KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 24 — Terengganu Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Razif Abd Rahman denied today that a Chinese firm was awarded a lucrative deal to reopen the Bukit Besi mines through dubious means, saying instead that no such company even approached the state government for such an arrangement.
In a strongly worded statement here, Ahmad Razif said the claims, made by CAA Resources’ chairman and chief executive Li Yang in a New York Times (NYT) article last week, were “blatant lies”.
“The statement by Li Yang, who is said to be the chairman and chief executive, is totally baseless and contains blatant lies. I strongly deny the allegations,” he said.
He said his administration has not approved any deal to reopen the mines, whether directly with CAA Resources or via any other firm.
“The company has not dealt with any government department on the matter, whether the Land and Mines Office or the Terengganu Heritage Fund Board, which has been tasked with the duty of managing the former Bukit Besi mines,” Ahmad Razif said.
He added that the state government will take appropriate legal action against those responsible for spreading these “lies”.
Last week, Yang, a Chinese national, was reported telling the NYT in an article that his iron ore company CAA Resources was awarded a deal to reopen the Bukit Besi mines earlier this year.
He was also quoted telling the US-based daily that with the support of national leaders and the royalty, “you can do anything you want” in Malaysia.
“If you’ve got these two to support you, then you can do anything you want, because the natural resources are all controlled by them,” he was quoted saying by the widely-read American newspaper.
The article went on to claim that the China national had paid for each of the “ruling party politicians” with indirect stakes in the mines to receive the “Datuk” titles. Each title cost him some US$100,000 (RM330,000).
The NYT observed that although such agreements are deemed as corruption by some groups here, Yang said he was just following what he believed was a common practice in Malaysia.
Adding to that, Yang’s company has also circumvented a requirement to prepare an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for its operations by erecting an eight-foot-high corrugated-steel fence across the middle of the site and calling it two mines, the NYT wrote.
The paper said that as the size of each of CAA’s “two” mines is below 500 acres, there was no need for an EIA approval from local environmental regulators.
With licence in hand, the report said that CAA Resources is now clearing Bukit Besi, famously known as “Iron Hill”, which was once the site of the world’s largest iron ore mine.
In 1971, however, the mine was closed, reportedly due to depleting iron ore, bureaucracy and union troubles, and had remained somewhat idle for the next four decades.
But CAA Resources, having sidestepped local curbs, now sees potential in its “Iron Hill” investment, despite the plummeting global prices of iron ore.
After the article was picked up by the local press, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said it will investigate the allegations made by Yang and will seek to meet with the company chairman.
