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Tuesday, July 8, 2008 - Web posted at 7:33:40 AM GMT

Ministry of Mines 'allowed cribbing'

JOHN GROBLER
SOMEONE in the office of the Mining Commissioner allowed one mining company to plagiarise the application of another mining company, it was claimed in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday.

Senior Counsel FH Odendaal charged that Ancash - Zackey Nujoma's junior partner company to Canadian miner Forsys, which owns the Klein Trekkopje uranium concession - blatantly plagiarised Black Range Mining's (BRM) application.

Worse, whoever did the "copying and pasting" of BRM's application for a uranium exploration licence had misread the data so badly that they had applied Reefton's budgetary estimates for exploration costs for a specific area to completely another one, Odendaal told Acting Judge John Manyarara.

Odendaal's charges came during an application brought by Erongo Nuclear Fuels - a joint venture between ex-unionist Ranga Haikali and BRM - to have the awarding of an exclusive prospecting licence (EPL) to Ancash in October 2005 over the Hakskeen property set aside.

The Ministry of Mines and Energy in effect has admitted that BRM's application had been plagiarised.

However apart from admitting that there was a problem with security at Mining Commissioner Erasmus Shivolo's office, did not appear to take any steps to address it, it was argued before court.

The alleged plagiarism occurred at a time when the totally unknown Ancash, an off-the-shelf company controlled at that time by Zackey Nefungo Nujoma, had lodged its own application - just as a huge rush for uranium properties broke out in Namibia in the wake of rising oil prices in 2005.

The original owner of BRM, Reefton Mining NL of Australia, had lodged an application during this same period (September 2005) to have nuclear fuels included as part of its Hakskeen exploration licences, Odendaal earlier told the court.

But questions over the authenticity of the find, and a sudden huge rise in Reefton's share price, saw Reefton's application rejected without due procedure by the Ministry, Odendaal said.

Instead, the uranium rights to Hakskeen were instead awarded to Ancash in a manner that raised very serious questions over the conduct of the Mining Commissioner's office, Odendaal submitted.

Comparison of BRM's application and that of Ancash brought to light several such paragraphs in the Ancash application that were lifted "word for word" from BRM's own, Odendaal charged.

Ancash's application was completely deficient and was "word for word the same" as BRM's own application, he said, making it clear that something was seriously amiss at the office of the Mining Commissioner, a position still held by Erasmus Shivolo since then.

"Why did no one notice the glaring, inexplicable examples of plagiarism?" Odendaal demanded to know, arguing that it showed serious bias on the part of Shivolo and the Ministry in bypassing all the checks and balances contained in the Minerals and Exploration Act in awarding the claim to Ancash.

Minister Errki Ngimtina's answer that it was someone in his office who committed these blatant violations of confidentiality but that he personally was not responsible, were also totally unacceptable, he argued.

The only inference that could be drawn was that there was something serious and deliberately wrong at the Ministry - or that the authorities were simply turning a blind eye to what was happening at the time, Odendaal submitted.

The case continues today.

* John Grobler is a freelance journalist; 081 240 1587"

Bloody brilliant isn't it? Someone has got caught with their sticky finger in the pie methinks. I am moving this to perhaps a short term now!

Looking forward to today's hearing report.