133,000 hectares of Freeport mining site heavily damaged

More than 133,000 hecatres of land, part of gold and copper mining concessions owned by PT Freeport Indonesia have been hevaily damaged, according to a finding of the office of the Environment Imapact Management Board (Bapedal) in the province.

Moh Ali Kastella MMP, a senior official at Bapedal, said on Thursday that the ecosysmtem in the areas had been heavily damaged as the giant company did not fully carry out the reclamation program as required.

"Based on our survey, 133,000 hectares of at Freeport's mining sites in Tembagapura, Grasberg and Ertsberg have been heavily damaged due to massive mining operations since the company started its mining activities in early 70s," he said.

He said that the reclamation works were carried out only on about 124 hectares of the old mining sites, especially in the area used by company to dumpen the tailing through Ajkwa and Oyomona rivers.

He said that the result of the environment audit on the company's activities were rejected by State Minister of Environment partly due to the lack of disclosure in describing the level of the destruction resulting from its mining operations.

Separately, Minister of Mining and Energy Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the fact finding mission recently established by the ministry to study the legal aspect of the gold and copper mining giant's contracts.

Freeport Indonesia, the world's largest gold producer, has been underfire not only due to the negative impact of its activities to the environment but also on its failure to follow the contracts.

The company, according to the contract, should divest up to 55 percent of its stake to local companies within 20 years period after the start of its commercial production. But it did not follow the rule on the ground that other govermment regulations allowed foreign investors to own up to 100 percent stake in locally incorporated companies. (*)