Govt studies Newmont?s ecological risk assessment

A team representing government and PT Newmont Minahasa Raya experts are currently studying the company?s ecological risk assessment (ERA) to ensure whether the United States-based mining company will be able to get permit for its submarine tailings ground in its North Sulawesi gold mine, according to Media Indonesia daily.

Media Indonesia reported on Friday that the team was still discussing the methods of the company in conducting the risk assessment.

Newmont has operated for years its submarine tailings placement in the Buyat Bay in the Minahasa regency but the company has been required only recently to carry out the ecological risk assessment following the local people?s outcry about the impact of the undersea disposal area.

One of the team member acknowledged that such an assessment should be conducted as the precondition before the company received a permit to begin its operation. ?But for Newmont, it is an exception,? he added.

Last month, State Minister for Environmental Affairs and Chairman of the Environmental Impact Management Agency, Sonny Keraf, Newmont?s ecological risk assessment (ERA) on the ground that the assessment was not based on procedures set by his office.

He said that Newmont Minahasa, one of two Indonesian subsidiaries of the United States-based Newmont Corporation, was required to carry out the ERA studies to allow the company to get a permit for its submarine tailings ground in the Buyat bay near its gold mines in Minahasa, North Sulawesi.

Newmont Minahasa and its sister company Newmont Nusa Tenggara have all adopted submarine technology to dump their tailings or mineral waste but the use of the technology has sparked criticism from environmental activists and the local residents due to their negative impact on the environment.

Both companies have only secured provisional permits from the government for the operation of their submarine tailings grounds.(*)