Newmont seeks to quash vote to review green practices

U.S. mining giant Newmont Mining Corp. wants to bar shareholders from voting on a proposal that would require a company review of waste disposal programs in Indonesia, where it is accused of poisoning villagers, the Associated Press reported on Saturday from Denver, U.S..

Attorneys for the Denver-based company, the world's largest gold producer, made the request to federal regulators last week, saying the company should be allowed to exclude the proposal from a shareholder vote at its 2005 annual meeting.

Under the proposal, Newmont would have to evaluate its disposal programs in Indonesia and determine the degree of potential environmental and public-health risks from its mining operations.

The proposal was sponsored by the Office of the Comptroller of New York City on behalf of several pension funds representing New York employees, teachers, firefighters and police.

In response, Newmont attorneys said in a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission that the company already has accomplished what the proposal asks.

Last week, the company admitted it had released 17 tons of waste mercury into the air and 16 tons into the water over five years, though it said the toxic releases were far below Indonesian emissions standards.

"We were well below any Indonesian standards and well below any U.S. Environmental Protection standards," Wayne Murdy, the company's chief executive, said last week in a telephone interview with the Associated Press. "We have an excellent environmental record worldwide."

However, an EPA staff member called the release of 33 tons of mercury into the air and water over several years at the gold mine in central Indonesia "a major concern."

A member of another big pension fund, TIAA-CREF, is seeking a vote in hopes of barring investment in gold-mining companies because of environmental and social impacts.

Newmont has been embroiled in a six-month legal battle over pollution allegations.

Indonesian authorities have accused its local subsidiary, Newmont Minahasa Raya, of dumping heavy metals into Buyat Bay on Sulawesi island, causing residents to develop skin diseases and tumors. Five executives from the company are expected to go on trial in Indonesia in early 2005.

Tests on the bay have produced conflicting results and villagers this week dropped a $543 million lawsuit against Newmont Minahasa Raya.

Newmont stopped mining two years ago at the Sulawesi site, but kept processing ore there until Aug. 31, 2004.(*)