cazaly still wants an iron ore inquiry

Cazaly still wants an iron ore inquiry
Kevin Andrusiak
March 02, 2007

CAZALY Resources remains adamant there should be a parliamentary inquiry into the West Australian iron ore industry, despite the idea being sullied by the actions of Brian Burke, as revealed in the Corruption and Crime Commission.
Mr Burke, who has been linked to Cazaly, admitted this week that he had tried to influence former state Liberal MP Anthony Fels to try to instigate an inquiry into the iron ore industry, after former resources minister John Bowler controversially stripped the junior miner of the Shovelanna tenement in the Pilbara.
Mr Fels has since been sacked as a shadow minister.

Cazaly managing director Clive Jones said yesterday that the idea of an inquiry was still relevant, especially as the decision was taken on an unwritten policy that overrode the WA Mining Act.

It came on a day when Cazaly learnt its subpoenas of Rio Tinto boss Leigh Clifford, its iron ore division head Sam Walsh and Mr Bowler to appear before a judicial review into the Shovelanna decision had been terminated.

The judicial review is slated to begin on March 18. But should Cazaly win, there is no guarantee the state Government will return the lease back to the junior miner.

Cazaly wanted to question the trio over the decision last April to grant the lucrative tenement back to Rio Tinto, despite Cazaly lawfully pegging the ground after Rio forgot to renew its exploration licence.

Mr Jones also backed a call by a mining industry body to review all of Mr Bowler's decisions while he was minister, in the wake of his sacking from Cabinet for leaking sensitive information to Mr Burke and Julian Grill.

"The fact is we have an unwritten iron ore policy in Western Australia when we believed we were right in acting under the auspice of the state Mining Act," Mr Jones said.

"It is a secret policy the state government has used. Clearly now there are a lot of unanswered questions."

Rio Tinto reiterated yesterday that it never engaged the services of the disgraced lobbyists Mr Burke and Mr Grill. A spokesman told The Australian yesterday the company had no need to use services of external lobbyists.

The spokesman added the Shovelanna decision was still before the court.

Cazaly shares closed down 4.5c to 66.5c.