Newmont Nusa Tenggara says no exploration on Sumbawa?s protected forests

Copper and gold miner PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (PTNNT) has not carried out any exploration activities in protected forest areas on Sumbawa Island in West Nusa Tenggara Province, its president director said Wednesday.

PTNNT will carry out such projects only after an environmental impact analysis on them has been completed and only if the government has approved analysis results, Robert Gallagher said in a statement.

Gallagher said further that his company had shown its capability to carry out its Batu Hijau copper and gold mining project in Sumbawa in an environmentally responsible way. The project is located in the company?s contract area of nearly 97,000 hectares, he said.

The government announced recently it had planned to allow PTNNT and a number of other mining firms to resume their projects in protected and conservation forest areas. The companies had been awarded mining concessions in the areas before the issuing in 1999 of a forestry law which bans open pit mining in protected forest areas.

The parliament however has yet to approve the government?s plan.

NGOs said PTNNT had started carrying out mining exploration in Pelampang. (*)