Councilors call on Newmont to take care of tailing pipeline
Monday, March 12 2001 - 04:30 AM WIB
West Nusa Tenggara provincial council called on copper and gold mining company PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (NNT) to pay more attention at the maintenance of its tailing pipeline, according to a report.
The maintenance of the tailing pipeline was a "must" for the United States-based mining firm, spokesman for the council's commission D Huzaini Areka was quoted by Kompas daily as saying Saturday in the provincial capital of Mataram.
Huzaini made the statement while reporting the result of the commission's recent working visit to the company's mine in Batu Hijau, Sekongkang village, Sumbawa.
The working visit followed reports that the company's tailing pipeline leaked in January this year.
During the working visit, the commission found that Newmont had only welded broken pipes rather than replace them, Huzaini said.
"This shows the un-professionalism of PT NNT as a qualified and reputed company," Huzaini said.
The commission also found that the rubber-made cover of the pipes were only loosely attached to the pipes, Huzaini added.
"After checking, we did not find any stocks of pipe to replace broken pipes at the company's warehouse," Huzaini further said.
Huzaini said even though the company had quickly repaired the broken pipes, the company had yet to boost its maintenance of the pipeline and prepare pipe stocks to replace broken pipes.
Huzaini said the company should take the measures in line with the public's growing care about environment today.
Kompas source said prior to the January incident, the pipeline leaked in November last year.
The company did not replace the pipe, which was broken during the November incident, because it was still usable. The company only welded it and replaced its rubber cover with a new one, the source said.
Later, after making inspection, the company found 24 pipes, which were about to leak. It replaced all the pipes on Feb 20, the source said.
The source said the company had already 10 reserve pipes imported from Australia at its warehouse to replace any broken pipes in the future. This shows the company's awareness of the reliability of its tailing pipeline and it was committed to the maintenance of the pipelines, the source said. (*)