Minister of Environment refutes Newmont's statement

Minister of Environment Sonny Keraf has refuted a statement made by a senior executive of PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara that the mining company's undersea tailings ground does not cause a pollution in the Indonesian Ocean.

The minister said that it was too early to say that the company's undersea tailings ground in Went Nusa Tenggara province did not pollute the sea. He said that a comprehensive study was needed to ensure that the undersea dumping ground did not cause pollution problem.

"Bapedal (the government's industrial impact management agency) is finalizing its survey. The agency will inform the public whenever the survey is completed," he was quoted by Kompas daily as saying.

Meanwhile the deputy chairman of the agency Masnellyyanti Hilman said that the agency was evaluating the data related to the company's undersea tailings operation. "We are still waiting for bio-essai data from Newmont," she added.

Although the agency had yet to issue its conclusion related to the company's undersea dumping ground, it is certain that all dumping technologies will have a negative consequence to the environment, she added.

Indonesia' environmental group Walhi recently called on the United States-based Newmont Corporation to close submarine tailings placements in its two mining subsidiaries in Indonesia, saying the operation of the undersea tailings grounds could not be justified.

"The company's technologies used to dump tailings into the sea could not be justified. They therefore should be closed," the agency's senior executive said.

Newmont Nusa Tenggara, which operates copper and gold mines in West Nusa Tenggara, is one of Indonesian subsidiaries of the United States-based Newmont Corporation. The other subsidiaries Newmont Minahasa Raya operates gold mines in North Sulawesi. Both companies dumped their mineral waste, or railings into the sea.(*)