Newmont to submit new water sample
Monday, July 31 2006 - 03:19 AM WIB
A North Sulawesi court granted mining giant PT Newmont Minahasa Raya?s request to take a new sample of water from Buyat Bay to be submitted as additional evidence in a pollution case being heard by the court, The Jakarta Post reported Monday.
?We believe that the additional sample will prove that there?s no pollution in the bay,? said the company?s president director, Richard B. Ness, in a press statement Sunday.
Ness has been charged under the 1997 Environmental Law for the company?s allegedly environmentally harmful operations, including dumping its waste into the bay using the submarine tailings disposal method.
The government has field civil lawsuits and criminal charges against the company, which it accuses of polluting the bay. The company settled the civil lawsuits with an out-of-court settlement earlier this year reportedly worth US$30 million. (*)