An open letter to MPLA: ‘Let’s work together!’

For the past two years, Ken Moore has been trying to get a permit to strip-mine Pagan, and for the past two years he has been turned down. Why? Simply because Ken Moore is completely unqualified and lacks the financial resources for the job.

Ken Moore created Azmar International out of nothing. This paper-corporation has no history, no financial resources, no mining experience, no buildings, no equipment, and no stockholders outside of Ken Moore himself. This company not only has nothing, it has done nothing. It has not bothered with an operating plan, and has conducted no environmental impact study.

Not only has Ken Moore failed to impress the MPLA, he has failed to impress the vast majority of the Northern Island residents, as evidenced by the petition to the Senate for a study on Pagan’s mining potential before any permits are issued. And according to the recent SaipanTribune.com poll, CNMI residents supported the same study by a 4-1 margin.

So why are we still debating and worrying over Ken Moore’s lousy deal? Isn’t it time to move on?

At today’s MPLA meeting, I hope Chairwoman Ana Demapan-Castro and the MPLA Board will finally put an end to the worry and work that the threat of a permit in the wrong hands has caused so many of us. I hope Ken Moore will at last be sent home. He needs to do his homework and should not be allowed back until he can present an offer that is not exploitive, does not threaten the environment, and that does not involve empty promises to a local community that desperately needs help.

Otherwise, we have two possible scenarios to look forward to. Either Ken Moore keeps trying for a permit, or he gets it and the CNMI loses control of a multi-billion dollar asset. Either way, he’ll never mine Pagan because the concerned citizens of the CNMI will never allow it. The MPLA permit is just one of many permits and permissions required before anyone can go into Pagan with heavy equipment and start scraping off the surface.

Today, how about making a move that can focus all our collective energies on a common goal—one that the MPLA and the entire community can work together to achieve?

The Senate wrote you a letter asking for the creation of a task force on Pagan mining, and asked that it involve the local community. They did this not only because it is fair to involve the local community in such a high-impact activity on public lands, but because it makes good business sense as well. Just imagine if the MPLA, the Northern Islands Mayor’s Office, the Governor, the Legislature, DEQ, EPA, CRM, Fish and Wildlife, the Chamber of Commerce, the Northern Islands residents, and even PaganWatch (now known as an environmental and community watchdog), all worked together to make development in the Northern Islands attractive to real, legitimate investors and to the community as well. Such a group, made up of government representatives and citizens alike, would be extremely effective in making investment in the Northern Islands attractive. Why? Because it would dramatically reduce risk for investors.

Without such a group of all the stakeholders, investors are faced with two serious questions:

1. Will we be able to get all the permits and permissions required in order to run our operation? After all, only one failed permit dooms the project.

2. Will the government and the community support us, or will our relationship be adversarial? I learned this by talking to potential investors and developers like CEAR and Western Pozzolan. They all would welcome a government and community task force that could provide them with guidelines in advance so that they need only meet those guidelines to be assured of a smooth, risk-free enterprise.

Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton recently announced the Secretary’s Conference on Business Opportunities in the Islands, to be held Sept. 23 and 24 in Los Angeles. The conference will highlight business opportunities on various US insular islands including the CNMI. I attended last year’s conference where the mining opportunity on Pagan was but a brief mention and had only a short paragraph in the CNMI’s brochure. This year the CNMI can and should do better. Imagine if all of us worked together to prepare for the conference. We could tout not only the mining opportunity, but let investors know that the community is actively involved and supports it 100 percent!

I hope you’ll consider and act on this idea. It is truly in the best interests of the CNMI if the community can participate in determining Pagan’s future. The residents of the Northern Islands, the House of Representatives, and even the Senate has asked for this task force. It is not only a great idea, it is the right thing to do.

Peter J. Pangelinan Perez
PaganWatch