Australian gold miner hit with Thai encroachment charge

By The Nation

 

File photo

 

Thai authorities will charge Akara Resources with encroaching on state forest, in the latest twist to a longstanding legal dispute with the Australian gold miner.

 

The Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division on Thursday accused Akara’s Chatree gold mine of encroachment, unauthorised exploitation and destruction of more than 73 rai of public land in Phichit and Petchabun provinces. 

 

The junta government shuttered the provinces’ Chatree mine – the largest gold pit in the country – on January 1, 2017 following allegations it was polluting the surrounding countryside.

 

Division chief Pol Maj-General Pitak Uthaitham said the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) had collected enough evidence to prosecute Akara under the Forest Act and Highway Act. 

 

The DSI has also sent evidence to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) that illegal changes were made to Akara’s mining plan in order to benefit private companies in 2016.

 

A total of 15 new cases against Akara, based on evidence from the Royal Forest Department, will be forwarded to Central Investigation Police Headquarters, Pitak added. 

 

He insisted that the cases would not affect ongoing arbitration talks between the Thai government and Akara.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30396279

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-10-16

 

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Looks like someone hasn't got their palm greased?

Those Chatree barsteeds want another 500.000 rai starting with the hill next to our village Kho Kheow going South towards Ban Nam Om in Phetchabun province.  This area includes family land.  Including Aunties and Uncle about 450 rai.  60 rai is our family of which 20 rai is Tiks when mar departs.  But after seeing the problems with Phichit mine the locals here are fighting back.  If the miner wins we can say goodbye to air quality, our water supply and something of a pieceful existence...as well as a huge chunk of land and the livelihood derived from it.

1 hour ago, Grumpy John said:

Those Chatree barsteeds want another 500.000 rai starting with the hill next to our village Kho Kheow going South towards Ban Nam Om in Phetchabun province.  This area includes family land.  Including Aunties and Uncle about 450 rai.  60 rai is our family of which 20 rai is Tiks when mar departs.  But after seeing the problems with Phichit mine the locals here are fighting back.  If the miner wins we can say goodbye to air quality, our water supply and something of a pieceful existence...as well as a huge chunk of land and the livelihood derived from it.

Thanks! Nice to read a post from someone that lives with the problem and knows what´s going on. Not just quick-smart comments like the one above yours.

Edited October 15, 20205 yr by Matzzon

3 hours ago, daveAustin said:

Looks like someone hasn't got their palm greased?

Really? Did they complain to you or request your help?

Yeah i have a handful of customers who lost their farms and land from Chatree one was a glorious organic Mango orchard...and as usually got paid Below market price.

This should have nothing to do with the lawsuit~it is likely fictitious anyway.  So, all of these years, and not one inspector noticed all of this land was being used?  It's very obvious that they know they are going to lose the arbitration case, and they are going to try to use Thai law to foil it.  I don't know much about international agreements, but I doubt the arbitration has anything to do with this "stealing" public land.  In any case, they have the land back, and it has gold on it.

Edited October 16, 20205 yr by Redline

The international court case was about alleged cyanide? in the water table. The company will possibly win that. This would appear to be a diversion or negotiating tactic. There are 3 sides to this, the company, the locals and the Thai authorities. There is no doubt some skullduggery involved, probably on all sides.

23 minutes ago, Bluetongue said:

The international court case was about alleged cyanide? in the water table. The company will possibly win that. This would appear to be a diversion or negotiating tactic. There are 3 sides to this, the company, the locals and the Thai authorities. There is no doubt some skullduggery involved, probably on all sides.

Yes, seems they are looking for some leverage. It will most likely backfire on them. Why on earth would any reputable international company do business with these guys?

The leader ( prayut) offerd the company and meaningful other benefits if they drop the case. The leader ist clever because meaningful other benefits will not be in the government books compare two Cash compensation.

Ist der Gutbier Cash compensation the next government could  make him personal responsability and into jail ,same he done to previous people before.

 

But what him that meaningful other benefits with other word anything outside the book or call it corruption would not appear in the books

 

kingsgate rejected. And brought the case to the International Court. Thais and especially prayut lose their face.

Typical Thai :  in return they try to find Any absurd claims  to sue them or give up the case .

 

I hope one day the  next government charge prijut in Person for the useless loos and the damage financily  to the government when the case is lost. becaus  it happened only because him lose his face

 

mr kirk  go on you done a great job not to agree do any deal with this <deleted> government and especially mr prajut

 

I am sure kingsgate will win the case but winning the case not means that you go back to business as usual in Thailand

8 hours ago, Grumpy John said:

Those Chatree barsteeds want another 500.000 rai starting with the hill next to our village Kho Kheow going South towards Ban Nam Om in Phetchabun province.  This area includes family land.  Including Aunties and Uncle about 450 rai.  60 rai is our family of which 20 rai is Tiks when mar departs.  But after seeing the problems with Phichit mine the locals here are fighting back.  If the miner wins we can say goodbye to air quality, our water supply and something of a pieceful existence...as well as a huge chunk of land and the livelihood derived from it.

How could they possibly be allowed to exploit half a million rai of land? 

2 minutes ago, PETERTHEEATER said:

How could they possibly be allowed to exploit half a million rai of land? 

TiT.

There are maps that go back 100 years covering virtually all of Thailand. 

 

Easy to look at them and prove that agreed boundaries have been ignored. With any luck the actual dates could be pin-pointed. Who was pulling the strings in this district at a given time. Seems easily sorted to me.

9 hours ago, Grumpy John said:

Those Chatree barsteeds want another 500.000 rai starting with the hill next to our village Kho Kheow going South towards Ban Nam Om in Phetchabun province.  This area includes family land.  Including Aunties and Uncle about 450 rai.  60 rai is our family of which 20 rai is Tiks when mar departs.  But after seeing the problems with Phichit mine the locals here are fighting back.  If the miner wins we can say goodbye to air quality, our water supply and something of a pieceful existence...as well as a huge chunk of land and the livelihood derived from it.

There are hills in Phichit? Like how tall, 2m? Phichit is a pancake flat province that floods every year. 

2 hours ago, lapamita said:

The leader ( prayut) offerd the company and meaningful other benefits if they drop the case. The leader ist clever because meaningful other benefits will not be in the government books compare two Cash compensation.

Ist der Gutbier Cash compensation the next government could  make him personal responsability and into jail ,same he done to previous people before.

 

But what him that meaningful other benefits with other word anything outside the book or call it corruption would not appear in the books

 

kingsgate rejected. And brought the case to the International Court. Thais and especially prayut lose their face.

Typical Thai :  in return they try to find Any absurd claims  to sue them or give up the case .

 

I hope one day the  next government charge prijut in Person for the useless loos and the damage financily  to the government when the case is lost. becaus  it happened only because him lose his face

 

mr kirk  go on you done a great job not to agree do any deal with this <deleted> government and especially mr prajut

 

I am sure kingsgate will win the case but winning the case not means that you go back to business as usual in Thailand

Yes I think it goes both ways. Apparently Akara wanted too much land, forcing many villagers out of their livelihoods and unable to earn a living or be able to enjoy a similar lifestyle elsewhere due to being paid below market price.

 

On the other hand, Akara, an Australian company has a strict anti-bribery policy and does not negotiate terms and conditions or business styles to correspond to Thai or Asian ways. Business is done professionally the western way or it's the highway. 

 

I know their attitude. 

 

That stated, the Thai government appears to be clutching at straws here. I think both parties need to let go of their egos. The Thai government needs to end this nonsense, because it will discourage future foreign investment, not just in the mining sector but overall. It could come to bite them in the ass.

 

Akara needs to be a little more flexible - by all means try to recover what they are being owed according to the contract but then leave it at that. 

22 hours ago, Bluetongue said:

The international court case was about alleged cyanide? in the water table. The company will possibly win that. This would appear to be a diversion or negotiating tactic. There are 3 sides to this, the company, the locals and the Thai authorities. There is no doubt some skullduggery involved, probably on all sides.

I cannot speak for the PhiChit anti-miners who have done nothing but be helpful to our village but to suggest there Is some impropriety on their part is distasteful to me.  Like our village they probably have to scrape the money together to get on with the protest.   Recently 11

from our village had to go to Bangkok to a hearing and meetings which cost 40.000 baht.  About half the money was raised by cutting down trees with volunteer labour and the wood sold to the wood merchant.  No brown envelopes where seen or heard of!  Our village will be in big trouble if the miners win...

The whole gold mining industry is total bs industry.  Encroaching and ripping up land everywhere just to find a metal people in the world in 99.999 % of the cases use as bling on their bodies.  Put the whole business down everywhere in the world as it is today.    Let people wash gold in rivers the old way with a pan if they want. 

Edited October 17, 20205 yr by GeilGeilertzen

21 hours ago, owl sees all said:

There are maps that go back 100 years covering virtually all of Thailand. 

 

Easy to look at them and prove that agreed boundaries have been ignored. With any luck the actual dates could be pin-pointed. Who was pulling the strings in this district at a given time. Seems easily sorted to me.

That didn't work too well at Preah Vihear. 

20 hours ago, TheFreqFlyer said:

There are hills in Phichit? Like how tall, 2m? Phichit is a pancake flat province that floods every year. 

The article mentions land in Phichit and Petchabun provinces. Looking at Google maps, there are a number hilly areas that straddle the border between those two provinces, and more generally in the eastern part of Phichit province.

On 10/16/2020 at 6:28 AM, Grumpy John said:

Those Chatree barsteeds want another 500.000 rai starting with the hill next to our village Kho Kheow going South towards Ban Nam Om in Phetchabun province.  This area includes family land.  Including Aunties and Uncle about 450 rai.  60 rai is our family of which 20 rai is Tiks when mar departs.  But after seeing the problems with Phichit mine the locals here are fighting back.  If the miner wins we can say goodbye to air quality, our water supply and something of a pieceful existence...as well as a huge chunk of land and the livelihood derived from it.

 

21 hours ago, TheFreqFlyer said:

Yes I think it goes both ways. Apparently Akara wanted too much land, forcing many villagers out of their livelihoods and unable to earn a living or be able to enjoy a similar lifestyle elsewhere due to being paid below market price.

 

On the other hand, Akara, an Australian company has a strict anti-bribery policy and does not negotiate terms and conditions or business styles to correspond to Thai or Asian ways. Business is done professionally the western way or it's the highway. 

 

I know their attitude. 

 

That stated, the Thai government appears to be clutching at straws here. I think both parties need to let go of their egos. The Thai government needs to end this nonsense, because it will discourage future foreign investment, not just in the mining sector but overall. It could come to bite them in the ass.

 

Akara needs to be a little more flexible - by all means try to recover what they are being owed according to the contract but then leave it at that. 

Not much in the way of minerals without encroaching on Royal estates , Hill tribe people and national parks in Thailand , I think Thailand as far as mining is concerned is now a no go country. I looked at it years ago, I wasn't prepared to part with half a million in gratitude money. Sovereign risk has a big question mark hanging over it. 

I'm not sure Akara did anything wrong. Most of the villagers - but not all - benefited greatly by the mine being open.  As it was profitable and popular it attracted the attention of politically connected Thai people who wanted a cut of the money. (Thailand is still a mafia state). As they were not paid off, the baseless accusations and fearmongering were levelled against the company.

Like contaminated groundwater - those chemicals are not even used in gold mining operations but are in agriculture - and bribing claims (they've been investigated and cleared of that before),  then an attempt by a politically connected Thai businessman to buy out the mining company for pennies, now this ridiculous accusation they are trying to steal land. For what it's worth - I've actually communicated with one of the directors of the parent company - I suspect behind the scenes negotiation that to avoid a highly publicized billion dollar payout, the government offered them a zero dollar settlement and to reopen and operate as normal. However, this fails to address financial damage to the company from the many years of closure. Kingsgate may have asked in return for an expansion of the mine exploration area. Now I'm guessing on that last point, but I'm pretty sure that Kingsgate operate to the letter of the law so suggestions of land encroachment seem ridiculous because they've been operating in the same are for 20 years.

 

At the end of the day, all of this is a distraction used by the government as a last ditch attempt to try to reduce their billion dollar liability that is likely to result from a lost arbitration ruling and massive losing of face in front of the Thai media

20 hours ago, GroveHillWanderer said:

The article mentions land in Phichit and Petchabun provinces. Looking at Google maps, there are a number hilly areas that straddle the border between those two provinces, and more generally in the eastern part of Phichit province.

Yes sir, mounds in the ground qualify as hills.  Looking North. I am over at the Blue marker in the Earth pix.  Kho Kheow is a bit bigger mound in the ground than the Phichit mounds! The picture is looking South from the upstairs landing...in the rain!  The area in question re: new development is roughly the red area circled in.

On 10/17/2020 at 10:57 AM, Grumpy John said:

I cannot speak for the PhiChit anti-miners who have done nothing but be helpful to our village but to suggest there Is some impropriety on their part is distasteful to me.  Like our village they probably have to scrape the money together to get on with the protest.   Recently 11

from our village had to go to Bangkok to a hearing and meetings which cost 40.000 baht.  About half the money was raised by cutting down trees with volunteer labour and the wood sold to the wood merchant.  No brown envelopes where seen or heard of!  Our village will be in big trouble if the miners win...

I did not suggest any impropietry on their behalf. However many locals are aware of "black" gold mining operations in the area. Totally illegal, environmentally extremely disturbing, physically dangerous and more than likely under the control of criminals. To completely ignore this (which could easily be the source of alleged contamination) and allied with the dodgy attempted purchase of Kingsgate by London spivs connected to powerful Thais is the skullduggery to which I refer. Some powerful locals are no doubt in on it, they want the gold, and you will be a lot worse off if it is allowed to happen.