Govt to set up new team to study Newmont waste

The government will establish an independent team to study the impact of the waste deposal system of PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (NMR) in North Sulawesi in a response to the public's outcries over the impact of the mine waste site to their livelihood, Tempo Interaktif reported on Thursday.

S.A. Kindangan, the head of the provincial office of the environment impact control agency (Bapedal) in North Sulawesi said on Wednesday that unlike the two previous independent teams, which were financed by Newmont, the new team would receive funding from the Ministry of Mines and Energy.

The new team would also involve the office of the Bolaang Mongdow regency, which hosts the dumping site.

The previous two independent teams, which were also established in response to the people's opposition against the existence of the dumping area, showed different results. One team said that the impact of the dumping site had exceeded the tolerable level and the other one said that it was still within the tolerable level set by the government.

Legislators in the Bolaang Mongdow regency, which also like Minahasa, is part of North Sulawesi province, has asked the central government to close Newmont's tailing disposal system in the Buyat Bay in the regency. They said the mineral tailings (waste) dumped into the bay contained mercury and other hazardous substances and could damage the life of the people.

According to observers, the opposition emerged not merely due to the alleged pollution done by the company but also due to jealousy. One legislator said he really could not accept that Newmont, which operated its gold mine along away in Minahasa, dumped their waste in Bolmong.

Minahasa, one of regencies in North Sulawesi, host the gold mine site of the United States-based gold mine company. (*)