PHEONIX International [SI] Ltd personnel will be in Honiara later this week to begin work on an access road to Koleasi village, in the Sutikama Area of the upper Balasuna River, central Guadalcanal where the nation’s first alluvial mining operation is taking place.
This follows an earlier visit to Honiara two weeks ago by two other personnel deployed for a week to undertake survey work and costing of the direct road access.
This all-weather access road will connect directly to the areas that have been identified for building the main plant and subsequent ones.
Up to six mining plants are expected to be operating within 18 months.
While this is going on, New Zealand journalist, Tim Hume, this week dug up the past on Kelvyn Alp, the man whose revolutionary business approach to share profits on a 50/50 basis with resource owners is turning heads in Solomon Islands and keeping potential suitors in the mineral sector on their toes.
What the Sunday Star Times reporter probably did not take into account is the fact his “facts” were all written in the past tense – a mere exhumation of events of 10 years ago.
His opening paragraph in the article, for example, said it all. It read:
“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 [italics mine].
In the same article, he implied that because I had written extensively on Mr Alp’s approach and the Pheonix International [SI] Ltd, the company he has established as a vehicle to deliver his promises that I was in it for the money.
Both Mr Alp and I will respond briefly to these unwarranted accusations, which show only one thing: Outsiders don’t want to see the rural people of Solomon Islands progress beyond subsistence living and subservience.
Mr Alp, the founding managing director of Pheonix International [SI] Ltd fired the first salvo as a matter of correction. In an email to Mr Hume, this week, he [Mr. Alp] said:
“Hi Tim. I believe I stated to you previously that I usually do not care what someone writes about me so long as it is factual. Unfortunately, your article contains a number of inaccuracies that I would like corrected.
“FIRST: In the very first paragraph you make your first gross mistake that is damaging to me – “A former self-described mercenary who once “declared war” on the New Zealand government....” – this is false and easily proven to be false if you have had actually investigated the matter instead of doing the usual rehash of previously published information not substantiated. It was in FACT the Maori Government that made a Declaration of War to the New Zealand Government, not myself, nor the NZAIF.
“SECOND: I know of just one person that is upset with the way things are being run. That person went so far as to send a letter to the Solomon Star newspaper last year about his concerns – unfortunately, he too did not check his facts, and soon found out that he was wrong. AND while we are at it, he is NOT a major shareholder at all in any company I have a part of, or association with and is certainly NOT a shareholder in Pheonix International (SI) Limited. There are only two major shareholders, and neither of those shareholders are in anyway disgruntled,” Mr Alp said.
“THIRD: There are NO disaffected former Pheonix employees involved in any dissenting group in the Solomon Islands. One of the people involved was in FACT the former secretary of the Hokola Landowners Association who had his position terminated by the Chairman of the Association due to improper conduct.
“FOURTH: At no time did I visit the managing director of the BNZ dressed in military clothing. I made ONE visit to his house to ask if he would enter into mediation with a BNZ client that we were not even to be involved in.
“I even apologised for turning up slightly after 2100hrs that evening. I also made a phone call to his office the next day as a follow-up. Again, I see no one lets the facts get in the way of sensationalism. Something you stated that you are not about, however, the headline alone shows the opposite. This too can all be proven because the BNZ tried to have me done for Criminal harassment, but they failed in that bid. All a matter of public record,” he said.
“Notwithstanding the above blatant inaccuracies, I fail to comprehend why (as have other people that have rung me about the “hatchet job”), the need for the inclusion of so much unsubstantiated piffle,” Mr Alp said.
“You also stated in a sensationalist way that I am behind a bid, yet I already have full approval for and a mining licence to proceed with the mining operations.
“If any of the controversy was real (and obviously having 10 years of experience with the inner workings of that country to your limited and seemingly second-hand knowledge I would know a little more than you) then the legal mechanisms in place would have certainly seen either my expulsion from or continued criminal investigation of my activities in the Solomon Islands. As neither is the case, that paints a very different picture, does it not?” he said.
“The Company and I have complied with every requirement.
“We have provided all information requests asked of us by the Government in the lead up to where we currently are. I am sure that with the Solomon Islands Police Commissioner being a New Zealander, if there was any information that he considered to be “a threat to National Security”, he would have certainly acted on that information, would he not?
“So again, as I have previously stated and you have confirmed with your article, there seems to be no journalistic integrity left in New Zealand and this is the reason why I prefer to have all questions put in writing so at least facts are presented as opposed to spin,” Mr Alp said.
I have little to add to Mr Alp’s comments except to say that the majority of my articles were published even before I was paid for my work.
It reminds me of what Mr Alp told me when I first met him in Honiara about a year ago. He said then that his philosophy is to reward those who worked hard, instead of paying people upfront based on promises.
I found that to be true of Mr Alp and his action.
But money is not the motivation to “keep an eye” on Pheonix International [SI] Ltd and the man who’s driving it. Of course, at the end of the day, I too have to eat and a family to feed.
A good mark of a professional journalist is cynicism.
Cynicism drives me to follow the progress and look at everything about the company and the people behind it because I wanted to see if it was genuine.
All of my investigations to date, including a week’s visit to alluvial mining operations in New Zealand last year, have proven it to be just that.
Sure, Mr Alp had a past, but who in this world hasn’t?
As he puts it in his own words, “Yes, I have a past, but one I am proud of because I have always fought the unpopular battles and helped the underdog and I shall continue to do that regardless of the odds,” he said.
With the kind of sensational journalism we’ve seen from our cousins across the Tasman in the last ten years, it seems to confirm one thing.
Again, in his own words, Mr Alp said: “They are all shit scared that I will show a better and fairer way of doing things and show the people of the Solomons that they no longer have to settle for the crumbs that are left to them after their resources have been pillaged by others.
“I call them on their bullshit and again they go silent until the next time they are instructed to try and derail progress”.
By ALFRED SASAKO
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