The Lost Forest

by John Francis Kinsella

  Chapter 39

  GOLD

  That weekend Aris was due to leave for Melbourne where the discussions were due to be held with Soetopo Jananto, an Indonesian Chinese, who controlled the Australian mining group Australian Minerals, one of the biggest mining companies in the pacific rim. They had just turned in a huge rise on their pre-tax profits, bringing earnings to over one-and-a-half billion dollars for the first time. Its board of directors had decided for a major expansion in West Kalimantan in partnership with a company called Borneo Gold Corporation, owned by an Australian Jew, Gary Solomon.

  Aris was somehow involved with Solomon, but Ennis was not exactly sure how, certainly he had supplied Borneo Gold with the services of Indosatmap, his mapping company. Solomon was a mining engineer whose family had immigrated to Israel when was a kid, but he preferred the open spaces to fighting with the Palestinians and after graduating he quit the country and returned to Australia. He qualified as a mining engineer, he profitably turned his knowledge to exploring for minerals, and developed new projects in New Guinea and Indonesia.

  Aris had no great difficulty in persuading Ennis to join him as Soetopoe Jananto was a collector of Chinese porcelain and antiques whom Ennis had always found very friendly but had done little business with him. It suited Ennis as it coincided with a symposium held by the Australian Archaeological Association, at the University of New England on new anthropological discoveries in Oceania. More than two hundred delegates from all over Australia, as well as from the UK, France, Indonesia and Canada, were expected, giving him the possibility to meet leading anthropologists from the University of Wollongong, whom Pierre Ros had often talked about, known for their extensive work on Indonesian and Australian prehistoric sites.

  The Borneo Gold development lay in a zone north of Lanjak not far from the Borneensis discovery site. It was in Pontianak that Ennis had been present when Soetopoe had declared to the press, ‘We will grab any opportunity that fits our strategy and helps in the development of West Kalimantan.’ It was also a good moment to diversify operations as Soetopoe’s nickel interests had been in difficulties due to political unrest and strikes.

  Ennis had first met Soetopoe at the Hilton in Jakarta when he and Aris had dropped in on a party with a Solomon. As soon as Soetopoe learnt Ennis had connections with Fagerstrom’s Scandinavian group, he asked Ennis to talk to them about investing in the gold mine project. They planned to produce about eighteen tons of gold a year or approximately two hundred and sixty million US dollars a year for ten to fifteen years, based on the fixing for gold at that moment, which was 385 dollars an ounce.

  Borneo Gold planned to mine almost twenty million tons of ore annually with a yield of two grams per ton of ore. But before they started there was thirty million tons of overburden to be removed to get to the ore bearing rock.

  The mine would be open cast with operation at three sites covering several thousand hectares, including areas for mine rejects. There were no roads and they planned to cut a road through the virgin jungle to the site. The ore was to be crushed and ground using a cyanure separation process and production was scheduled to start the following year.

  According to Soetopoe, they could not meet that schedule as the project was undercapitalised and urgently needed further financing in the form of loans from Fagerstrom’s group, using export credits from Scandinavia, guaranteed by the mine’s production that was planned to coincide with a dramatic turn around for gold, forecast by Soetopoe’s Hong Kong specialists who saw end to the Asian economic crisis for the next couple of years.

  Soetopoe was in a delicate situation with the crisis that was threatening the whole of the Suharto system with collapse. The problem was the guaranties for his Indonesian projects; it was not that his companies were unprofitable; on the contrary they were very profitable. The crisis had led to desperate free for all. The Indonesians authorities, discovering the high projected profits from the mine, wanted bigger royalties and the bankers took advantage of Soetopoe’s dilemma by asking for a delay in the project start date plus supplementary guaranties.

  They arrived in Melbourne on the Qantas’ overnight flight from Jakarta. It was almost ten in the morning when they were picked up by a car laid on by Australian Minerals to take them to their hotel. It was hot and the car’s air-conditioning had broken down, the driver was a Yugoslav who drove with the driver’s window open. He spoke to them over his shoulder, from time to time turning his head, he was over inquisitive, where had they come from, and how long were they going to stay. The car weaved precariously with the driver’s inattention to the road. Ennis nervously watched the wheels of the giant truck thundered by hauling at least three trailers loaded with live sheep for the Melbourne slaughter houses and export.

  They were booked in at the Hyatt on Flinders where a Soetopoe also had a suite. During the overnighter from Jakarta they had over indulged in the excellent first class bar service on Qantas and had only managed a couple of hours sleep. They were in need of a good shower and a couple of hours to relax. On arrival was an invitation to lunch with Soetopoe in his suite on the 18th floor.

  The weather was fine, it was one of those balmy Melbourne summer days, and from his room window Ennis could see the bay in the distance and the sails of the windsurfers speeding across the waves between the dinghies. He hoped he would find time to get to an evening session of the Australian Tennis open and enjoy a few hours of relaxation; maybe he could even get to the England-Australia test match.

  The skyline never ceased to amaze him, from his side of the Hotel he could see at least a dozen high-rise office buildings under construction, adding to the Manhattan style skyline that had grown up over the previous twenty years.

  Ennis didn’t really feel like eating, he was still phased out after the flight and his lurched as he looked at the array of steaming Chinese dishes set out on the dining table. That was the problem of dropping out of the sky into another time zone and culture, especially at meal times when those already adjusted were hungry, responding to their daily biological clock.

  He decided he would take something light, he could see from the look on Aris’s face that he felt the same, whilst Soetopoe looked at the food with relish. The best antidote in those circumstances, was a good stiff drink, he opted for a scotch as a starter as Soetopoe poured himself an XO cognac.

  ‘So,’ said Soetopoe, ‘what’s the news?’

  Aris looked into his orange juice with that inscrutable face, Ennis knew he was dramatising a bit and maybe he had something up his sleeve.

  ‘I’ve talked to Bambang, he’s suggested that foreign investors should be prepared to allow a greater local participation or a fairer distribution of profits, and as the new President is promoting a new policy directed against the high concentration of wealth among businessmen and industrialists, this means mostly Chinese,” he sniggered and pushed his glasses up his nose, “At the moment, with all the troubles, it looks good if he takes a strong position defending the country’s resources especially when it comes to our groups.’

  ‘Sorry we have to talk about business John, it won’t take long.’

  ‘Why is Bambang getting involved in our business?’

  ‘Well he’s just looking after the family business.’

  ‘Okay then, but is their position fixed or will they accept a compromise?’

  ‘At present they have a royalty of two point five on gold and one on silver and other metals, you could give one point more on gold and half a point on silver without seriously affecting the viability of the project,’ Aris offered.

  Soetopoe nodded and then changed the subject.

  ‘Tonight we’re invited to the Department on Foreign Affairs and Trade a top level cocktail for promotion of bilateral relations with Indonesia, I think it will be interesting, come along, you should meet them,’ Soetopoe said addressing Ennis.

  The reception was held at the Westpac Banking Corporation building just a few blocks down from the hotel on Collins.
Westpac was the lead banker in pool financing the gold mine. Australia’s political relationship with Indonesia had always been a very up and down affair, a densely populated country of two hundred million poor and very underdeveloped lying just some hundred miles or so away across the Torres straits or the Timor sea facing an empty continent with its small population concentrated in the South East corner, thousands of kilometres away from the vulnerable northern shores, it was probable those same shores had seen early man arrive tens of thousands of years earlier.

  Australia had never hesitated, with its strong democratic traditions, to criticise Indonesian politics over the years, from the time of Sukarno and his politics of Confrontasi with British Malaysia, or the annexation of East Timor, and more recently the question of political prisoners and human rights.

  The Australians were probably the keenest observers of Indonesia from a western point of view; it was in their interest, with Indonesian studies being highly developed especially at Brisbane University.

  At the end of the twentieth century Australians were in search of their future identity, whether to consider themselves as a part of the Asiatic block of nations, to whom they were more and more bound economically, and the pull of the historic ties they had with Great Britain, which could only be appreciated by the traffic between London and Australia, seen by the toing and froing of families, grandparents, sons and daughters. Those who want to visit the old country and those who wished to discover the new continent that had been the hope and despair for many past generations.

  When Soetopoe’s Australian mining group became interested in the newly discovered gold deposits in Borneo, the government was enthusiastic to provide assistance for the development of the project, and it was soon written into the protocol for economic cooperation between the two countries, signed some eighteen months previously at the start of a cyclic warming of relation between the two countries.

  It was not until the top politicians in Jakarta realised that the deposits were real and confirmed and that the commercial exploitation was extremely feasible, that they started to apply pressure for a larger share in the production royalties. Certain ministers saw it opportune to press arguments in the traditional style against foreign exploitation, reminiscent of the start of oil operations many years before.

  But the objective of the Borneo Gold promoters was to get into production as quickly as possible, avoiding fruitless delays, thus the visit of the Foreign Minister Suripto was opportune to get the business under way. Suripto was an aggressive go getter who could apply a great deal of influence to unblock the situation, and avoid Australian investors from bailing as the Indonesia became mired in its difficulties.

  Suripto was a small man, even for an Indonesian, he was a bull terrier, as round and solid as he was high, he did not have the charm and grace of a typical foreign minister but he was immensely pragmatic. He laughed loud and easily, he was not shy about making direct statements, sometimes in conflict with his role as foreign minister, but above all he had the confidence of the Suharto’s family and clique, and could be relied on to push through their ideas and policies, if he was convinced of their validity.

  Ennis had been introduced to Suripto at a French Embassy reception in Jakarta and remembered by him for explaining the meaning of ‘ubiquitous’, a word used in the Ambassador’s long winded speech, and had remembered him for that and the joke that they shared.

  Ennis persuaded Aris to walk over to the Westpac building enjoying the fresh air and chatting as they strolled down Collins, they had plenty of time as long as they were there before the minister arrived.

  It was Friday evening and there was a good crowd of people out on the streets and the trams clanked slowly by down towards Swanston and Elizabeth before climbing the hill on the other side. It was warm and pleasant and they relaxed, looking forward to meeting all the friends and acquaintances who usually turned up for that type of reception, almost anywhere Indonesia business and politics was rather esoteric, so the uninitiated stayed away. It wouldn’t last more than a couple of hours and after they had decided to get in a late dinner and discover nightlife in Melbourne.

  The Westpac building was one of the highest in the city; the reception was on the 42nd floor in the boardrooms and salons of the bank. In the main entrance hall a receptionist was checking the names of the guests and then directing them to one of the lifts, which would take them directly to the 42nd.

  An attractive blond, looking like the kind of Australian brought up on fresh air and fruit juice was involved in a seemingly complicated explanation with the receptionist. She had forgotten her invitation and the receptionist could not find her name on the guest list.

  ‘How do you spell it?’

  She spelt her name.

  ‘Sheldon, hmm,’ she looked down the list again, ‘we have a director who’s name is Shelbourne.’

  The blond fidgeted and started to look a little desperate just as Soetopoe arrived and announced with an exagerated display of gallantry to the hostess, “This young lady is my guest,’ with a broad friendly smile, puffing on his Kretek cigarette.

  ‘Oh how are you Mr Jananto? It’s been a few weeks hasn’t it,’ the receptionist said with a splitting smile.

  ‘Yes it’s been a couple of months, how are you keeping Susan?’ he said turning upthe charm. Susan and one of her girl friends had been guests to one of his parties at the Hyatt, a pleasant evening with a bit of flirtation.

  ‘Good, okay if Miss Sheldon is going up with you then there’s no problem.’

  They walked over to the lift with Soetopoe’s new friend, Rachael, looking a little bit embarrassed and flustered.

  ‘Thanks very much, I’m feeling so stupid, I must have left his invitation in the car and it’s parked a good couple of blocks away.’

  ‘Well you’re in now, I’m Soetopoe Jananto and these are my friends, John Ennis and Bak Aris.” ‘

  ‘I’m Rachael Sheldon as you now know, I’m supposed to be writing an article on Kalimantan.’

  ‘Oh, so you’re a journalist then.’

  ‘Not exactly, I’m a Geologist, I also write for the press and anything like this interests us.’

  Ennis could not help thinking how attractive she was, clear blue eyes and perfectly shaped teeth that had probably cost her parents a packet, he guessed that she was probably about thirty maybe a little less.

  The lift arrived at the 42nd and a chime woke him out of his daydream, the doors opened and she stepped out before them into the lobby. It decorated with floral tributes, the kind that Indonesians always send for special occasions, SELEMAT DATANG MENTRI, welcome minister, with the name of the company who had sent it also spelt out in flowers. The bank’s PR manager together with a couple of attractive hostesses were there to welcome the guests and guide them to the bar, sumptuously laid out with a wide variety of European and Indonesian cocktail delicacies with waiters standing by to serve drinks.

  They opted for the drinks and filled a plate with cocktail snacks.

  ‘Well let’s start with this,’ said Ennis looking around at the same time, to see who was who.

  There were fewer interesting people than expected, it was a typical reception, just lots of hellos and polite exchanges. Ennis quickly agreed with Aris that they should get out as soon as it was politely possible.

  In a corner two or three people watched the TV news; an Indonesian general was being interviewed by a reporter from the Sydney Morning Herald. Ennis caught part of his words, ‘I am afraid there will be bloodshed.’

  He then saw Rachael Sheldon out of the corner of his eye; she was alone at the bar, if he was quick she could make the evening more interesting.

  ‘So you’re interested in Geological studies?’ he asked arriving as casually as possibly, asking the barman for a refill of the excellent Australian sparkling wine.

  ‘Yes, that’s right, and you? You’re not from these parts!’ she said alluding to his accent.

  ‘No, I mean I’m not from
these parts, my speciality is Antiques and Fine Arts,” then if that was not enough he added, “I’m also involved in anthropology.’

  ‘Oh, so you must be interested in Mungo man!’

  ‘How did you guess?’

  ‘You’re not involved in the find in Indonesia by any chance?’

  Ennis was surprised. After several months work on the site their information black-out seemed to be leaking, obviously news had reached certain circles in Australia.

  ‘Well, in fact I was in at the very beginning,’ he replied coyly, feeling very pleased with himself and feigning a little embarrassment.

  ‘That’s incredible, look we must get together, I’d like to write an article, you know the geological context of Flores.’

  “Flores?”

  ‘Sure, the site,” she said laughing.