Release: Newmont clarifies issues on arsenic, benthos, fish and water

Jakarta, 2004-11-10 -- It is PT Newmont Minahasa Raya?s (PT NMR) understanding that the draft report of the Technical team has not been released to the public by Minister Rachmat Witolear and that the minister was initiating a process to review the report along with additional materials from the steering committee in tandem with other ministries of the government.

PT NMR believes it would be inappropriate to comment on a draft report that has yet to be endorsed or released by the Government. Furthermore, Newmont believes that comments made in public regarding certain conclusions of the report are pre-mature and may be incomplete or inaccurate.

Since Monday, there have been press reports regarding certain issues of science which are being studied by the Technical Team and Newmont is prepared to comment on the scientific issues regarding Newmont operations in Buyat Bay.

Arsenic in Tailings Sediment:
Newmont has released the following statement from Dave Baker, Senior Vice President for Environmental Affairs, ?Because of the mineralogy of the ore body, elevated levels of arsenic were expected in the tailings solids and were regularly measured and reported to the Government of Indonesia. The tailings system was designed so that the arsenic would be in a safe chemically stable form that is locked into the sediment and not released into the environment. The system has worked as designed and confirmed by three previous scientific studies as well as 8 years of PT NMR monitoring data that show arsenic concentrations in seawater to be well below Indonesian and international seawater standards.?

?Further, all scientific studies and PT NMR?s monitoring data have shown that fish tissue contains normal levels of arsenic as compared to both applicable standards and fish from any other area of the world. This adds further confirmation that arsenic from the tailings is not being released from the sediment or assimilated into the food chain.?

?We believe that scientific data contained in the Government Integrated Team Report, when released, will confirm these facts.?

Diversity and Contamination of Benthos
We understand that there are questions on reduced benthic organisms. Reduction of diversity of benthos was predicted in the AMDAL and is known to be a reversible impact. The recovery of benthic communities has been demonstrated within 3 years at Island Copper mine in Canada. PT NMR will continue to monitor and report to the Government the re-colonization of the tailings area by Benthos over the post-closure period.

There are no standards for metal content in benthos and therefore difficult to draw any conclusions. However, there are standards for fish which are much closer to the top of the food chain and which are consumed by humans. All previous studies have shown normal levels for arsenic and mercury in Buyat Bay fish.

Fish
Multiple scientific studies including the sampling data used to write the Technical team report have shown there are normal levels of arsenic and mercury in the fish in Buyat Bay. The levels are not only normal for Indonesia but also for many other parts of the world. Furthermore, Newmont studies of fish before mine operations as well as monitoring data during mine operations show there is no change in levels over the period.

Water
Similarly, multiple studies have shown the water quality levels for arsenic, mercury and cyanide to be well under both Indonesian and U.S. EPA clean water standards. Newmont monitoring data over eight years of mine life show no appreciable change in levels. (end of release)