Freeport will stop operation for two weeks

Freeport Indonesia has decided to stop the operation at its open-pit mine in Grasberg, Mimika, Papua for two weeks following a landslide on Thursday that killed two of its workers, Media Indonesia reported on Saturday.

Minister of Mines and Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said in Jakarta on Friday that the operation of the open-pit mine site could not be carried out because all the equipment were buried by materials of rocks of over 2.3 million tons.

"Freeport will replace all the equipment so that activities could be resumed within two weeks from now. We hope the incident will not result in the fall in the government's royalties," he said, adding that Freeport paid royalties of about US$75 million a year.

Freeport's president Adrianto Machribie said that the halt in the operation in the Grasberg mine site could not be categorized as a force majeure because the company's activities on the underground mine site still continued normally.

"The force majeure measure is usually taken if there is a major natural disaster," he said. (*)