One dead at Freeport accident
Monday, December 2 2013 - 12:39 AM WIB
One person died and another was injured in an accident at the mining site of gold and copper mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) Sunday morning.
Bambang Sugit, Acting Director of Technique and Environment at the Directorate General of Coal and Minerals told Petromindo.com that his office has dispatched staff to investigate the incident, temporarily described as road accident, involving a company pickup vehicle.
He added that the accident has not affected the company?s mining operation.
The Jakarta Post reported Monday at the incident occurred at Freeport?s underground deep ore (DOZ) mining zone.
A Toyota pickup vehicle was hit by falling materials from the DOZ?s 1E North point at around 4 a.m. local time, on Sunday, the paper said.
The truck driver, Fikrizal Utama, 27, was killed while his passenger and fellow employee, Peman Gombo, escaped with injuries.
Papua Police spokesperson Adj.Sr.Comr. Pudjo Sulistio said the police were coordinating with the PTFI management to investigate the incident. The police also facilitated a speedy repatriation of the victim?s body to his hometown in Palembang, South Sumatra.
Meanwhile, PTFI vice president corporate communication, Daisy Primayanti, said in an official release that the company?s command center received a report at 4:09 a.m. local time on Sunday, saying that an incident had occurred in the loading and uploading area at the DOZ underground mining.
?PTFI rescue team and workers were immediately dispatched to the incident site and managed to evacuate two victims. One person was later pronounced dead while another worker received medical treatment at Tembagapura Hospital,? Daisy said.
She said PTFI had reported the incident to the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak