Govt has not decided on PT NNT's tailing permit

The office of the State Minister of the Environment has yet to decide on whether to approve or reject the request of gold and copper miner PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (PT NNT) for an extension of its Subsea Tailing Placement (STP), which will expire next month, the Investor Daily reported on Monday.

?Not yet. It is still being reviewed whether we?ll extend or end it,? said Isa Karmisa Adiputra, a deputy of the minister, adding that the office would take into account the current Buyat case in its decision.

A PT NNT mining affiliate, PT Newmont Minahasa Raya, has been alleged of polluting the local Buyat Bay in Minahasa, North Sulawesi.

Isa acknowledged that until now there has been no precise definition of sea water pollution, due to the absence of data simulation system to detect sea water pollution. This has partly caused some difficulties for the office to decide on PT NNT?s request.

PT NNT, which operates gold mine in Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), has claimed that its STP system was safe to the environment.

In a previous press release, PT NNT said that a monitoring result verified by third independent parties, such as the Independent Team of NTB, Center for Oceanography Research of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (P2O LIPI) and the Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation - CSIRO (Australia) indicate that the STP system is safe and meets the applicable regulations.

The statement added that the government of West Sumbawa had provided recommendation for the application of permit extension.(*)