A FORMER self-described mercenary who once "declared war" on the New Zealand government has been creating controversy with plans to start a gold mine in the troubled Solomon Islands.
Aucklander Kelvyn Alp, the one-time head of the "Armed Intervention Force", a maverick group of former soldiers which styled itself as the paramilitary wing of a separatist Maori government, is the managing director of Pheonix International, which plans to open the Solomon Islands' second alluvial gold mine on Guadalcanal.
Pheonix's proposal – in particular, its promise to split profits with landowners on an unprecedented 50/50 basis – has generated great excitement in the strife-torn Pacific state, where economic growth is stagnant and an Anzac-led military taskforce has been present since 2003 to prevent a resurgence of ethnic conflict.
But the mining project – which, if successful, would become one of the country's major industries – has been beset with difficulties, and New Zealand investors in the project are upset.
"We're all pretty disgusted really," said one major shareholder, who did not want to be named. Shareholders, whom he estimated had pumped $3 million into the venture, were concerned that they had not been adequately informed about difficulties in the Solomons, and that potential future investors had been deterred by Alp's involvement. "He wants total control. We're all idiots in his eyes."
Pheonix International obtained a mining licence last year amid controversy, with the head of the Solomon Islands National Union of Workers, Tony Kagovai, labelling Alp a "shady and dangerous character", and criticising the Solomon Islands government for failing to properly vet the company, which has no previous mining experience.
Since then, cracks have appeared in the agreements with customary landowners on the proposed site, with one group vowing to deny Pheonix access, due to speculation Alp may be a "threat to... national security and sovereignty".
Alp said the opposition was being fomented by a group of rival businessmen which was trying to persuade landowners to break their contracts in order to get access to the gold. The group had laid false complaints to Solomon Islands police that Alp had been attempting to bribe locals. But he was confident that contracts with landowners would hold, and said the dissenting group was led by a disaffected former Pheonix employee.
Pheonix has fought back with its own PR offensive, paying a journalist and former Solomon Islands government minister a retainer to write a series of glowing articles on Alp. One feature, based on the journalist's visit to Alp's family home, described the businessman as "an oasis of hope in a world full of greed and self-centredness", and his family as "a beacon of hope and a lighthouse for the common good".
Alp came to attention in 2000 as the face of the Armed Intervention Force, described as "an odd mix of white supremacists and Maori radicals" which had threatened a series of attacks to eliminate what Alp called "the enforcement arm of the settler government down in Wellington". He told a magazine he had been recruited after leaving the New Zealand Army, then given months of military training by former SAS instructors, before carrying out a mercenary "special ops" mission in an unspecified Pacific nation, in which one man was lost. The group issued its own "Maori passports", which Alp used to travel to the Solomon Islands.
In 2001, Alp led a campaign of threats against the then managing director of the BNZ, involving night-time visits to his home dressed in military clothing. He later formed the Direct Democracy Party, for which National Front leader Kyle Chapman stood as a candidate.
Alp said progress on the mining venture had stalled for months as Pheonix had refused to make payments to secure an import tax exemption on heavy mining machinery. "The one thing that seems to piss a lot of people off is I do not pay bribes," he said. "But regardless of whether we get exemptions or not, we're going ahead."
He expected to have up to six mining sites operating within 18 months.
Prospecting suggests there may be 1.3 million kg of gold in the 50sqkm concession, although proven reserves were smaller.
"I believe it will be one of the biggest alluvial deposits around, and in concentrated form," he said. "You go anywhere in the claim, take a panning dish, shake it out – you'll find bits of gold."
Simeon Tonavi, chairman of the landowners' association on the site, said locals were not troubled by Alp's background.
"We're focusing on the benefits Kelvyn is putting forward." – First published in Sunday Star Times
By TIM HUME
Sunday Star Times
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