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"THE ONLY THING NECESSARY FOR THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL IS FOR GOOD MEN TO DO NOTHING"
--Burke

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Asarco A.G. (Swiss Bank) president died 12-09 without filing bankruptcy papers ... attorneys argue that estate should be settled in Russia...

"....Katamanin also had a home in Switzerland and two apartments in Moscow, according to court filings. In the final year of his life, his passport was stamped 54 times in eight countries, records show....A Russian citizen, he died at age 53 in December in Zurich...of a heart ailment....In March 2008, Katamanin and a man representing himself as an agent of Asarco [Asarco S.A., Asarco inc.] signed the loan agreement under which Plymouth agreed to transfer $12 million into Katamanin’s Swiss bank account, the agreement states. But lawyers ...say...his estate should be settled under Russian law."

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/08/dead-businessman-leaves-behind-pile-of-debt-battle-for-assets.html


Saturday, August 28, 2010

Asarco Hayden will smelt siliceous flux for gold and silver



"Google Alerts
Santa Fe Gold Supplies Trial Shipment of Siliceous Flux to Arizona ...
Santa Fe Gold Corporation (OTCBB:SFEG) is pleased to announce it has contracted with ASARCO LLC ("Asarco") to supply a trial shipment of 1000 tons of ...
story.albuquerqueexpress.com/index.php/ct/9/.../38146371/
"

""This initial trial of siliceous flux to Asarco's Hayden smelter, together with a similar trial conducted earlier this year with Freeport-McMoRan Miami's smelter, is expected to lead to long term contracts," said Pierce Carson, President and Chief Executive Officer. "Flux sales potentially could be quite significant to Santa Fe and could account for a substantial portion of ore mined at Summit."

Asarco El Paso TX Smelter stack to be brought down BEFORE DISCLOSING WHAT SECRETS TOXINS REMAIN

What do the Environmental Officials/DOJ and ASARCO continue to hide?  They are removing the Asarco stack before they disclose what toxins remain in the region from the years of illegal hidden waste-incineration.  Stacks can prove the point-source of industrial emissions down to the dust-particle level (SEM analysis) and easily assign monetary blame and responsibility. 

The La Paz Accord Internation Joint Advisory Committee for Air passed a resolution over 18 months ago recommending a comprehensive study to show what the background contaminants were in the Paso del Norte and the EPA HAS NOT RESPONDED.  People within the EPA, the DOJ and TCEQ continue to dodge the questions.  No study has been done to determine what actinides remain here or how much radioactive nickel or polonium etc. from the years of unlisted, secret waste burning.  Despite six years of asking, the community have yet to get answers.


"Google Alerts
Asarco Demolition Date Scheduled | KTSM News Channel 9
Asarco Demolition Date Scheduled. By Alexa Helms Multimedia JournalistAnchor ... Opinions vary on what to do with the Asarco smokestacks ...
www.ktsm.com/news/asarco-demolition-date-scheduled
"

Friday, August 27, 2010

Asarco rewards those who kept the secret of the corrupt illegal haz-waste El Paso CONTOP incineration with promotions and retirement

Instead of full disclosure to the taxpayers of El Paso County and the community of the Paso del Norte region, the former Manager and the person in charge of the world's two largest CONTOP furnaces got full retirement and promotion.

Instead of prison.

While Asarco employees as a group slowly die from terrible cancers, m.s., and other diseases commonly associated with exposure to industrial poisons, the managment who let this happen and did not disclose what was going on get retirement and promotion.

Where is our Federal oversight, where is our Federal Dept. of Justice?  Why are taxpayers and employees being left in the dark while the company management escapes accountability for what the EPA secretly told the Federal DOJ was illegal activity done over almost a DECADE?!

Asarco General Manager Retires MyHighPlainscom
Larry Castor, general manager of the Asarco Amarillo Copper Refinery, is retiring effective Aug. 31, after 34 years with the company.
myhighplains.com/fulltext?nxd_id=151065

"
Castor ... and his wife, Joni, plan to take off the next two years to explore and spend time in various places in the U.S. and abroad....Jones...will become the seventh general manager of the Asarco Amarillo Copper Refinery since start of operations in 1975."

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

March 2010 Whistleblower exposes J.P. Morgan Chase [Asarco had a "$450 million Revolving Credit Agreement with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co] precious metals market manipulation

"A London trader walks the CFTC through a silver manipulation in advance"

..."On March 23, 2010, GATA Director Adrian Douglas was contacted by a whistleblower by the name of Andrew Maguire. Maguire is a metals trader in London. He has been told first-hand by traders working for JPMorganChase that JPMorganChase manipulates the precious metals markets, and they have bragged to how they make money doing so."
April 11, 2010 New York Post:
Metal$ are in the pits Trader blows whistle on gold & silver price manipulation by MICHAEL GRAY

"Maguire -- in an exclusive interview with The Post -- explained JPMorgan's role in the metals pits in both London and here, and how they can generate a profit either way the market moves.

"JPMorgan acts as an agent for the Federal Reserve; they act to halt the rise of gold and silver against the US dollar. JPMorgan is insulated from potential losses [on their short positions] by the Fed and/or the US taxpayer," Maguire said."

May 24, 2010
Serious manipulation’ Of Gold Silver Markets
"...Maguire rebuked the CFTC: “It is common knowledge here in London among the metals traders that it is JPM’s (JPMorgan Chase’s) intent to flush out and cover as many shorts as possible prior to any discussion in March about position limits. ....WND asked JPMorgan Chase to reply to Maguire’s charges. “We have no knowledge of who Andrew Maguire is,” Brian Marchiony, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase told WND. “We have no comment on Maguire’s charges.”

"USW Announces Observers for Strike at Mexican [ASARCO's old owner Grupo Mexico] Copper Mine"

"PITTSBURGH, Aug. 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Leo W. Gerard, International President of the United Steelworkers (USW), today announced a cross-border effort is being undertaken to place a rotating team of international observers in northern Mexico's city of Cananea to monitor the presence of 3,000 illegal federal police who are intimidating striking copper miners of the Los Mineros independent union....USW National Director for Canada Ken Neumann in Toronto – has also called on Mexican President Felipe Calderon to assist a peaceful resolution of the strike, which is mainly over issues of health and safety....According to Los Mineros strike leaders, the Mexican government is behind recent actions that have begun terminating electric power at some of the strikers' homes as another example of attempts to intimidate and frustrate their standing up for their rights under Mexican labor laws...."


Monday, August 16, 2010

Project Navigator Trustee Office dodges Asarco Waste and Water Contamination questions

Ms. Schell,
the following makes no scientific or "legal" sense. Surely Project Navigator can provide better answers than this and not waste our time.

See my response.

"[Project Navigator]Response: Both the GAO and EPA have fully investigated and reported on the hazardous waste issue involving Encycle and Asarco. In a February 16, 2010 letter to the EPA, several environmental groups presented eight (8) different issues they had with the cleanup of the former ASARCO site. A major request/issue was # 3B: “EPA should make public all information concerning the type, source and amounts of hazardous waste that were illegally incinerated at the facility.” In their May 11, 2010 response the EPA supported TCEQ’s determination that ASARCO was a metal contaminated site and that “EPA has no data that “product” sent by Encycle to ASARCO contained organic chemicals.

"

GAO did NOT investigate ASARCO. In fact, your "legal" argument is one that the ASARCO attorney himself gave me over the telephone and it is flat out wrong. If you phone the G.A.O. you will be able to confirm for yourself that the investigation was not about ASARCO but about how the military in general handled hazardous waste disposal - and that the GAO included the Asarco handling of RMA (Rocky Mt. Arsenal) waste only as one of many examples they studied. As far as the EPA "full investigation", please READ the 1998 EPA to DOJ Asarco confidential for settlement purposes only document in which the EPA stated that ASARCO had burned unmanifested illegal hazardous waste for profit for years. Rep. Reyes made a public statement soon after declaring that ASARCO had paid millions of dollars on the condition that the details of what it had done would never become public. Yet, this matter is now in the public domain with that release of the DOJ EPA asarco confidential for settlement purposes only document.

As far as your quote stating EPA has no data that “product” sent by Encycle to ASARCO contained organic chemicals. -- Please clarify -- I never asked you to test for organic chemicals from Encycle even though we know that the site is contaminated with PCB's and Dioxins (all secondary smelters are producers of the latter). I have asked our environmental agencies to test for actinides and radioactive isotopes -- and, this has not been done. So, since "...in their May 11, 2010 response the EPA supported TCEQ’s determination that ASARCO was a metal contaminated site" WHY HASN'T THIS TESTING (metals and transition metals) BEEN DONE?

Ms. Schell, you write that current onsite electrical workers did not contact Asarco waste [ "
PNL workers fully are trained and informed about any current or potential site hazards and are outfitted accordingly. Workers performing electrical work are not in contact with waste and therefore do not need hazmat gear to perform the work. Additionally, workers have been informed of any on site risks."]. This is inherently incredulous, Ms. Schell,
since TCEQ/EPA/Asarco have all documented the heavy industrial-levels-of-contamination at that site with arsenic, and this is odorless, tasteless and documented as being in the air there. Those workers were not wearing masks made to remove vapors or nanoparticles of arsenic.

We ask that the Trustee now address the problem honestly. The International JAC La Paz Accord group has also asked for full disclosure of the Asarco background chemicals left here from its operations. This should include testing for polonium, lead isotopes including radioactive ones, radon, radium precursors for radon, actinides including tritium, uranium, plutonium, and any isotopes from naturally occurring radioisotopes.

In regards to the ammonia-tank. I did not ask about a tank being removed. I asked why a tank was added, and what it had been used for while this site was supposed to have been "idled".

In regards to your statement that "the Trustee will maintain this storm water system through closure of the site. The storm water system that will remain after closure has not been designed yet. " Please explain to me how this present storm water system meets the conditions of the 9-2006 SW-5 permit that says that all stormwater from the Asarco site will be handled via the City stormwater system and not discharged to the RioGrande. According to your statement "SW-5 is located at the western edge of the Former Asarco plant property and discharges through a culvert below the B.N.& S.F. railroad tracks. The permitted discharge for storm water goes into the Rio Grande". THIS SITE IS NOT PERMITTED FOR DISCHARGING STORMWATER TO THE RIO GRANDE, THE AMERICAN CANAL or PAISANO.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Incorrect Asarco Bankruptcy Powerpoint for U.S. EPA HQ, OECA/OSRE,Superfund Symposium,Indianapolis, Indiana,August 10-12, 2010

To:  Mr. Elliott J. Gilberg, Director Wa. D.C. EPA Office of Site Remediation and Enforcement
Fr:   El Paso TX
sb:  Asarco Bankruptcy Powerpoint for U.S. EPA HQ, OECA/OSRE,Superfund Symposium,Indianapolis, Indiana,August 10-12, 2010
http://www.astswmo.org/files/meetings/2010SSMS/Presentations/Gillberg-ASARCO_Bankruptcy-Handout.pdf


Mr. Gilberg,

Your powerpoint leaves out the EPA-DOJ Asarco Confidential-for-Settlement-Purposes-only document in which the EPA proved ASARCO illegally burned secret (unmanifested) hazardous-wastes deliberately for profit for nearly ten years here in El Paso TX and also E. Helena  MT.
http://archives.newspapertree.com/Asarco/asarco_1998_memo.pdf

I would like to know why you did not let conference attendees know about this massive almost-decade-long burning of illegal wastes from both military and industrial sources - this proof was released by the DOJ in 2006 (see NYTIMES 10/2006) and now is in the public domain after eight years of secrecy.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

ASARCO Bondholder Citigroup's head of Latin America team handled CEMEX acquisition of RMC and a 1.1 Billion$ offer for Grupo Mexico S.Peru Corp.

Link to Warton Finance Document 2005

"John Boord heads Citigroup Global Markets' Latin America Investment Banking
team....The Citigroup Latin America Investment Banking
team has recently been involved in a number of high-profile transactions
including:
- advising Cemex on the acquisition of RMC Group PLC in Europe,....and a $1.1 billion
offering for Southern Peru Copper scheduled to come to market next week."



Atlantic City Casino and ASARCO A.G. Swiss Bank-President Mikhail Katamanin

"Foreign investor Mikhail Katamanin, who in May was hit with a $12-million foreclosure lawsuit on his Highland Park mansion, filed a personal bankruptcy petition June 6 [2009] in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago.... His debts are described as “primarily consumer,” and the list of creditors includes Atlantis at Paradise Island Resort & Casino in the Bahamas, Caesars Palace Las Vegas Hotel & Casino and Trump Taj Mahal Casino Hotel in Atlantic City. Chicago lawyer Kori Bazanos, who represents Mr. Katamanin, declined to comment. Related story: Lender asserts claim on lakefront mansion"

http://www.chicagorealestatedaily.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=34626

"A Caribbean investment company has sued to collect on a $12-million loan ...the property is held in trust by Swiss company Asarco A.G., which Mr. Mikhail [Katamanin] controls, according to the complaint and public records....lawyer Irving Drobny, who represents Asarco, is out of the country until next week, according to employees at his office....The claim also is to be arbitrated in Switzerland, according to the complaint."
http://www.chicagorealestatedaily.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=34626

March 2010 Philadelphia Inquirer .. discussing the “furor” over the involvement of the Chinese government in Morgan Stanley’s casino project Atlantic City

"Morgan Stanley is the financial adviser to Grupo Mexico, and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP is the company's legal counsel."

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-23/grupo-mexico-proposes-combining-asarco-southern-copper-mining-operations.html

"Reveling in Your Money

Posted: Tue, 30 Mar 2010 17:27:13 +0000

As we wait to see if Governor Christie will sign the bill that takes away the voter's right of referendum on a proposed $300 million tax break for Morgan Stanley's casino, two excellent new articles came out about the issue.

Paul Mulshine, an editorial writer with the Star Ledger, penned a piece entitled "Atlantic City's Revel casino: Wall Street's Reveling in your money."  In the piece, Mulshine wrote:

The prime backer of the half-finished Revel casino, Morgan Stanley, has put together a financing deal that relies on funding from the Chinese government. Yes, you read that right. The geniuses in Trenton are preparing to give a giant grant to a consortium of commies and Wall Streeters.

But as Doherty points out, both the Chinese and Morgan Stanley have plenty of money at the moment. Morgan Stanley got $10 billion in bailout funds, he said, so there's no reason they can't finish the project on their own.

Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Inquirer has a new article discussing the "furor" over the involvement of the Chinese government in Morgan Stanley's casino project."


ASARCO AMC SOUTHERN COPPER merger agreement being advised by Morgan Stanley and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

SEC filing for AMC ASARCO SOUTHERN COPPER merger includes the following exhibit: 99.1

..."Our proposal is conditioned on, among other things: the negotiation and execution of a mutually satisfactory definitive merger agreement and related agreements and the satisfaction of the conditions set forth therein; the recommendation of the Transaction, the terms thereof and any agreement or agreements relating thereto by a committee of independent directors of Southern Copper to the Board of Directors of Southern Copper; approval of the Transaction and definitive merger documentation by the Boards of Directors of Southern Copper and Grupo México and the Board of Directors and sole stockholder of AMC; AMC’s satisfaction, in its sole discretion, with the results of its due diligence review of Southern Copper; receipt of any governmental and of existing lender and other third-party consents and approvals; and the absence of a material adverse change in the business, results of operations, financial condition, assets, liabilities and prospects of Southern Copper.

We have assembled a team of advisors including Morgan Stanley and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP..."

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

ASARCO Bankruptcy is over, but workers remain sick

"Ex-Asarco employees seek reason for illnesses by Chris Roberts \ EL PASO TIMES"

" 'Records of the chemicals processed at the plant have been incomplete and in most cases unavailable...'   'People want to cover it up, take down the smokestacks and forget this ever happened,' ...'They (employees) gave this company decades of their healthy years, and all they get is pain.'     Calls to the Asarco headquarters in Tucson seeking comment for this story were not returned."



Workers in 1942

Click on image to enlarge.

"Worker at carbon black plant. Sunray, Texas, 1942. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Worker at carbon black plant John Vachon. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress"
see
http ://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2010/07/26/captured-america-in-color-from-1939-1943/

Friday, July 30, 2010

ASARCO gave EPA monies "from the large Bankruptcy settlement" according to EPA OIG report

page 4
"as the Agency refraining from drawing down from the Superfund Trust Fund at the Bureau of Public Debt for 4 months because the Agency received collections from the large ASARCO Bankruptcy Settlement for Superfund that occurred in the FY 2010 first quarter."

page 5
...'The Agency reported to OMB that the $309 million increase in Collected Spending Authority from Offsetting Collections is primarily due to the ASARCO Bankruptcy Settlement for the Superfund program that occurred in the FY 2010 first quarter.
..."The Agency reported to OMB that the $262 million increase in Change in Unfilled Customer Orders – Advances Received is primarily due to the ASARCO Bankruptcy Settlement for the Superfund program that occurred in the FY 2010 first quarter."

page 10
"The Agency reported to OMB that the $294 million increase in Cashout Advances, Superfund, is primarily due to the ASARCO Bankruptcy Settlement for the Superfund program that occurred in the FY 2010 first quarter."
www.epa.gov/oig/reports/2010/20100719-10-2-0166.pdf

ASARCO former principle-bondholder Citigroup now ordered to pay SEC over 70 million in fines$

"Citigroup to Pay $1 for Every $500 in Subprime Exposure It Hid
by Marian Wang
ProPublica, Yesterday, 4:08 p.m.
Citigroup has agreed to pay the SEC $75 million to settle charges that the bank hid exposure to more than $40 billion [1] in subprime CDOs. (That works out to roughly $1 fine for every $500 worth of hidden exposure.) Read the full SEC complaint".
http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/citigroup-to-pay-for-75-million-for-hiding-exposure-to-subprime-cdos

[do search on "Citigroup" in blog search engine]
[also see
epgtlo.blogspot.com/2009/07/citigroup-comment-on-pemex.html ]

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Grupo Mexico proposed merger of railroad units

"We are expecting the notification ... of this ruling will be by the end of August," Octavio Ornelas, a director of the company's transportation arm, said on a conference call for investors....'If Cofeco appeals that ruling, then we will spend another six to nine months in order to have a positive ruling so we will have that consolidation ready by the end of the first quarter of next year,' he said....Ferromex and Ferrosur are clustered under Grupo Mexico's transportation division, Infraestructura y Transportes Mexico, or ITM...."

http://www.miningweekly.com/article/grupo-mexico-says-rail-merger-depends-on-regulators-2010-07-29

Friday, July 23, 2010

Asarco El Paso three years ago.... railroads

"Out in the West Texas Town of El Paso" from May 16th, 2007, THE TEXAS OBSERVER

"...[Rep. Joe] Pickett speculated that [Senator Eliot] Shapleigh’s efforts to block El Paso County [TX] from building or acquiring a tolled railroad bridge [SB 893] was designed to help developers in neighboring New Mexico. 'If you were applying for a presidential permit or talking to the federal folks about where to do a bridge, it would seem to me it would help your cause in New Mexico if there was some statute or some language that said it couldn’t be done in El Paso County...To have something like this is very suspect.

Verde Corporate Realty Services, established by El Paso billionare Bill Sanders, owns approximately 20,000 acres adjacent to New Mexico’s Santa Teresa Port of Entry, which is about a 30-minute drive from downtown El Paso. "

http://www.texasobserver.org/blog/index.php?name=out-in-the-west-texas-town-of-el-paso/
[only cached version now works]

Santa Teresa Port of Entry is less than ten miles from the ASARCO El Paso stacks/site (Tacoma WA Asarco contamination zone went out 200 square miles or more).   For more information use keyword search in blog for "Punta Colonet", "Ferromex", "railroad", "Foxcon".

For more about Asarco Grupo Mexico's railroad, read this

"Out in the West Texas Town of El Paso" from May 16th, 2007, THE TEXAS OBSERVER

"There’s a been a lot of talk of relocating rail lines to Santa Teresa, which would obviously benefit Sanders’ business parks. One 2003 study, which was prepared for the city of El Paso, recommended moving many regional urban rail facilities to Santa Teresa, including the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe’s rail yards in El Paso, as well as the Ferromex rail lines in Juárez.
In addition, Union Pacific Corp’s planning a $150 million terminal just four miles west of Santa Teresa that may process as many as 100,000 container units per year, according to news reports."

http://www.texasobserver.org/blog/index.php?name=out-in-the-west-texas-town-of-el-paso/
[only cached version now works]