Newmont blockade ends, production re-starts

The week-long road blockage at PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (PT NMR) mine site ended peacefully today, the company's management announced, when the demonstrators voluntarily took down a tent that had been blocking the road and allowed supply trucks to enter the site. Supplies reached the mill and mine for the first time in a week and operations resumed.

"We're very relieved that this situation was resolved peacefully," said Paul Lahti, PT NMR's General Manager. "The win-win solution in this case was the ending of a tense situation without any incident occurring and the resumption of our operations as normal," commented Lahti.

Lahti went on to say that the company recognizes that the underlying dispute still needs to be resolved to the satisfaction of all the parties involved.

"Since the beginning of this dispute over re-compensation for land use, the company has maintained that we were willing to talk to people who felt that they had been unfairly treated in the process, and review their claims on a case-by-case basis," said Lahti. "It appears now that we will be able to start that process," he said.

The company also praised the approach taken by the local government and the Police in dealing with the situation. PT NMR stated that the company had asked the authorities to ensure that any resolution to the roadblock issue was handled peaceably. After intensive but sporadic consultations over the course of the week, the negotiations succeeded in convincing the demonstrators that their course of action was not productive.

"We always felt that there were other alternatives available to the demonstrators and the actions they were taken were divisive and potentially dangerous to the wellbeing of the community," said Lahti. "We are pleased that the people agreed that there were other alternatives for ending the dispute."

The company restated its belief that the payments made for the land were fair and that the vast majority of the people who benefited from the program were pleased. For those who were demonstrating at the roadblock, the company said it hoped that they could enter into direct discussions to better understand what was motivating the actions of the people. The company asked the community to stay committed to discussions and other alternative dispute resolution efforts in order to avoid the potential for conflict in the future.

"I hope that people begin to understand that when mining companies are shut down in actions such as these, nobody wins except the third parties that often play around with these issues," said Lahti. "The community benefits from the presence of the mine and the mine benefits from good relations with the community. The only people happy when mines are closed down are the people who manipulate the local situations for political or financial gain. Certainly the local people and the company don't benefit," commented Lahti. (*)