{"id":157413,"date":"2026-07-20T15:54:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T22:54:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=157413"},"modified":"2026-07-20T15:54:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T22:54:06","slug":"englands-capital-metals-plc-the-corporate-thieving-of-mineral-sands-off-east-coast-beaches-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/07\/20\/englands-capital-metals-plc-the-corporate-thieving-of-mineral-sands-off-east-coast-beaches-in-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"England\u2019s Capital Metals PLC & the Corporate Thieving of Mineral Sands off East Coast Beaches in Sri\u00a0Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

e-Con e-News<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Posted byee ink.<\/a>Uncategorized<\/a>Tags:ambeon-capital-plc<\/a>, capital-metals-plc<\/a>, fifa<\/a>, history<\/a>, imperialism<\/a>, India<\/a>, marxism<\/a>, politics<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

blog: https:\/\/eesrilanka.wordpress.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Before you study the economics, study the economists!<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

e-Con e-News 12-18 July 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The multibillion-dollar 2026 F\u00e9d\u00e9ration Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)\u2019s World Cup finals have been staged between an imperialist state (Spain) & a quasi-settler-colonial state (Argentina) \u2013 both Spanish-speaking & Catholic. Their semi-finals were staged between 2 imperialist states, one a secular republic ruled by French Catholics, and the other a monarchy ruled by English Protestants. All teams deployed indigenous & African mercenaries on leash and lease, as high-salaried \u2018star\u2019 players. Depriving the countries of the talent they nurtured, stolen & bought Africans played against stolen & bought Africans, all brightly displaying the logos of multinational corporations (MNCs) that pillage the world & their countries of origin. The imperialists cheered their national teams on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The finals were played out on soil stolen by the leading imperialist & English-speaking, Protestant-ruled settler-colonial state. This state (USA) has demanded the flouting of the rules of the game, while, off-field, is fighting undeclared wars around the world. A mainly working-class game, football,has now been hijacked, becoming unaffordable for most people to attend or even watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Where, we wondered, would ee<\/em><\/strong>\u2019s muse, SBD de Silva, place Argentina, a country with double the population of Sri Lanka, with about 20% being mestizo & indigenous, and a leader, proud of his white colonial forebears who brandishes a chain saw to symbolize the cutting away of social services to the people. A country that has also had to endure unadvertised \u2018Dirty Little Wars\u2019, that were more than \u2018dirty\u2019 & certainly, more than \u2018little\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     A reviewer of SBD de Silva\u2019s classic text The Political Economy of Underdevelopment<\/em>, which ee<\/em><\/strong> keeps serializing, once wrote that SB \u2018provided invaluable source material for the analysis of Africa in contrast to the settler colonies established in temperate areas such as North America, the Cape, Australia & New Zealand\u2019. Yet, she (Diana Tussie of the London School of Economics) wondered: \u2018An open question is where to place, within this settler\/non-settler dichotomy, the temperate zone of South America.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     While Cuba & the Caribbean, British Guiana, Brazil & Suriname feature prominently in SBD\u2019s book, Argentina only figures briefly, as when providing evidence, along with Canada, Australia & New Zealand, of having industries showing \u2018high efficiency without having access to particularly large markets\u2019. SBD was responding to \u2018those who regard the size of markets to be a barrier to industrial growth\u2019, saying they \u2018may do well to ponder on the extremely small market in these countries with which the settler \/investors started\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     However, SBD also gives Argentina as an example where \u2018the MNCs exercise their countervailing power in devious ways. For instance, when Argentina imposed price controls on pharmaceuticals in 1975, the European firms retaliated through their governments at the \u2018Paris Club\u2019 talks which were to decide on aid to Argentina.\u2019 (enter: the unquiet ghost of Senaka Bibile!) Indeed, Argentina has also suffered the machinations of Wall Street fund managers, many of whom have featured in Sri Lanka\u2019s own debt bondage as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     SBD also mentions Argentina as an example of a country lacking sovereignty over its investment decisions. He quotes LH Jenks\u2019 Migration of British Capital to 1875<\/em> on \u2018semi-economies\u2019, where: \u2018There is no Egyptian, Argentinean, almost no Indian, certainly no Cuban or Peruvian economic system. They form organic portions of the English or US economic system.\u2019 However, SBD goes on to add (differing from \u2018dependency\u2019 & \u2018drain\u2019 theorists), that even if the capital was retained in Sri Lanka, no investment in industrialization would ensue, due to the dominance of merchants & moneylenders, who operate on behalf of absentee owners far away in New York, London & Berlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The USA, a country so far far away from Sri Lanka, has become the \u2018largest single-country market\u2019 for Sri Lanka. So forget the daily eco-conferences (who pays for them?), whining about \u2018green\u2019 this & that, \u2018sustainable\u2019 this & that, \u2018carbon footprints\u2019, \u2018near-shoring\u2019 or \u2018friend-shoring\u2019: This \u2018largest single-country market\u2019 so far, far away \u2013 unless it is cruising on a nearby destroyer off a stolen base like Diego Garcia \u2013 is now telling us that they will only buy goods from us that are made with goods (& machinery too, we imagine!) approved by them; goods made with goods made in ways approved by them. And why not? They are our \u2018largest single-country market\u2019, and they have the \u2018human\u2019 right to choose what they will & will not buy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     We cannot hold a gun or intercontinental ballistic missile to their heads, enact & enforce sanctions, and tell them what to buy or sell. And so that country, which still legalizes slavery (check its constitution\u2019s 13th Amendment) tells us we cannot sell them goods made by forced labor. And how do we know which countries use forced labor to make the goods we use to make other goods. The USA (aka United Slaves\/Settlers of Amnesia) will tell us. And they will continue to buy goods from those very same countries, goods they need so dearly like \u2018rare earths\u2019, and they will thereby be declared not made by forced labor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Around 90% of global trade is transported by sea,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

supported by over 55,000 merchant vessels &<\/p>\n\n\n\n

around 1.5 million seafarers, with around 60%<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of global container traffic linked to Asia.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 ee Business<\/em><\/strong>, <\/em><\/strong>Australia backs Sri Lanka<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From England \u2018rules the waves\u2019 to the USA \u2018blocks the straits\u2019, this \u2018largest single-country market\u2019 has decided they reserve the right to keep all of Asia\u2019s seas under control, from the Red to the Yellow\u2026 And so, this country so far far away from us, also reserves the right to bomb ships of countries that have been much closer to us for thousands of years, countries that have shared and traded with us, and so this \u2018largest single-country market\u2019 will get to tell us who we can and cannot trade with, and whose ships can sail by or into our ports, unharmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     So, why do they feel they can tell us what to do, and why can we not tell them to stuff their demands up where their sun can\u2019t tan? By making the country \u2018export-dependent\u2019 on their markets rather than our own home & regional markets. Such that, just before every IMF team appears (& thanks to our declamation \u2013 see ee<\/em><\/strong> 16 March 2025, IMF Managing Directors are All White<\/em>, which was meant in a more politically pigmented sense \u2013 they are now fronted, manned & womaned by darkies & almost-darkies of Mediterranean hue), US military officials appear ahead of them, to lay down their demands before their dollared largesse \u2013 albeit limited \u2013 flows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Why is it that the IMF, which insists that<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the prices of fuel, electricity,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

& water in Sri Lanka should reflect their<\/p>\n\n\n\n

production costs, does not apply the same<\/p>\n\n\n\n

principle to the price of paddy?\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Kekirawa Farmer Leader<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(see ee Random Notes<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I want to make it clear: CBSL does not promote<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

economic growth or productivity or FDI in the economy<\/strong>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Central Bank (CBSL) Governor N Weerasinghe<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Central Bank will remain steadfast in fulfilling its mandate<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to maintain price stability & safeguard financial system<\/p>\n\n\n\n

stability, while setting the platform for sustainable<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

& inclusive economic growth<\/strong>.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Central Bank (CBSL) Governor N Weerasinghe<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strange are the contortions their armed & suited officials have got our intellectual knickers twisted into. We are now told that we need a Central Bank that is independent<\/em> of us & will not help grow the economy, but is still not independent of their Federal Reserve (that is controlled by & helps bail out the biggest banks on Wall Street). This Central Bank and allied economists & bankers tell us that Sri Lanka \u2018macroeconomy\u2019 is doing fine but people are being sent to hell via Welikada or Dubai\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colombo-based Ambeon Capital<\/strong> is accused of being a local front for a predatory English mining corporation, Capital Metals<\/strong> PLC. Their \u2018Taprobane Minerals Project\u2019 claiming a 60km stretch of the Eastern coast from Komari to Oluvil, is \u2018built on extraction, not value addition\u2019 declares Amali Wedagedera. Capital Metal claims credit for shifting the Geological Survey & Mining Bureau (GSMB), from the Ministry of Environment to the Ministry of Industries! Yet they scoff at harnessing the country\u2019s mineral wealth for industrializing the country and upskilling workers in the most modern ways (see ee Focus<\/strong><\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Ambeon Capital offers stock-broking through Ambeon Securities, and money-broking via Taprobane Investments. This week, Ambeon Securities\u2019 recent \u2018exclusive investor forum\u2019 featured Baqar Zaidi, Director & Chief Economist for Sri Lanka & India at Citi Research, linked to Rockefeller\u2019s Exxon empire (see ee Who\u2019s Who?<\/em><\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Ambeon Holdings, a conglomerate holding company for Ambeon Capital, claims roots in the old English agency house Walkers (not Johhny!) which supplied agricultural machinery to the highland plantations. Walkers was linked to the Peninsular & Orient Corporation (P&O<\/strong>), the foremost shipping line engaged in the Indian Ocean trade, which had the contract to carry the imperial mails, and set up England\u2019s monopoly over the Bombay-China opium trade from 1850s. P&O had set up the Ceylon Wharfage Company as a subsidiary to do the cargo handling for ships, for their imports and exports in the Colombo Port. The P&O also had another firm, Mackinnon Mackenzie, which did shipping agency work. Their engineering firm, Walkers, originally the Marine Engineering Co, serviced the ships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Wedagedera offers important political background about the grab for \u2018our heavy mineral sands (HMS<\/strong>) from public beaches\u2019 and spins a cautionary tale, though she worries too much for a parasitic tourist industry. She also rates India & China as \u2018developed<\/em> countries\u2019, alongside the imperialist strongholds, repeating tropes about a \u2018US trade war on China\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     But this \u2018war\u2019 is not just about \u2018trade\u2019. It is also about industrial production and preserving monopoly over technology \u2013 indeed, it is a war to sustain & extend colonial control over the whole world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018China\u2019s rapid technological advances offer hope for the Global South to break the dominance & dependence imposed by the West,\u2019 declares Bappa Sinha in his incisive take on \u2018Breaking the Stranglehold: How China is Shattering US Technological Hegemony\u2019 (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>). He unveils a \u2018confrontation between 2 fundamentally different logics of technological development<\/strong>: one rooted in monopoly & rent extraction<\/strong>, the other in production, scale, & diffusion<\/strong>. At stake is not only US primacy, but the viability of technological monopoly as the foundation of contemporary imperialism\u2019 (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>). They begin with what the USA \u2018believed to be its most secure stronghold: semiconductors\u2019. He then describes \u2018the silicon siege\u2019 as representing \u2018the most ambitious peacetime economic warfare apparatus in modern history\u2019. Bappa\u2019s tale unwinds like a scientific non-fiction detective novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We turn to the next great \u2018siege\u2019: NATO\u2019s war on Russia waged via the Ukraine, and the historic & unprecedented role Russia has played in Africa, as opposed to the horrors Europe has enacted there. We have rendered in poetic form, South Africa\u2019s Gillian Schutte\u2019s \u2018Stand-up Sermon for the Geopolitically Confused\u2026\u2019 (See ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>). Schutte likens the barrage of misinformation & disinformation to a thief of all ages attempting to deliver a lecture \u2018on \u2018home security.\u2019  Most hilarious are the antics of well-dollared NGOs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They book a hotel. They print lanyards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They give everyone a tote bag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They say \u2018capacity building\u2019 47 times before lunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A report is produced. A consultant is paid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A dashboard is launched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A young fellow is photographed near a banner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democracy has happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then everyone goes home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing is built.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No power station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No railway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No laboratory\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The countries at the forefront of a worldwide struggle for sovereignty are detailed in our latest excerpt of the Tricontinental Institute\u2019s study: Hyper-Imperialism: a Dangerous Decadent New Stage<\/em><\/strong>, Part 9. This excerpt provides a quick glimpse of such vital details as the colonial powers that have attempted to maintain their centuries of subjugation, and their dates with independence, the USA\u2019s attempts at military intervention, and their strivings to form larger alliances, from East to West Africa, and across West Asia. A snapshot of the world as it turns today, and how it may spin in the larger world\u2019s interests (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The colonial plantation system controlled workers, by restricting their movements \u2013 this required the English colonial government to actively intervene on behalf of the planters. ee<\/em><\/strong> therefore continues SBD de Silva\u2019s survey of labour relations on plantations in Chapter 12 of his classic The Political Economy of Underdevelopment<\/em>. SBD describes how the planters exaggerated the benefits provided to workers, and the \u2018bald comparisons\u2019 made between Chinese & Indian workers in Malaysia\u2019s plantations to justify exploitation. The so-called \u2018market mechanism\u2019, much acclaimed, was regularly suspended when labor became scarce. The huge disparity between the wages paid to Chinese & \u2018underpriced\u2019 Indian workers offers insight into the plantation system as a \u2018mode of labour organization & control\u2019. The games played to justify the varying treatment of workers, women & men, using racialized justifications is also exposed by explaining the \u2018modes of recruitment & their relative mobility.\u2019 SB then provides the nonsensical classifications of \u2018ethnic groups\u2019. \u2018The North Indians come out best, followed by the Chinese; the Malays are placed below the Chinese & the South Indians at the bottom.\u2019 One of SBD de Silva\u2019s most incisive analyses is how: Explanations of personality differences \u2018rely on a limited chain of causation<\/strong>\u2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wage labour is not a spontaneous creation<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

but a very definite socio-economic process<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

involving the subjection of independent small<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

producers to a capitalist employer. The resort<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

to ethnic stereotypes fails to explain the objective<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

circumstances which gave different social groups<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

the option of alternative employment patterns<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

SBD also analyses the different roles played by the Chinese contractor vs the Indian kangany, based on their access to workers in the home country. Also, the \u2018specific historical experiences\u2019 of \u2018personal humiliation, if not physical cruelty\u2019 that had more influence than \u2018ethnic prejudice\u2019. Meanwhile quotas, civil war & travel fares led to a scarcity of labor and with buoyant rubber prices led to a more favorable treatment of Chinese workers in Malaysia\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contents:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
England\u2019s Capital Metals PLC & the Corporate Thieving of Mineral Sands off East Coast Beaches in Sri Lanka<\/a><\/blockquote>