Castillo Copper Limited's Jackadgery Project: has spinning the truth already begun?

On 15 September 2018 The Daily Examiner reported that:

Concerns  about the health of the Mann and Clarence rivers have been raised by community members following explorations by Castillo Copper at Cangai, near the historic copper mine….

It’s the high grade of the finding that has some community members concerned, with the prospect of a mine opening in the area becoming more likely.

At a meeting attended by about 20 people, NSW Parliament Greens candidate for the Clarence Greg Clancy and John Edwards from the Clarence Valley Environment Centre explained their concerns with mining so close to the river.

After having trouble getting in contact with Castillo through its website, Mr Edwards took his inquiries about the exploration to the mining regulator.

“I got an email from their managing director … and he said they were just out there doing some investigation and it wasn’t very much to worry about,” he said.

But this has not eased his concerns about the future of the Clarence Valley’s rivers.

“It would be good to get out there and see what they are actually doing,” he said.

“They’ve been talking up their exploration finds to date … maybe that is to just get investors’ money, but it’s certainly in a bad position where the river is and where all this siltation and run-off and toxic crap that runs off when they mine copper, silver...

“It’s not going to be easy for them when they are at the top of a hill overlooking a river.”

Mr Clancy said the group would need to get more information so they could understand exactly how the ore would be mined.

“There is loss of vegetation and threatened species on the hill. This is going to be an open cut mine … and the water table may not be up there, but once they’ve got an open cut mine it will gather water and they have to use water in the process to get the minerals out.

“They will be creating their own artificial ponds and we would have to explore this further, but I know with (extracting) gold they use arsenic.

“There are a whole range of chemicals they could be using. Whatever projections they are supposed to use, they often don’t work.”

The group is planning to do more research and attempt to make contact with the company before they hold another meeting in one month’s time at the Grafton library.

[my yellow bolding]

Castillo Copper Limited (ASX:CCZ) is a West Australian base metal explorer listed on the stock exchange which has four subsidiaries:

Castillo Copper Chile Spa, Total Minerals Pty Ltd, Queensland Commodities Pty Ltd  and Total Iron Pty Ltd.

Castillo Copper Limited holds three mining exploration leases as part of its Jackadgery Project:

EL 8625 (1992) 17-Jul-2017 17-Jul-2020 35 UNITS About 43 km WNW of GRAFTON TOTAL MINERALS PTY LTD est. at 155 km2

EL 8635 (1992) 21-Aug-2017 21-Aug-2020 52 UNITS About 41 km WNW of GRAFTON TOTAL IRON PTY LTD

EL 8601 (1992)  21-Jun-2017 21-Jun 2020 51 UNITS About 38 km SE of DRAKE QUEENSLAND COMMODITIES PTY LTD.

Castillo Copper is not characterising its activities on these leases as "just doing some investigation".

In fact it is indicating to its shareholders and the stock exchange that the company has clear intentions to mine at the old Cangai Mine site before the end of the exploration on these leases:

* “Road to fast-track production taking shape”

* “Preliminary metallurgical test-work on samples from the two McDonough’s stockpiles, along the line of lode, has demonstrated the ore can be beneficiated materially….. Discussions continue with prospective off-take partners interested in processing ore as relevant information comes to hand …. Meanwhile, the geology team have approached the regulator for guidance on the optimal way forward to remove the stockpiles from site and capture the economic benefits”

* “…they are an asset and could potentially generate early cashflow”

* “The clear options are third party processing locally or a direct shipping ore product once regulatory clearance is secured”.

 Castillo Copper Limited images

So who are the people behind Castillo Copper Limited?

Well, the board is composed of:

Peter Francis Meagher, company director since 2 February 2018, from East Freemantle, West Australia - position Chairman;

Peter Smith, on the board as but not officially listed as a director of Castillo Copper Limited - position Non-Executive Director; and

Alan David Stephen Armstrong, company director since 1 August 2017, from Canning Vale West Australia - position Executive Director.

Listed company director who is not included at https://www.castillocopper.com/board/ is:

Neil Armstrong Hutchinson. company director since 1 August 2017, from Double View, Western Australia - position previously reported to be Technical Executive Director at Castillo Copper Limited since August 1, 2017. by Bloomberg.

NOTE; All three listed company directors appear to be shareholders in this miming company.

Castillo Copper Limited's Top 20 shareholders as of 20 September 2017 were:

Castillo Copper Limited Annual Report 2016-17

Will Dutton face the High Court?

On 23 August 2018 sixty-nine members of the Turnbull Coalition Government voted down a Labor motion to refer the Minister for Home Affairs and MP for Dickson, Peter Dutton, to the Court of Disputed Returns.

Included in this sixty-nine was Peter Dutton himself and most of the forty-five MPs who a day later refused to support Dutton's second leadership bid, as well as some reported to now be keeping their options open concerning referral to the Court. 

It seems that another motion is being prepared and there is no guarantee that the vote would go Dutton's way in a Morrison Coalition Government. 

News.com.au, 15 September 2018:

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has been dealt another legal blow as constitutional law expert Anne Twomey says her advice for his referral to the High Court is "stronger" than ever.

Professor Twomey told The Australian the Solicitor-General's opinion brings up information about funding for the child care centres owned by Mr Dutton's family trust which "raised considerably the risk of disqualification" under section 44 of the constitution.

This new assessment comes after Julie Bishop called for "clarity" over Mr Dutton's eligibility and backed former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull's calls for his referral.

Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen told reporters in Sydney on Saturday that it was "very important" that Mr Dutton be referred.

"I see one of Australia's most eminent constitutional lawyers, Anne Twomey, suggesting today that the case for the reference to the High Court has been increased, is now stronger," he said.

Mr Bowen wouldn't say if and when Labor would make a second attempt to move a motion to refer Mr Dutton to the High Court, only that "we'll keep our options open."

A Labor motion for a referral was defeated by just one vote on August 23.

Ms Bishop hasn't ruled out crossing the floor to support the motion, saying if a vote was called: "I will make up my mind at that time".

Crossbenchers Cathy McGowan and Rebekha Sharkie told The Conversation on Wednesday that they would vote for a referral.

Ms McGowan said, "it should be done quickly and efficiently and effectively and sorted out."

"I think it's taking up a huge amount of space in parliament at the moment," she said."

According to The Saturday Paper, Mr Dutton only absented from one cabinet discussion on child care, despite having regularly declared his family investments.

A spokesperson for Mr Dutton said: "The minister has complied with the Statement of Ministerial Standards and the Cabinet Handbook. Suggestions to the contrary are false".

News.com.au, 15 September 2018:

The Greens are preparing a vote in parliament to check Home Affairs minister's eligibility over questions about his family financial interest in two childcare centres.

A similar motion failed by just one vote on Malcolm Turnbull's second last day as prime minister.

"I have taken advice in relation to my position, which put the question beyond doubt," Mr Dutton told parliament on Thursday.

Section 44 of the constitution disqualifies anyone who has a "direct or indirect pecuniary interest" in any agreement with the Commonwealth.

Childcare centres now get direct funding from the Commonwealth, which is then passed through to parents.

"Every day he continues on in this place there's going to be a huge cloud over him and over the government," Greens leader Richard Di Natale told reporters on Friday.

Greens MP Adam Bandt has been speaking to Liberal MPs about voting to refer Mr Dutton to the High Court, and the Greens believe support is rising.....

At the height of the Liberal leadership crisis, Solicitor General Stephen Donaghue advised he could not categorically determine Mr Dutton's status and only the High Court could.

However Mr Donaghue found on balance Mr Dutton was "not incapable" of sitting as an MP.....

A News Corp report on Friday claimed two government MPs are considering voting with Labor in forcing Mr Dutton to the High Court.

The report understands the rogue MPs are planning to use the threat of crossing the floor to force Mr Morrison to refer Mr Dutton to the High Court.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he won't act on Mr Turnbull's advice.

He's also checking whether Mr Dutton stepped out of cabinet when the childcare funding changes were discussed.

The Scott Morrison Social Media Experience in 2018: expletives deleted

"QT was on fire today 🔥 Good work, team. https://t.co/M6UWcQO0HU"

Three hours after he posted this tweet on 13 September 2018, Australian Prime Minister and Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison deleted it;

Some hours later he apologised for the profanity included in the Fat Man Scoop "Be Faithful" hip hop song, part of which he had embedded in video of that afternoon's HoR Question Time - pleading ignorance.

Remove that dodgy tweet from his Twitter account he may have, but the twitterverse being faster than Morrison's digits meant there was still an echo left on that social media platform:

Good morning!
The prime minister deleted a tweet while you were asleep because it contained a song about fucking tonight. pic.twitter.com/oRxrIJi8aP

— BuzzFeedOz Politics (@BuzzFeedOzPol) September 13, 2018

The reason why the government benches were conspicuous for so many arms upstretched in unison in the video is because, in true tent revival-style, Morrison was asking his colleagues to raise their hands:

I'll ask those on this side of the House: who's ever run a small business here? Here we go! Who's ever worked in the private sector here? Here we go! Who's been a police officer here? Here we go! We've got a police officer up the back. Who is a farmer on this side of the House? We've got some farmers over here. We've got medical practitioners. Who has ever served in the Australian defence forces on this side of the House? The Liberal-National Party is the party of ordinary, everyday Australians going out there every day, having a go and getting a go.

For the record here is the musical choice he doesn't want you to associate with him.....




"Who F#ckin Tonight? Who F#ckin tonight?
Who F#ckin Tonight? Oh!Oh! Who F#ckin tonight?
Who f#ckin Tonight? Who F#ckin Tonight? Oh!Oh!
Stop Playin, Keep It Movin! Stop playin, keep it movin!
Stop playin, keep it movin! Keep movin movin movin movin!
Hey sing along!" [Fat Man Scoop's "Be Faithfull"]

I'm still wondering which age demographic he was trying to impress. Particularly as these lyrics appear to have originally been penned in 1999.

I am also curious as to why the Prime Minister of Australia chose to ignore the conditions imposed on use of footage of parliamentary proceedings.

In particular 15.12(c) broadcast material may not be digitally manipulated.

As for why the reason Morrison gave for deleting his tweet changed in the following days from inappropriate lyrics to being in breach of parliament's rules on use of video footage, well that is anyone's guess.

A sign of increasing desperation on Australian Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton's part?

After threatening to bring into the House of Representatives files he kept on members of parliament when he Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Minister for Home Affairs and Liberal MP for Dickson Peter Dutton made sure two particular files were very visible on 11 September 2018.

Images found on Twitter

After he quoted from these files the Opposition requested that they be tabled. A request Dutton refused.

The SPEAKER: The memberfor McMahon on a point of order? Mr Bowen: The minister appeared to be quoting from documents in two folders. Could I ask him to table both folders? TheSPEAKER: Does the minister have confidential material with him? Mr DUTTON: Yes.

Watching these files deployed prior to and during Question Time, in what looked suspiciously like a form of visual intimidation, did little to enhance Dutton's defence of his own actions as immigration minister in 2015.

Quote of the Week

“Real power is – I don’t even want to use the word – fear”  [Then presidential candidate Donald J. Trump in a 31 March 2016 interview with Bob Woodward and Robert Costa at the Trump International Hotel, Washington DC]

Tweets of the Week

Supreme Court of QLD found that Wagner brothers have succeeded in their defamation claim against Alan Jones, 2GB, and 4BC . Awarded a total of $3.754m. Read summary and judgment here, https://t.co/zze75fWRnn

— Supreme Court of QLD (@SupremeCourtQLD) September 11, 2018

* Between 28 October 2014 and 20 August 2015, 2GB Radio and Alan Jones published 30 broadcasts. Twenty-seven of these broadcasts conveyed 76 defamatory imputations of and concerning the Wagner brothers according to the Court*

NSW Far North Coast keeping an eye out for Yellow Crazy Ants

www.wettropics.gov.au:

The yellow crazy ant is listed as one of the top 100 worst invasive species by the IUCN and the Global Invasive Species Database. They are a category three restricted pest under the Biosecurity Act 2014. As such, all citizens have a general biosecurity obligation to minimise the risk of further infestation..... 

Lismore local government area residents are reminded that the Crazy Yellow Ant infestation has not yet been completely eradicated and are asked to report any sightings to the Biosecurity hotline 1800 680 244.

Dutton doubles down in a very public fight

“Grooming is when someone builds an emotional connection with a child to gain their trust for the purposes of sexual abuse, sexual exploitation or trafficking. Children and young people can be groomed online or face-to-face, by a stranger or by someone they know - for example a family member, friend or professional.”  [National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 2018]

The Canberra Times, 11 September 2018:

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has dramatically escalated his attack on Roman Quaedvlieg, claiming the former Border Force commissioner "groomed" a woman 30 years his junior.

Mr Dutton also said Mr Quaedvlieg – who has emerged as a key figure in the high-profile saga surrounding the Minister's interventions in visa matters – was Labor's Godwin Grech, a reference to the former Treasury official whose misleading evidence in the "Utegate" scandal helped destroy Malcolm Turnbull's first stint as Liberal leader.

On Tuesday, amid ongoing scrutiny of Mr Dutton's conduct, Fairfax Media reported he pressed Mr Quaedvlieg in 2014 to help two Queensland policemen get jobs in the newly formed Border Force.

In response to questions from Labor in question time, the Home Affairs Minister said Mr Quaedvlieg was spreading lies.

"This smear is coming from the former Australian Border Force commissioner, a man who was, as commissioner, sacked from his position. He was a man who had groomed a girl 30 years younger than himself. He is discredited and disgraced," Mr Dutton said.

Mr Quaedvlieg, 53, was sacked from Border Force earlier this year after he was found to have helped his younger girlfriend, Sarah Rogers, reportedly 22 years old, get a job within the agency.

"He is somebody that the Labor Party should not rely on. A lot has been promised to the Labor Party  but it's clear to me that Roman Quaedvlieg is your Godwin Grech."

Mr Quaedvlieg immediately responded to the attack, saying they were "curious, stuttering, rambling comments". He noted Mr Dutton was making the comments under parliamentary privilege, protecting him from legal action.

"Grooming? Are you serious? That has a legislative meaning. Is that what he meant?" he said on Twitter.

Quaedvlieg has since written to the Speaker of the House of Representatives complaining that Dutton has abused parliamentary privilege.

The Dutton allegations......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhPorZ3tWoo

Australia has a prime minister who rejects realitiy and embraces idiocy

Scott Morrison with a coal specimen supplied by the Minerals Council of Australia
ABC News, 9 February 2018

During an interview with the ABC 7.30 program on 11 September 2018 Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison declared he is “troubled” by the politics of envy in Australia and has “a very strong view” on what fairness means.

His version of “fairness” is a redefinition far removed from the contents of any dictionary wherein it is usually taken to mean impartial and just treatment or behaviour without favouritism or discrimination.

His expresses his version of fairness as “those that have a go get a go” or “a fair go for those that have a go”– phrases that are inherently judgemental.

It seems that in Morrison's world only individuals who are already capable of helping themselves in some fashion will deserve assistance from others.

Morrison again refused to say why the parliamentary Liberal Party changed leaders and in the interview sought to divorce himself from both the spill process and outcome, as though he wasn’t a participant in those rolling leadership ballots.

But what caught the attention of a numbers of viewers was his response to two questions.

The first response contained Morrison's assertion that he had separated climate/ environment and energy policies and admissions that he was removing climate change targets from future energy policy and was giving no guarantee of future funding for greenhouse gas emissions reduction.

The moment @ScottMorrisonMP condemned my great grandchildren to death. @abc730 #auspoll #climatechange pic.twitter.com/eKlhfEY7jc

— Fr Rod Bower (@FrBower) September 11, 2018

The second involved his belief that there was a need for additional legal protections of religious freedoms when none were being threatened....... 

Sales: "Can you give me an example at the moment where people's religious freedoms are being impinged?"

Morrison: "That's not the point. Australians want to be sure that in the future those things won't be"

oh dear #abc730

— Greg Jericho (@GrogsGamut) September 11, 2018

For Scott Morrison the primary fear of a majority of the Australian population is less important that demonstrating his missionary zeal to institutional Christianity and his unwavering support to the fossil fuel industry. 

Blatant water theft by miners being allowed under Berejiklian Government rules?

IMAGE: Ros Druce. Maules Creek Mine, January 2016 in New Matilda

ABC News, 10 September 2018:

A New South Wales coal mine is being accused of inappropriately taking more surface water than it is entitled to.

A review of Whitehaven Coal's Maules Creek Mine near Narrabri by the campaign group Lock the Gate showed it captured 1,800 million litres (ML) of surface water in 2016, despite being licenced to take 30 million litres.

Surface water is water that is collected from rainfall and run off.

An examination of surface water licences in New South Wales has been unable to find any other surface water licences held by the mine to justify the additional water.

"It does appear that the take is much higher than the licence they have explained to the community," Maules Creek farmer Lochie Leitch said.

Whitehaven Coal declined to be interviewed.

The company issued a statement saying it was in compliance with its water licences, and the use of rainfall and runoff is permissible under legislation.

Farmers whose properties neighbour the mine have joined forces with the campaign group, Lock the Gate Alliance, to lodge a complaint with the state's new water watchdog, the Natural Resources Access Regulator.

The NRAR was set up in April 2018 following a review of water management and compliance which was prompted by a story by the ABC's Four Corners.

The farmers are worried that the alleged collection of this extra surface water is affecting the environment.

"[It's] simply capturing too much water that would otherwise be recharging groundwater and flowing into surface water systems," Maules Creek farmer Sally Hunter said.

Yet another opportunistic mining exploration company has the Clarence Valley in its sights: Public Meeting 2.30pm on 13 September 2018 at Grafton Regional Library

Having received approval from the NSW mining regulator in June 2018 Castillo Copper Limited (CCZ) has proceeded with its exploratory drilling program with a view to establishing an open cut mine at Cangai in the Clarence Valley.

Castillo Copper Limited image

This small West Australian base metal exploration company may be operating on a shoestring budget and currently trade at only $0.039 per ordinary share, however an open cut mine so close to the Mann River means that the greed of Messrs. Peter Meagher, Peter Smith And Alan Armstrong has the potential to severely damage the Clarence River system.

There is to be a community meeting and Clarence Valley residents are urged to attend:

Councillor Greg Clancy

2 hrs · 

Goodbye Mann and Clarence Rivers if this gets approval. The plan is to open cut mine and that involves removing a large hill and metal extraction usually involves highly polluting chemicals. This is no win for the Valley. It is a disaster. A meeting is being held at the Clarence Regional Library in Grafton at 2.30 PM on Thursday September 13 to discuss this threat to the Rivers. All welcome.

Assistant Minister for Regional Development and Territories & Liberal MP for Farrer Sussan Ley shows her true colours

"This is an industry with an operating model built on animal suffering" [Sussan Ley, 21 May 2018]

https://youtu.be/jr-4I6sxn74

Recently welcomed back into the Coalition ministerial fold after being forced to resign as health minister due to her expense scandal, Assistant Minister for Regional Development and Territories & Liberal MP for Farrer Susan Ley, placed her lack of moral compass on full display this week when she abandoned her commitment to limit the cruel trade in live sheep.

Compare her present actions with her description three months earlier of the live sheep trade which she then condemned in no uncertain terms. 

The Sydney Morning Herald, 10 September 2018:

They threatened to cross the floor to stop the trade they felt was so heinous. But when it came to a vote on Monday, Liberal MPs Sussan Ley and Sarah Henderson staged a change of heart and used their deciding votes to prevent a debate on a ban on the live animal export trade.

As backbenchers the pair led a government backlash against the live export trade after horrific footage showing the deaths of thousands of sheep en route to the Middle East last year emerged. They even proposed their own bill to stop the trade.

That was within grasp on Monday, when a private member's bill sponsored by the Greens and crossbenchers to stop the trade passed the Senate 31 votes to 28.

Just two votes were required to approve it in the House of Representatives but Ms Ley and Ms Henderson, who were recently elevated to the outer ministry in Scott Morrison's reshuffle, voted against moves to bring it on for debate.

To cross the floor, they would have needed to quit their ministerial positions.

The pair then also rejected Labor attempts to bring on a debate in the House on their own bill. Their two votes made the difference with the bill going down 70-72.

Labor's agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon said the pair had put their political interests ahead of animal welfare.

“Sussan Ley and Sarah Henderson sponsored a bill to phase-out the live sheep export trade and made passionate speeches in support of their proposal," Mr Fitzgibbon said.

"But today they put their own political careers ahead of their policy convictions.

"Given the 72-70 result, their votes were the difference."

Both bills now disappear into history and the issue of cruelty to exported livestock remains unresolved.

Kevin Hogan's political backflip

On Thursday 23 August 2018 Kevin Hogan MP for Page announced that; “This constant rotation of Prime Ministers by both the Labor Party and the Liberal party, I cannot condone. I am announcing today, that if there is another leadership spill for the position of Prime Minister prior to the next Federal election, I will remove myself from the government benches and sit on the cross benches.”

A second leadership spill occurred on Friday 24 August 2018 and parliament went into recess.

Kevin Hogan was nowhere near the cross benches when the Australian Parliament resumed on Monday 10 September 2018.

He is still a fully-fledged member of the Parliamentary National Party.

Still a National Party Whip.

Still Deputy Speaker in the House of Representatives.

This was Kevin Hogan on the morning of 10 September firmly ensconced in the Speaker’s Chair.

At 12:15 on the same day Hansard shows that Kevin Hogan voted as a Nationals MP against a motion by the Labor Opposition.

Hogan's official statement included an undertaking that  he was going to be an independent in a similar style to former MP for O'Connor Tony Crook*.

However Tony Crook's parliamentary entry looks like this....

and Hogan's looks like this.....

Not even a pretence of the announced independence on Hogan's part.

NOTE

* Tony Crook was elected as a WA National Party candidate in August 2010 but sat as an Independent MP for less than three years before retiring prior to the September 2013 federal election. He never sat in the Coalition party room and apparently only attended the Nationals party room for a brief period towards the end of his parliamentary career.
Crook voted with the Gillard minority government on numerous occasions.

New Holland Publishers picked a lemon in the MP for New England Barnaby Joyce

The Sydney Morning Herald, 8 September 2018:

Back in the day, estimates of book sales were just that – estimates. These days, courtesy of the Bookscan system, which measures sales from nearly every book store across our brown and pleasant land, you can be very accurate – at least if you have a 'Deepthroat' high up in the publishing world like I do. I can report thus, that after being on sale for four weeks, Barnaby Joyce’s memoir, Weatherboard and Iron, has sold 1570 copies.

Yes, notwithstanding the general publishing rule that – with the notable exception of John Howard’s Lazarus Rising – right-wing memoirs don’t sell well, those numbers are proof positive that whatever hunger there has been for details of Joyce’s personal life has been sated. 

Having gone from being priced at source for $32.99 a copy, it had been reduced to $24.99 by QBD books after only 3 days.

It should be in the $10 bin at local book stores by the beginning of October 2018.

So much for a story of Politics, the bush and me being an additional income source for the egotistical, greedy and 'entitled' Nationals Member for New England, Barnaby Joyce.