Newmont critical of Indonesian NGOs role in employees? jailing

Newmont Mining Corp. is growing increasingly critical of the role nongovernmental organizations have played in the detention of five of its employees in an Indonesian jail on pollution allegations.

"It's sad that it has come to this because of allegations made by irresponsible NGOs," Newmont spokesman Doug Hock said in Denver on Monday as quoted by the Dow Jones Newswire. "It's a tragedy for us and for the people of Buyat (Bay) who are used to further the agendas of some of these groups."

Hock said he didn't know if Newmont, which has repeatedly denied the pollution allegations, would take action against the Coalition of Indonesian Environmental Groups (WALHI) and the Mining Advocacy Network (JATAM). Both NGOs are based in Indonesia.

Officials from Earthworks, a U.S.-based nonprofit environmental organization working with the Indonesian groups as part of its "No Dirty Gold" campaign, couldn't immediately be reached for comment Monday.

Indonesian police have held five Newmont employees in a Jakarta jail since Sept. 22, while police investigate allegations by residents that the company dumped mercury and arsenic-laced mine waste into Buyat Bay off the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

Newmont Chief Executive Wayne Murdy returned to the company's Denver headquarters last weekend from a weeklong trip to Indonesia to talk to employees there about the detentions and to work with government officials on their release. (*)