Govt orders Freeport to reduce production

The government has ordered giant gold and copper mining company PT Freeport Indonesia to cut down production to below 200,000 tons per day from the current 2230,000 tons per day, according to the Republika daily in its Friday edition.

The paper said that the decision was made at a cabinet meeting held on Wednesday.

Minister of Environment Sonny Keraf said that the recent fatal landslide accident at Freeport's Lake Wanagon waste dumping site, which had killed four employees, was a proof that the company's production level was already beyond the local environment capacity.

"The accident is an evidence that the production capacity has produced tailing and overburden (waste materials) at level beyond the capacity of the environment to absorb," Sonny said.

He added that such accident was the third over the past two years. "There's a strong suspicion that this was caused by Freeport's negligence."

Separately, Freeport Indonesia spokesman Mindo Pangaribuan said declined to comment on the government decision, pointing out that the company had not received the result of the cabinet meeting.

But Mindo said that the company would always cooperate with the government.

He also said that since the recent Lake Wanagon landslide, the company had lowered production level. He didn't give figure.

He added that the company had no longer dump its tailing and overburden waste materials into the Wanagon Lake but into a new area in Carstenz field.

The government had recently banned Freeport from dumping its waste products into the Wanagon Lake following the landslide accident. The banning will prevail until the company could come up with a new mechanism that would prevent similar accident from reoccurring in the future. The solution must be approved by the government.

Many have said that the ban would automatically force Freeport to reduce its production level because the capacity of the Carstenz waste-dumping site is not as large as the Wanagon Lake.

Meanwhile Sonny also said that Freeport must clean up all the destruction caused by the landslide, and the company must also pay compensation for the local people whose assets had been destroyed by the accident.

Sonny added that the company must also allow police investigation into the death of the four employees of Freeport's contractor. (*)