Newmont awaits govt guidelines to conduct ERA study

PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (NMR) said that it still awaits the government's instructions to carry out an Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) study on its gold mine operation in Minahasa, North Sulawesi, Tempo Interaktif reported.

"We have received no guidelines about how to perform the ERA study. Meanwhile, we were given only six months to finish the study," David Sompie, PT NMR's Environment Superintendent was quoted as saying.

More precisely, only three months remain from the six-month time allotment for the PT NMR study. "Three months is a very short time to perform a risk analysis study," David said. The ERA, he added, is not a simple study.

The study requires follow-up. David acknowledged the environmental changes that have occurred during PT NMR's operation. "Still, is it 'contamination'? We have always satisfied Indonesian environmental standards," he asserted.

As reported earlier, the Governor of North Sulawesi, A.J. Sondakh, urged the central government to speed up the follow-up research on Newmont mine waste.

The Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal) Head for North Sulawesi, Drs. S.A. Kindangen, wrote to the Ministry for the Environment to request the immediate formation of an ERA team. However, the State Minister for the Environment and the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources has yet to respond to the request. (*)