Newmont asks government to settle dispute through arbitration
Thursday, March 17 2005 - 02:55 AM WIB
The company's legal advisor Muhammad Kasmali said in Jakarta on Wednesday that a letter on NMR's request to settle the dispute through arbitration had been sent to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.
He said that NMR, in the letter, questioned the legal action taken by the Office of the State Minister of Environment against the mining company. "If we did something wrong, why should the government takes the case to the court, because under the contract of works, any dispute taking place should be referred to arbitration," he said.
The Office of the State Minister of Environment filed early this week a lawsuit against NMR, seeking a total of US$133.6 million in compensation from the company for allegedly polluting the Buyat Bay, near its mining site in North Sulawesi.
The government's test indicated arsenic level in the seabed were 100 times higher at the company's waste dumping site than in other parts of the bay. The polluted seawater had caused skin diseases to the villagers living around the bay. It is also believed that the pollution had caused the death of many rare sea spices.
NMR stopped its mining activities two years due to depletion of gold reserves, but it kept processing the ore until Aug. 24 when the mine was permanently closed. The company dumped its mineral waste into the seabed in the Buyat bay. (*)