Newmont Minahasa Raya rejects government's lawsuit
Saturday, April 23 2005 - 03:53 AM WIB
The North Sulawesi-based gold mining operator PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (NMR) formally submitted its objection against the legal suit filed by the office of the state minister of environment to the South Jakarta court, Koran Tempo reported on Saturday.
The letter of objection addressed to the state minister of environment was read out by the company's lawyer Hafsan Taher during the second trial proceeding held at the South Jakarta on Thursday.
The company's lawyer said in the company's objection that under the contract of works signed by NMR with the Indonesian government, any dispute should be settled through an international arbitrary. The company rejected the jurisdiction of the South Jakarta court to handle the case.
Meanwhile the lawyer of the state minister of environment, Soedarto sai that his client insisted the court to continue the legal proceeding. "But if there is a request to seek out of the court settlement, we will wait and see," he added.
The court asked the two parties to respectively name their mediators before resuming the trial proceeding on Monday.
The office state minister of environment filed legal suit against NMR for damaging the environment surrounding the company's undersea tailing dumping ground in the Buyat bay, close its mining site in Minahasa, North Sulawesi. It seeks a compensation of about US$117 million for the material damages and another Rp 150 billion for non-material damages.
According to the intergovernmental investigation team Newmont has failed to effectively monitor the detoxification process of the tailings before they were dumped into the bay, resulting in high levels of metal substance particularly in arsenic in the water around the tailing disposal area. Newmont Minahasa Raya denied all the charge. (*)