Newmont's green official refutes global pollution claims: Report

Newmont Mining Corp has been hit with pollution allegations from around the globe recently - charges that its environmental manager says aren't true.

The world's largest gold producer is under fire by environmental groups and others for its operations in Peru, Indonesia and Turkey, the Dow Jones Newswires reported on Thursday from Denver, USA.

In Peru, farmers have blocked a road leading to Newmont's giant Yanacocha gold mine because of concerns that a new mine being developed will pollute water supplies.

Indonesian villagers and environmental groups say the company is polluting a local fishing bay by dumping mercury- and arsenic-laced mine waste into it. And in Turkey, its mine was shut down by the government in August over permit concerns and environmental protests claiming soil contamination from its acid heap-leaching of ore.

The overarching theme of the protests is that Newmont is a big U.S. multinational company that is doing things to the environments of poor nations that it can't get away with in the U.S.

"That's an accusation that goes back a long time," David Baker, Newmont vice president of environmental affairs, told Dow Jones Newswires on Tuesday. "Unfortunately, it's just one of those misconceptions that never seems to go away."

Baker said Denver-based Newmont has to go through rigorous environmental processes before it develops mines in all of the countries it operates in, and that it brings the same environmental standards overseas that it applies to its U.S. operations.

Newmont made a conscious decision when it decided to grow internationally about 10 years ago to take "a high level of environmental protection ... equivalent to our U.S. operations" with it overseas, Baker said.

"We did this, in large part, to try to obviate these accusations of the exportation of pollution," he said.

One of the most damning reports about Newmont and pollution came from The New York Times on Sept. 8. The article said Newmont was operating in violation of the environmental standards of the government of Indonesia, and implied that villagers of Buyat Bay near its Minahasa Mine in North Sulawesi were getting sick and that one baby died because of its operations there.

A Newmont spokesman called the report "one-sided and biased" and the company issued a statement on PR Newswire last week saying the Times reporters ignored scientific data that showed "there has been no health impact on the people or waters of Buyat Bay."

New York Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis told Dow Jones, "If the company has specific concerns that can be fact-checked, they should be reported to us directly.

"As always, if we have erred, we will correct," Mathis said. "At this point, however, we consider our reporting to be both solid and thorough."

The villagers, some of whom have sued Newmont, claim that the company illegally disposed of mine waste containing arsenic and mercury in the bay near the mine site. They say they have mercury and arsenic poisoning, and some have tumor-like growths on their skin.

Friends of the Earth International, one of the environmental groups behind the villagers' $543 million lawsuit, says Newmont has dumped 2,000 tons of mercury- and arsenic-laced mine tailings into Buyat Bay daily since it begin operations there in 1996.

"The Buyat Bay pollution disaster shows that instead of benefiting poor communities, mining operations destroy livelihoods and health," Longgena Ginting, director of Friends of the Earth Indonesia, said earlier in a prepared statement.

Newmont's Baker doesn't deny that the mine tailings, or the crushed waste rock that remains after ore has been processed, contain traces of mercury and arsenic. But he says the tailings have been vigorously tested and the trace amounts found are safe for human and sea life.

The company tests the waters of Buyat Bay "extensively" and has reported its results on a quarterly basis to the government of Indonesia, he said.

In addition, Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization "reconfirmed that the quality of the waters in Buyat Bay is within applicable standards designed to protect human health and the environment," Newmont said in its response to the New York Times last week.

Baker said the company "strongly disagrees" with the reports that the villagers' health problems stem from Newmont's tailings disposal.

Also, claims that fish stocks have dropped significantly since Newmont began operations aren't true, he said.

"It's one of those funny things you can do with numbers," Baker said. "Over the life of the project, the per fisherman catch total dropped, but only because there were more people fishing there. The total number of fish didn't drop."

Newmont spokesman Doug Hock said the company "welcomed" the Indonesian government's decision to bring in experts from the World Health Organization to test for mercury-related disease at Buyat Bay.

"We're anxiously awaiting" the WHO results, he said, noting that Newmont doesn't know when those results will be published. (*)