Govt lifts ban on Freeport

The government has lifted the temporary ban on gold mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia in Irian Jaya to dispose its overburden waste material into the Wanagon Lake dumping site.

Director general of mining Surna T. Djajadiningrat said that the withdrawal of the ban, made sometime in the third week of December, had allowed Freeport to resume its normal gold production up to 240,000 tons of ore per day compared to around 180,000 tons per day during the banning period.

The government made the ban after a fatal landslide accident on the Wanagon Lake, which killed four people.

Surna was quoted by the Bisnis Indonesia daily as saying that the government had lifted the ban after Freeport managed to meet the government criteria including measures to prevent similar accident in the future. But Freeport had not been able to local alternative dumping site to the Wanagon Lake.

Surna did not provide details.

Asked if Freeport would be allowed to expand production up to 300,000 tons per day as previously planned, Surna warned that the company should now be very careful. He said that although the Wanagon dumping site could hold overburden waster material for 30 years, a poor management could cause another landslide accident in the future. (*)