Indonesia Orders Freeport To Improve Waste Mgmt, Or Face
Lawsuit
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Tapol
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Mar 23, 2006 04:22 PST
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also: Freeport says recommendations will not affect production
Indonesia Orders Freeport To Improve Waste Mgmt
JAKARTA, March 23 (AP)--Indonesia's government Thursday threatened legal
action against U.S. mining giant Freeport unless the company improved the
environmental record of its massive gold mine in Papua province.
The announcement follows several recent demonstrations against the company,
some of which have called on the government to take over the mine, run by a
local unit of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX).
Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar said the mine would be given between
"two and three years" to undertake improvements in the management of the
millions of tons of waste ore, known as tailings, that are pumped out of the
mine each year.
Reacting to the announcement, Freeport spokesman Siddharta Moersjid the
company "has the same objective as the Ministry of Environment, which is to
minimize the impact of our mining operations to the environment."
He said the company would continue to cooperate with the ministry.
The environment minister said there were fears that tailings could start
piling
up and possibly trigger landslides or flooding in communities living close to
the
mine in the highlands of Papua province in Indonesia's far east.
Witoelar said that if the problems remained unresolved then his ministry
would
file a lawsuit against the mine, similar to the one that was pursued against
fellow U.S. miner Newmont (NEM) over alleged pollution at its mine.
Witoelar made the declaration after receiving a report by a team of
independent experts tasked with assessing whether Freeport's mine was
damaging the
environment. He said the mine had committed various violations, of which the
tailing issues was the most pressing.
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Freeport says recommendations will not affect production
JAKARTA, March 23 (Reuters) - Production and operations at the
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Indonesian unit's Grasberg mine
will not be affected by recommendations announced by Indonesia's
environment ministry on Thursday, a spokesman for the unit said.
"It will not be affected," Siddharta Moersjid told Reuters when asked
whether following the recommmendations will have an impact on the
mine's production and operations. -end-
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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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