KINIBIZ The red rage of public outcry over the bauxite fiasco in Pahang has mostly centred on environmental calamity, combined with the alleged ineptitude of state administration and enforcement agencies in tackling corruption and illegal mining.

Unfortunately, it also throws the spotlight yet again on another thorny and delicate subject - royalty and commerce. In this particular case, should the Pahang crown prince Tengku Abdullah Ibni Sultan Ahmad Shah be in the bauxite business?

Tengku Abdullah holds a direct and indirect interest totalling approximately 36 percent in public-listed Tanah Makmur Bhd, according to a regulatory filing on Dec 11, 2015. Although its core business is plantation, Tanah Makmur’s bauxite-related business activities have grown significantly since April 2014.

Tanah Makmur’s bauxite mining operations are mostly on land held by its property development division. For the 2014 financial year, Tanah Makmur posted RM386 million in revenue, of which RM86 million (or 22 percent) came from bauxite mining.

Local media have reported that Malaysia is a major supplier of bauxite to China, sending more than 20 million tonnes in 2015 compared to just under a million tonne in 2014.

According to Tanah Makmur’s 2014 annual report, it has an estimated 1.4 million tonnes of bauxite deposits on its land. Since April 2014, it has exported 684,389 metric tonnes of washed bauxite up to Dec 31, 2014, which is approximately 60-70 percent of Malaysia’s exports that year.

In 2015, it was reported that Malaysia’s bauxite export to China jumped exponentially to 20 million tonnes. It is not known what Tanah Makmur’s bauxite export volume is for 2015.

These are all matters of public record. Thus, it is clear that Tanah Makmur is a major player in the country’s bauxite industry, and by association, so is Tengku Abdullah.

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This article was written by Khairul Khalid.