searched for on many groups gold was found in useful amounts on only three ? New
Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, and Fiji.
The New Guinea gold mines first came on stream at the same time as those in South
Africa. Comparisons were often made between them. In 1929 Leslie Urquhart ? whose
memorial was to be Mount Isa mine in Australia, stated: 'Since the opening ofthe Rand
no goldfield exhibiting such potentialities as that in New Guinea has been discovered'.5
There is a nice symmetry about this given that today's new PNG mines look set to pose a
serious threat to those same Rand mines.
It was shortly after this that Fiji became the third noteworthy Pacific gold producer
when Frank Packer and Edward Theodore founded Emperor Gold Mining Company Ltd.
Emperor was to have a chequered history, particularly in its labour relations ? which the
return of Australian interests in 1983, when Western Mining took a 10% stake plus
management, seems to have done little to change. As with so much else on Fiji, chiefly
involvement has been a central factor.
Yet if gold was the trigger for minerals development, it was nickel and copper that later
provided the main impetus. It was on these that independence struggles, Land Rights
issues, and post-independence strategies centred. Only Howard's book examines Societe
le Nickel (SLN) ? still one of the world's main nickel players despite price wars,
communal division, independence struggles and the machinations ofthe French govern
ment. The Bougainville mine and Bougainville Copper Ltd (BCD feature more promi
nently; Quodling, Connell and Howitt and Howard all discuss this large, rich hole in the
ground.
Howard's is the most recognisable as a 'history' book ? in empirical approach, use of
archive sources, presentation of material over time and wealth of tables and footnotes.
Each chapter stands alone and covers the history of mining development ? in Fiji, PNG,
the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia and the Phosphate Islands ? from their beginnings
to the present day. Each is described, and analysed in turn and the mining industry
traced from colonial beginnings to post-independence developments. The final chapter
provides a rapid overview ofthe contemporary situation in these countries and ties the
separate strands together in a broad analysis ofthe effects of mining on development in
the South Pacific. The author concludes that mining has a problematic record where
economic development is concerned but that sectoral shortcomings should be placed in
the context ofthe local societies themselves. He argues that until these societies face the
difficult task of overcoming many of the contradictions presently facing them, mining
wealth will continue to contribute little to national development.
By ranging over several countries, Howard's book provides a valuable contextual
framework for the two country-specific studies by Quodling and Weeramantry. The
former writes of Bougainville copper from the standpoint of 20 years' personal involve
ment ? including 10 as chief executive. The latter also writes from personal involvement
? in this case as Chairman of the Commission of Enquiry on the Rehabilitation of
Phosphate Lands on the Island of Nauru, which was presented to the Nauru government
in 1988.
When Paul Quodling first came to Bougainville in 1966 he was enchanted by the land
and people. Despite ups and downs, enchantment survived to his retirement in 1987. His
book is partly a history of those 20 years and partly an attempt to analyse the events that
led to the closure of the mine in 1989. There is a final, rather bleak, chapter on the

5 R. W. Robson, The Pacific Islands Year Book (Sydney 1944), 282. Quoted in Howard, Mining, 47.

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 108 JOURNAL OF PACIFIC HISTORY

possibility of the mine reopening and the sort of legislative environment and economics
driven mining operation that might occur if it did. In addition, there are a series of
documentary appendices which provide useful source material, particularly the corre
spondence between the author and Father John Momis of the Melanesian Alliance
Party.
Quodling is no mere apparatchik of transnational rnining capital. He shows awareness
of the fundamental structural problems that arise when the substitution of cash for land
occurs. He tellingly traces out the hierarchy of aspiration that leads to conflict:
Aspirations of economic reward vary with the vision of the aspirant: the villager who has lost
land and lifestyle to the mine sees his loss as an unfair price to pay for others' financial gain;
landholders whose land is involved, but not lost forever, favour a standard-lease rent
irrespective of land productivity or ultimate damage; communities on the lease perimeter
view with envy the level of payment for leasehold land; the province looks with envy on the
level of revenue flowing to the nation from rnining operations; the government of PNG sees
the lion's share of the host country's financial take as its sovereign right and the allocation of
this revenue for the benefit of the whole nation as a national responsibility. As a major
generator of foreign revenue with significant foreign ownership, BCL is a prime target for
these conflicting aspirations . . .6

But picturing the mine as the meat in the sandwich of conflicting aspirations, is possibly
oversimplistic. Howard and John Connell exarnine matters more critically, suggesting
BCL was no mere innocent bystander.
The Bougainville saga raises questions about how developing country governments
encourage minerals development. Post-independence PNG encouraged foreign-owned
enclave rnining as a revenue raiser through resource rent taxes and government equity
holdings.7 The system was produced by a mainly Australian team of advisers, sub
sequently becoming the model for many developing countries. Yet, as O'Faircheallaigh
has pointed out, it led the PNG government to view mines simply as a source of ready
cash rather than maximising the direct economic impacts of mineral development such
as input-supplying and processing linkages. The dilemmas of distribution sternrning from
such a view are inevitably conflict ridden.
Similar policy questions could be asked of post-independence Nauru. For Christopher
Weeramantry, however, it seems enough that the environmental damage done whilst
the island was under International Trusteeship should be better compensated than
before. In this he is technically probably quite right, and, given that Australia has paid up,
the 10 volume report of his Commission was obviously persuasive ? although getting
agreement to accept its findings in advance of publication possibly helped.
Weeramantry summarises the Commission's report, with comprehensive scope and
legalistic approach. He examines inter alia the Mandate concept, Nauruan Customary
Law, German Law and relevant Legal Principles. He traces ground covered by Williams
and Macdonald with much added legal detail and a fierce partisanship. Objectivity is not
what Weeramantry is about; he sets out to prove a case and prove it he does. The book
has been enthusiastically reviewed in legal circles and will obviously make a major con

6 Quodling, Bougainville, 32.

7 See R. Carnaut and A. Clunies-Ross, 'Uncertainty, risk aversion and the taxing of natural resources',
Economic Journal, 85:338 (1975), 272-87. R. Garnaut and A. Clunies-Ross, Taxation of Mineral Rents (Oxford
1983), and Philip Daniel, Minerals in Independent Papua New Guinea: policy and performance in the large-scale mining
sector, Australian National University, National Centre for Development Studies, Working Paper No. 85/10,
1985.

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 REVIEW ARTICLE: MINING IN THE PACIFIC 109

tribution to international law, but this reviewer, whilst sympathising with the author's
passionate anti-colonialism, remained unmoved.
Mining will cease on Nauru in 1995. Will the Nauruans use this latest payment to
redress income inequalities on the island? To promote health care or training policies?
To rehabilitate the mined-out, degraded land? Or to purchase more stocks and real
estate? There is a new government but, as Howard points out: 'It is a population accus
tomed to living off rent rather than producing its own wealth and used to leaving the
decisions about this wealth largely in the hands of others'.8
Finally, in Mining and Indigenous Peoples in Australasia all contributions are about Land
Rights, dispossession and the present problems of rnining development. The countries
covered include Fiji, Indonesia, New Zealand and PNG as well as examining the (pre
Mabo) situation of indigenous Australians. PNG gets most attention. David Hyndman
examines the impact of the Ok Tedi mine and argues that new movements of social
protest such as rehaihal and decentralisation show that the Wopkaimin people at least
have retained enough autonomy for self-determined cultural choices. Richard Jackson
examines the 1980s gold mining boom at Wau and Mt Kare and the extent of village
power; and John Connell the costs and benefits of Bougainville.
In a fascinating chapter about Misima, Gerritsen and Maclntyre test the hypothesis
that the imperatives of implementation, not economic greed or ill-will, make govern
ments act as they do towards villagers. The 'Capital logic' of a rnining project, they
suggest, is moulded by its financial flows ? the timing of loan repayments, need for
profitability etc. This inevitably provides a regime fostering dissatisfaction amongst vil
lagers leading to apathy, hostility and ultimately revolt. They predict that if the negative
impacts of Misima are not sensitively addressed, another, smaller, Bougainville may
appear.
In their conclusion Connell and Howitt comment on how similar are the situations
discussed regardless of whether they occur in rich-world or poor-world contexts. They
point to the paradox that, because it consumes the land, mining is perhaps the most
intrusive element contributing to the transformation of society, yet it may also serve to
conserve traditional knowledge and relationships. They acknowledge that national
'ecocide decisions', overriding indigenous rights and local sustainability, will continue to
be made, but suggest a future based on the lessons of history may offer a degree of hope.
It remains to be seen if Pacific governments have yet learned these lessons.

GILL BURKE

8 Howard, Mining, 192.

CORRECTION

The Journal of Pacific History?Bibliography 199J item 580 should read: Hooper, A. and J. Huntsman
with Kelihiano Kalolo, The Tokelau language 1841-1991', JPS, 100:4 (1992), 343-72.

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