Bambang ignores Newmont's environment problem

Green activist group Walhi criticized Minister of Mines and Energy Bambang S.B. Yudhoyono's blind support to PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (NMR) in Minahasa, North Sulawesi, which has been widely charged with causing environmental damage to its surroundings, Detikcom reported on Tuesday.

Walhi said in a statement on Monday that Bambang's statement that the gold mining company did nothing wrong with the environment reflect the lack of the minister's concern on the need to protect the environment.

"We really feel sad about the minister's blind support to the company," the green activist group said, adding that based on the group's findings, the gold mine company's operation had caused heavy pollution especially in its tailing disposal system. During his visit to the province on Monday, the minister said that Newmont's mining operations caused no environmental damages to surrounding communities.

The environmental organization charged that the river through which the mining company dumped its tailing had been badly polluted. They said that many local people, the frequent users of the river have suffered skin disease.

The district court in Tondano officially dropped on Monday the legal suit filed by the Minahasa authority after the disputing parties agreed to settle the cause out of the court.

The local government in Minahasa regency sued the company 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. (*)