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Prospecting The Treasure House (Himal)
Himal, Nepal.
BY | Carey L Biron
When Beijing heralded the opening of the new Qinghai-Lhasa train line in
early July last year, Tibetans, environmentalists and human-rights activists
across the globe worried in anticipation of the hoards of Han Chinese -
tourists and settlers alike - that would now be able to flood onto the 'roof
of the world'. When the project was originally announced in 2001, the
Dharamsala government-in-exile dubbed it a "disaster", for reasons of both
population influx and environmental damage. With around 4000 passengers now
riding the rails every day (in 1980, a fourth that number of tourists
visited during the whole year), those worries may indeed prove warranted.
But in fact, just as much emphasis should probably have been placed on what
the new 1965 km-long train tracks would be able to ship out.
In mid-February, Beijing published a report announcing the 'discovery' of an
estimated USD 128 billion worth of minerals in more than 600 sites in
Tibet - a result of a seven-year programme by more than a thousand surveyors
to geologically map the plateau. Their findings are large enough to astound:
a billion tonnes of iron ore, 40 million tonnes each of lead and copper.
Such a backyard stockpile would be a huge shot in the arm for the Chinese
economy, which has struggled increasingly in recent years to keep up with
domestic demand for raw minerals in the face of steeply rising international
prices. If the finds are as large as Beijing reports, they would double
China's current stores of lead, copper and zinc. Tibet's mineral wealth
seems to now justify the alluring traditional Chinese name for central
Tibet - Xizang, roughly translating to 'Western Treasure House'.
In the past, the focus has been on Tibet's oil reserves, which in 2005 were
estimated at roughly 10 billion tonnes - a tantalising lode for the world's
second-largest oil importer. But oil production in Tibet has remained low,
in part because Western oil companies - including Shell and BP - have faced
harsh public criticism in the West for any involvement. It is not clear how
quickly Beijing will move from prospecting to extraction of Tibet's ores; at
present, less than one percent of the discovered mining spots has been
explored.
The fact is that there simply has not been the infrastructure required to
move raw products out of the Tibetan hinterland in any kind of large-scale
process. While there are now two major pipeline projects working to bring
Tibetan oil to mainland China, construction on these only got underway in
2000 and 2002. Mineral transport, of course, is even more difficult an
undertaking. But with the opening of the Qinghai-Lhasa train line, as well
as the multitude of planned rail spurs and access roads, a major step has
been taken towards realising this goal. Indeed, cargo service along the
track was opened to business in March 2006 - a full four months before the
unveiling of the passenger service. Rail operators are charging just RMB
0.12 (USD 0.14) per kilometre to transport one tonne of cargo.
Ultimately, the flow of Tibet's mineral wealth may not be heading only
northeast to the mainland. A survey will be finalised in May for a 253-km
southward extension of the train track to Xigaze, located near the border
with India, Bhutan and Nepal. Construction is slated to begin as early as
July, just a year after the initial line opened. Utilising trains capable of
moving around 120 km per hour, the new track is slated to eventually carry
ten million tonnes of cargo per year. Meanwhile, Beijing has been making
increasingly louder noises over the past year about additional rail
connections directly to Nepal and India.
A colony's wages
As rich stocks of minerals are shipped out of Tibet, it looks as though
their concomitant wealth will follow. Even as critics warn about the impact
of Chinese strip-mining on the area's fragile ecosystem, others worry that
Beijing is acting more and more the colonist in Tibet. One recently arrived
refugee in Kathmandu noted in December that mining in the Yulung area has
indeed led to short-term economic benefits among the local nomad villages.
Each individual received initial compensation of RMD 40,000 (USD 5160) in
order to quell anger over the mining of a sacred mountain, reportedly with
more payments to come. (When large-scale extraction at Yulung began in 2005,
it was estimated that the area would produce nearly USD 260 million of
copper per year.) But the man also noted that, even with more than ten
loaded cargo trucks per day leaving the Yulung facility for the mainland,
there has been no further benefit to Tibetans. "No locals are allowed to go
into the mining area," he explains. "Nearly all the workers and officials
there are Chinese nowadays."
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