Coal mines selling like hotcakes among power hungry Indian and Chinese companies

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Australian, Indonesian, and African Coal Mines Selling like Hot Cakes amongst Power Hungry Indian,Chinese Companies...


 Africa, Australia, China, Coal, Energy, Indonesia:

Coal Mines in Indonesia,Australia,Africa and North America are selling like hot cakes as Indian,Chinese companies as well as mining conglomerates like Rio Tinto,Vale,BHP Billiton fight to secure raw materials.Note India and China are consuming huge amounts of coal to power their thermal plants.While China consumes a monstrous 3 billion tons,Indian demand is rising at more than 10% a year though on a smaller base.Coal is the cheapest form of power despite its polluting and health hazardous affect.Though Coal Plants in Developed countries are becoming much more expensive to build due to taxes and opposition by environmental groups,there is no stopping their furious growth in countries like China and India.Though India too faces some environmental opposition,massive ultra mega power plants with capacity of 4000 MW are getting built by new Indian private utilities.

Acknowledgements: Abkishek Shah

Green World  Investor

http://greenworldinvestor.com/topics/world-markets

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/video/planet-100

www.facebook.com/green

http://ecospree.com

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Mount Aspiring believed to be under threat from the NZ National Government's mineral stocktake plans...

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Is the NZ Govt planning to mine Mt Aspiring?



 Claims that another national park could be opened up for mining have put the Nw Zealand Government under more pressure. It has recently been highly criticised for its general support for more mining on conservation estates around the country.



ONE News  obtained documents suggesting Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee is looking at allowing mining in the Mount Aspiring National Park, despite public assurances it remains a "no go" area.



"The government has, for its own reasons, decided that Kahurangi and Mount Aspiring are no-go areas," Brownlee had said back in March.



The recently obtained plans are on a government map that conservationists think show that it is under discussion for mining.



"These maps are drawn to close off permitting for this area because there is a survey being undertaken and therefore it suggests that the government does have an interest in mining these areas," says Quentin Duthie of Forest & Bird Society. Maps obtained suggest strong consideration for the Mount Aspiring National Park area, despite the government's denial. It is obvious that the New Zealand Government is deadly serious about raiding more of the country's highest value conservation lands over time.


The Government revealed a proposal back in March of this year, 2010, to remove 7000 hectares of  land from  Schedule 4 protection, but had said then that Mount Aspiring itself would remain protected. But it had posted a notice on its website that applications for mining large tracts of land - including Mount Aspiring National Park, and parts of other national parks - would be closed for the nextnine months while a mineral stocktake was carried out. This stocktake had now been carried out.

The website indicated the NZ Government's intentions were bigger than the public discussion paper disclosed. The Governmen's intentions were still not clear and above board. Forest & Bird would ask the government for more specific details.



The maps are on the website for the agency helping Brownlee with his minerals stocktake. The minister has declined interview requests today.



In March, Brownlee signed an official notice telling mining companies not to bother applying for permits in areas where his officials are about to spend $4 million assessing if there's enough gold and other minerals there to make it worth discussing mining potential. That notice includes Mount Aspiring.



"There is a chance that there is an innocent explanation. But it does seem that this matches government's earlier intentions to mine in this area so there could well be information that is being kept from the public here," says Duthie.



The minister's spokesman had denied this, saying that simply no-one in government thought it was worth ruling a more complicated line on the maps, and that the park remains off limits for mining.

Farewell to New Zealand's clean and green image - very likely "green activists" claim

A cash starved National Government considers allowing mining in Department of Conservation Estates in both North and South Island national parks. Will it be farewell to New Zealand's clean and green image? Opponents claim it could; the Green Party has actually produced a list of likely sites for potential exploitation. Mining and conservation are not great bedmates. Read further:

Green campaigners are not buying the Government line that there is nothing to fear in mining Department of Conservation (DOC) land.

The Green Party has produced a list of sites at threat of possible exploitation, while Greenpeace says the countryside is under attack, and it too is preparing for battle.

The Waituna Lagoon in Southland, the Aspiring National Park and Paparoa National Park on the West Coast, Kahurangi National Park at the top of the South Island and the whole of the Coromandel are all under threat.

Geoff Keey from Greenpeace is not buying the claim high value conservation land is not at risk - saying the country is under attack.

Greenpeace is concerned the DOC estate will be stripped.

"The very things we use to promote our clean green image - our national parks, our wildlife refuges, all the really important things, are under attack,” Mr Keey says.

But Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee has scotched such suggestions.

“No one would want to see those ripped up in anyway whatsoever,” he says.

Industry experts like Eddie Davis from Minerals West Coast say there is a middle ground for both mining and conservation.

“I think everybody in our industry is for that type of thing but we just need trade-offs. Don't stop one for the sake of the other,” Mr Davis says.

“What I really want to do is get DOC and Crown Minerals talking to each other rather than over top of each other,” says Mr Brownlee.

Pike River mine in Greymouth is being held up as a shining example of sustainability in action.

When the coal is exhausted in a few decades time, the entire operation will be dismantled and the site returned to the forest.

Mr Brownlee says the recently created Oteaki Park in Southland is another indication of what is possible.

"We kept out of that park 200h because there might at some point some mineral value that could be readily accessed on that little bit of it,” he says.

However, Greens co-leader Russel Norman is not convinced.

“National parks are national treasures, and any government that threatens to destroy those national treasures by mining is betraying future generations,” he says.

"Mining is not compatible with conservation...it doesn't work together,” adds Mr Keey.

Greenpeace are demanding answers from the mining industry about the proposed mining in national parks.