Mercenary mining

Mercenary mining

Friedland's partner in the establishment of DFR in 1993 was the soft-spoken Jean-Raymond Boulle, an ex-manager in Africa for the world's most lucrative minerals cartel, Anglo-De Beers (diamonds). In 1997, Boulle dramatically entered the chaotic stamping-ground of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) where he lent personal support - including a private aircraft - to Laurent Kabila, pretender to the throne of the notoriously corrupt President Mobutu. In exchange Boulle got the rights to vast mineral deposits [see Roger Moody "Out of Africa: mining in the Congo Basin" in The Congo Basin, Le bassin du Congo, IUCN Netherlands, Amsterdam, 1998]. Although Jean-Raymond and Bob fell out over the spoils that year, by then the mercurial Canadian had his own fingers in both West Africa (DFR had taken over Sunshine Mining's diamond interests in Sierra Leone in early 1994. [MJ 8/4/94], and in death-dealing private mercenary armies.

Largely in order to restructure his interests in DFR, following the Inco takeover, Friedland had created a company called DiamondWorks. This was yet another corporate revamping, this time of a semi-dormant Friedland outfit called Carson Gold. Although it has diamond projects in war-devastated Angola (in particular the Camatchia kimberlite pipe at Luo [MJ 26/6/98]) DiamondWorks' main interest is now the potentially highly valuable Koidu diamond field in Sierra Leone. Originally acquired by Friedland in 1994, this deposit was later overrun by anti-government forces. In early 1996, the notorious South African private army, Executive Outcomes, teamed up with another company called Branch Energy, to recapture Koidu and hand it over to DiamondWorks.

The corporate links between Friedland's DiamondWorks and Branch Energy are not in dispute. They were confirmed in 1998 after Branch Energy was shown to have violated UN arms sanctions against all parties in Sierra Leone, with the complicity of the British High Commissioner in the country and the tacit consent of the British government. Nor is there any doubt that Branch Energy is corporately linked to another mercenary group, the notorious Sandline [see Roger Moody "The diamond dogs of war", New Internationalist, Oxford, March 1998; and Mary Louise O'Callaghan, Enemies within: Papua New Guinea, Australia and the Sandline Crisis: The Inside Story Doubleday, 1999].

Sandline's abortive role in trying to seize from Bougainville nationalists the Rio Tinto copper mine, on behalf of the now-discredited ex-prime minister, Julius Chan, is well attested - not least by an enquiry held by the Papua New Guinean government in 1997. Friedland's indirect role in the Sandline-Branch Energy-DiamondWorks nexus has still to be thoroughly uncovered, in particular whether he sought to gain personally from recapture of the Bougainville mine. Meanwhile, suspicions are bound to linger [see Mary Louise Callaghan, Enemies Within mentioned above].

However, memories are short in mining (the industry seems afflicted by collective amnesia). The Voisey's Bay coup was enough to wipe away any bad odour from Omai and Summitville, still lingering over Friedland at the time. Indeed, his ability to survive Summitville, Omai - and now his mercenary involvement - may even be regarded in some quarters as evidence he can weather any scandal. Certainly, when we look at his growing interests in Southeast Asia, it is initially difficult to find evidence that his worst excesses will be curbed.