Environment minister rejects Meares Soputan operation

The State Minister of Environment will say no to the mining operations conducted by Meares Soputan Mining Pte Ltd. (MSM) at Toka Tindung gold project in North Sulawesi, if the latter fails to obtain the Analysis Concerning Environmental Impact (Amdal) report.

The Minister?s office is ready to face arbitration if MSM is not satisfied with the government?s decision.

? The problem is Amdal report is not yet finished. That?s why, the submarine tailing disposal (STD) permit was not issued,? Minister of Environment Rachmat Witoelar told the Investor Daily in Jakarta on Wednesday night.

Rachmat insisted that his office never issued license to MSM. If MSM wants to take the case to the international arbitration because its Amdal permit was rejected, his office is ready to face it.

Earlier Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro has urged the Ministry of Environment to issue a license of the Amdal for MSM.

Purnomo expressed the fear that unless the Ministry of Environment issued the permit, MSM might take the case to an international arbitrary. "I have reminded the Minister of Environment about this," Purnomo said in March 5.

MSM is a unit of UK miner Archipelago Resources(*)