Newmont bids Minahasa farewell, offers $15m: Report
Monday, May 22 2006 - 02:38 AM WIB
?The post-mine activities began in August 2004 and will end in 2007. Then a team from the energy and mineral resources ministry will conduct an evaluation,? NMR external manager David Sompie told Antara on Sunday.
David said the main activity was the reclamation and rehabilitation of the land affected by gold mining and production activities.
?Out of 20 hectares, land used for mining, 85 percent of them have been reclaimed and rehabilitated,? he said,
NMR started its operations in Ratatotok in 1996 and ended them in October 2001, while gold core processing was shut down on Aug. 31,2004 due to depleting resources. In the course of its eight years of operation, it extracted an estimated 1.9 million ounces, or 60 million grams, of gold and paid US$104 million in taxes and royalties, Antara reported
The, government filed a suit against the company for allegedly polluting Buyat Bay in North Sulawesi with waste containing mercury and arsenic, which allegedly caused illnesses among residents.
The suit, however was dropped by the South Jakarta District Court in February, saying it did not have the jurisdiction to hear the case. The dispute was then settled outside court, with NMR willing to pay $30 million within 10 years as compensation.
Aside from the civil suit, however, the Indonesian government also filed a criminal suit, which is currently being heard at Manado District Court in North Sulawesi. (*)