More environment charges against Newmont

After Minahasa, it is now the turn of Bolmong regency to attack PT Newmont Minahasa Raya, a subsidiary of the United States-based Newmont Corporation.

Legislators in the Bolomong regency, which also like Minahasa, is part of North Sulawesi province, has intensified their charges against the alleged environmental damage caused by the gold mining operator, Manado Pos reported on Thursday.

The legislators met on Wednesday and agreed to demand the central government to close Newmont's tailing disposal system in the Buyat Bay because, according to them, the tailings, which contained mercury and other hazardous substances, could damage the life of the people.

They feared that the impact of the submarine waste disposal system would be as fatal as that occurred in Minamata, Japan. According to reports many children have been born abnormally after their mothers consumed fish caught from the heavily polluted Minamata Sea, the waste disposal area of a chemical company.

The local government in Minahasa regency recently sued the company for not paying the local tax on the C-class mineral materials such as gravel, sand, stone and soil it removed from its mining site. But it later dropped the case after the two parties agreed to settle the case out of the court.

According to the daily, the opposition from the Bolmong 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 receives the gold while we get their waste," he said.

The company defended the submarine dump system, saying that it has been tested and has proved that it causes no negative environmental impact.

But environmental activists said that the river through which the mining company dumped its tailing had been badly polluted. They said that many local people, the frequent users of the river have suffered skin disease. (*)