Peace activists and groups from across Far North Queensland converged on the Mount Carbine tungsten mine on November 30 to remember the more than 15,000 Palestinian children killed by Israel in Gaza since October 2023.
Spokesperson Daniel Jones, from Mount Molloy, said the action was intended to “create more awareness” — locally and around the world — about the origins of unethical products of war such as the tungsten exported from Mt Carbine.
“These products end up in the bodies of innocent civilians including children, and are used for maximum destruction of people’s bodies, homes and infrastructure in war crime atrocities such as those committed by Israel in Gaza with the help of America and its allies including the UK, Germany and Australia”.
The peace vigil was organised in response to EQ Resources finalising a deal in August with the United States Department of Defense that would secure minerals “critical” to weapons’ manufacturing and war profits for the life of the mine.
The deal relied on the US Defense Production Act (Title III) classifying Queensland minerals as a “US Domestic Source”. This enabled the company to take advantage of billions of dollars of funding, from the US government, for “critical sources” and for the US to be the exclusive customer.
Of particular concern to activists is the fact that tungsten from this mine has very likely been used by Israel to commit war crimes in Gaza.
The wolfram ore concentrate from Mt Carbine is sent to US tungsten fabricator Elmet Technologies where it is turned into warhead parts, tank parts and tiny tungsten cubes.
The company clearly describes these custom-made cube products for “fragmentation applications” or shrapnel weapons.
Elmet Technologies is a partner company of Israeli military sensor manufacturer Amironic, demonstrating a direct production line of the tungsten weapons used in Gaza.
The use of these mysterious organ-shredding cubes has been documented in reports by Amnesty International since 2009.
On November 20, Dr Mohammed Tahir, an orthopaedic surgeon in Gaza, found one of these 3 millimetre tungsten shrapnel cube had penetrated his patient’s body, causing permanent paralysis of his right arm.
“These cubes that are used, perfectly formed cubes made of tungsten are built into weapons that actually are designed to explode and cause maximum damage indiscriminately, and so something so small can in fact kill you,” said Dr Tahir.
“In this case it was millimetres from his main artery and, if the patient had not received immediate medical attention, he would have died as is the case for many people and many reports of the use of these weapons still in use today is a war crime in my opinion.”
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In another recent case, Australian citizen Ranem Abu Izneid studying dentistry near Jerusalem in a non-combat zone, had her dormitory attacked on November 15 by the Israeli Occupational Forces using what Dr Ameriah Fakhouri from the Palestinian Australian and New Zealand Medical Association (PANZMA) described as “a type of exploding bullet”.
These bullets caused shrapnel to lodge in Abu Izneid’s face, neck and chest causing her to lose her right eye. “The investigation into this incident may find the shrapnel still lodged in Ranem’s face contains tungsten, as found in similar cases,” said peace vigil organiser Daniel Jones.
Cases like these with the continued atrocities committed by Israel, murdering civilian Palestinians and Lebanese using American supplied weapons with mineral components like Mt Carbine tungsten, mined on Aboriginal land, motivated people to converge for this vigil, Jones explained.
Peace activist Geoff Holland, who attended the rally and vigil, said that the Australian government is being disingenuous about its role in supporting Israel.
“The Australian government says, on the one hand, it has not exported weapons or weapons’ parts to Israel for five years. But, on the other hand, it recently conducted a review of weapons and weapons parts still being exported to Israel following a similar recent internal review by the British government!
“It is unlikely the government is including the tungsten from Mt Carbine in its review, which is now under the exclusive control of the US Department of Defense,” Holland said.
He said Labor “must now acknowledge that much of this tungsten is causing, and will continue to cause, horrific injuries and agonising death to civilians in Gaza including children, and that these must also be added to the long list of war crimes committed by Israel with complicity by Australia”.
Holland noted that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton, have already been referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) by a team of Australian lawyers, led by King’s Counsel Sheryn Omeri for individual criminal responsibility in aiding and abetting the commission of genocide, and that this referral has been accepted by the ICC for consideration.
The 92-page document has been endorsed by Greg James AM KC, along with more than 100 Australian senior counsel and barristers, retired judges, law professors and academics.
Outside the tungsten mine in Mt Carbine, around 25 people held up banners across road from the mine gate at EQ Resources that read: “World peace — Ceasefire now”, “Tungsten source of Israeli war crimes – American war profits — warheads, tanks, shrapnel cubes”, “Free Gaza — does profiting from war encourage more war?” and “Stop arming Israel’s genocide”.
The protesters remembered the tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians killed in Gaza by the Israeli military, with many still under the rubble. They sat in silence for 15 minutes mourning the more than 15,000 children killed by the Israeli Occupational Force (IOF) over the past 14 months in Gaza.
The protesters understand that the mine provides jobs but that ethical tungsten products do exist — such as those used in medical, renewable technologies and aerospace industries.
Jones emphasised that the current use of Mt Carbine’s tungsten involves military applications and horrific injuries to civilians. “This is fundamentally wrong. It also directly benefits America’s military-industrial complex, which is enabling Israel’s war crimes which has implications for Australia.”
[Alan Isherwood is an activist in Free Palestine Tablelands.]