Another Newmont unit asked to pay local tax

The criticism of the legislators of the Bolmong regency, one several regencies in North Sulawesi, has been spreading to other unit of Newmont operation in the province after being focused on the submarine waste system of the United States-based operator's gold mine in Minahasa.

Manado Pos reported on Friday that members of the legislative council in the regency have asked PT Newmont Mangandouw Mining (PT NMM), another subsidiary of the American mining firm in the province after Newmont Minahasa Raya (NMR), to pay the local tax on the C-class mineral resources excavated by the company.

"It is not fair if Newmont Minahasa Raya pays the tax while Newmont Mangandouw in our backyard does not," one of the legislators said, adding that the company only paid property tax of about Rp 106 million (US$1=Rp 8,000) since its operation in the regency in 1995.

Paul Hehuwur, an executive of PT NMM, said that the company was not supposed to pay the local tax as the company was still in stage of surveying. "The excavation works are currently limited only for sampling. How could we pay the tax for such kind of materials," he said.

Previously, the criticism of the Bolmong legislators was focused on the submarine waste disposal of the PT NMR at the Buyat Bay, part of the regency but used as the dumpsite of PT NMM, which operated in Minahasa, another regency in the province.

The legislators met on Wednesday and agreed to demand the central government to close Newmont's tailing disposal system in the bay because, according to them, the tailings, which contained mercury and other hazardous substances, could damage the life of the people.

They feared that the impact of the submarine waste disposal system would be as fatal as that occurred in Minamata, Japan. According to reports many children have been born abnormally after their mothers consumed fish caught from the heavily polluted Minamata Sea, the waste disposal area of a chemical company.

The local government in Minahasa regency recently sued PT NMR for not paying the local tax on the C-class mineral materials such as gravel, sand, stone and soil it removed from its mining site. But it later dropped the case after the two parties agreed to settle the case out of the court.

The gold mine operator previously rejected the local tax payment, besides it is not part of the contract, it is an absurd idea to pay the overburden, which has no commercial value. But the local government said that part of the overburden was used by the company to build roads and other infrastructure. (*)