Newmont executive questions pollution charge

Newmont Australia managing director John Dow alleged Wednesday that "strange behaviour", rather than concern about the environment, is behind pollution claims at Buyat Bay on North Sulawesi Island, Asia Pulse reported.

The long saga has seen five Newmont Mining Corp executives, including an Australian, detained for a month.

They have since been released but still face the possibility of jail terms and 500 million rupiah fines.

Dow said the World Health Organisation (WHO), the CSIRO and another independent body have cleared the company of being responsible for unacceptable levels of arsenic in the bay.

He said samples were collected at "the same point, at the same time, the same day, the same locations" at the bay and separately analysed.

Dow said the independent organisations found the quality of water and fish were above national standards.

But the only piece of data which did not show that were from samples collected by the Indonesian police.

"We don't have an issue there but that's not the view of the local police chief," he told a Brisbane Mining Club luncheon.

"It would be fair to say that what's been happening in Indonesia has nothing to so with pollution or the environment.

"There is very strange behaviour happening."

Local Indonesian authorities alleged arsenic in the bay came from tailings of waste produced by the mine.

Activists in August claimed 30 Buyat residents had died of Minamata disease, but studies by the WHO and Japan's Minamata Institute found no evidence.

Dow said the situation at Buyat Bay "can't be helping" Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono call for more foreign investment in the country.

The world's largest gold miner, Newmont began production at Buyat in 1996 but finished looking for gold almost three years ago.

Dow said the Indonesian authorities were putting together a comprehensive report on all the samplings and he expected it to be made public in the near future.(*)