NIUE PREMIER: AUSSIE MINING TEAM LEFT US HIGH AND DRY
Date: 25 January 2007
The premier of Niue has today lashed out at the two Australian businessmen who convinced him that the island was rich with mineral deposits.
Young Vivian says the entrepreneurs raised the expectations of locals and if they're proven to have done wrong, then they deserve to be punished.
More stories emerged today about the various mining teams and excavators who've made their way to the coral atoll in pursuit of minerals in the last two decades.
The two Australians caught up in this investigation did their report in 2005 and were up in Niue "drilling test sites" last year.
There was a lot of excitement locally and internationally as the thought of wealth was held up under the noses of locals.
Today, a former premier, Sani Lakatani, told NiuFm other mining teams came knocking on his door with "get rich mineral stories" as well.
Lakatani says Niue is seen as a Banana Republic and that its leaders need to be careful about the advice given to them.
The former premier says the mineral stories go back to the seventies when they were first drilling for water and when a geologist told locals there was a high chance Niue could yield gold and silver and other minerals.
Lakatani says a geologist at that time did some preliminary drilling and told him he needed six hundred thousand dollars to complete his tests to prove conclusively there were minerals to be found.
Young Vivian says he received sound advice and that despite the current controversy he still believes that there's untapped wealth under Niue soil.
No comments:
Post a Comment