Proximity to Pine Gap facility nixes Chinese mining bid

A leading Australian intelligence expert has revealed what could be the real reason for the rejection of a bid by China Minmetals for OZ Minerals. A mine controlled by the company may have allowed Chinese spies to intercept communications flowing in and out of the Pine Gap intelligence facility, jointly controlled by Australia and the US. Pine Gap has been described as perhaps the most important Western intelligence facility in the world.

The facility controls several geostationary satellites that intercept microwave signals, including missile telemetry and microwave communications.

According to Professor Des Ball of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, China would have the potential to intercept key satellite transmissions into Pine Gap from OZ Minerals' mine sites near Woomera in South Australia. These transmissions would have included telemetry on Chinese missile launches as well as intercepted communications from senior officials in the People's Liberation Army and the Chinese Communist Party.

Last week, the Government rejected an initial Minmetals bid for OZ Minerals that involved the Prominent Hill mine because the mine was within the prohibited area around the nearby Woomera weapons testing range (See: Australia rejects China's bid for OZ Minerals). Prof Ball, however, feels the more plausible reason for the decision would have been the Pine Gap facility, 600km to the north.  

"It is much more likely that any national security concerns relate to Pine Gap than Woomera," he told The Australian yesterday. "There is nothing that important, or that sensitive, at Woomera anymore."

While US sources were quoted as saying they were unaware of discussions on security issues, a spokesman for Australian defence minister, Joel Fitzgibbon, declined to comment.

According to Prof Ball, China would be a major focus of the intercept activity being carried out at Pine Gap.

Parked in stationary orbits 36,000km above the equator, Ball said, these satellites have a smaller dish for transmitting intercepts down to the Pine Gap ground station. He pointed out that from that altitude even narrow 'spot beams' cover a substantial area of the earth's surface. In this case, the beam would have a radius of about 800km from Pine Gap.

The Prominent Hill mine, interestingly, is located just about 600km from Pine Gap.

According to Ball, the US would not want China to have any facility with communications equipment within this radius, for that would compromise their eavesdropping operation.

On its part, the Government has not detailed the security reasons behind its decision to block the bid, except to cite the proximity of Prominent Hill to Woomera. The Woomera is a prohibited area, used largely for rocket and aerospace defence research and the testing of sensitive military technology.

Meanwhile, Minmetals yesterday lodged a revised $1.75 billion bid for most of OZ Minerals' assets, but excluding Prominent Hill this time around.

The Government has lately been under considerable pressure for being too close to China. A series of controversies, including Fitzgibbon's links to prominent Chinese-Australian businesswoman Helen Liu and the secrecy about the visit to Australia of China's propaganda chief, Li Changchun have left the government scrambling to provide explanations.

The prime minister himself is an old China hand and scholar, having served in mainland China in the early stages of his career with the country's diplomatic corps. He speaks Mandarin fluently.