Newmont's dumping ground permit valid only for 2 years

The extension of PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara's submarine tailing placement (STP) in its Batu Hijau gold and copper mine, West Nusa Tenggara, has been issued with tighter requirements, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Wednesday.

Sabar Ginting, the deputy of the state minister for environment, said in Jakarta on Monday that besides tightening the technical requirements for the undersea tailing ground, the government had also shortened the lifetime of the permit for only two years from three years previously.

Sabar said that the extension of the permit was given after considering independent opinion from several research agencies including the Indonesian Institute of Sciences' (LIPI) oceanography research center, CSIRO-Australia, Indonesia's Bogor University of Agriculture's (IPB) research center for coastal and marine area, Australian research center Eneser.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) had asked the minister not to extend the permit given the alleged pollution caused by the company' affiliate New Minahasa Raya in North Sulawesi.

As widely reported by the press, Newmont Minahasa Raya's submarine tailing place in the Buyat bay had been blamed for causing a serious environmental problem. The office of the state minister of environment recently filed a lawsuit against the company for polluting the sea around its STP location. (*)