Shooting incident does not affect Freeport?s mining operation

Mining activities at PT Freeport Indonesia continue as usual despite the recent shooting of the company?s 14 workers by an unidentified group of armed people. The incident is now under an intensive investigation by the Indonesian police, Kompas daily reported on Friday.

Freeport?s manager for corporate communication, Mindo Pangaribuan, said in Jayapura on Thursday that the company continued to operate as usual despite the incident which killed three of the workers and injured several others.

Freeport had paid compensation to the families of the killed workers ? two Americans and one Indonesian ? and to those who were injured during the incident in accordance with the company?s regulation, he said. "We continue to operate as usual and the workers who were injured during the incident have returned to work," he said.

Production capacity remains stable at 240,000 tons of ores per day and there is no reduction of work hours or the number of workers. Each ton of ores produced by the company contains one percent of gold, one gram of copper and one gram of silver. The company, which bases its activities in Timika, Papua, exports concentrate of about 8,000 tons a day or 240,000 ton a month to Gresik, East Java, Spain and Japan.

Meanwhile local non-governmental organization Elsham Papua has accused the shooting incident as part of the conspiracy carried out by Freeport and the Indonesian military to maintain the company?s status quo. Elsham?s supervisor, John Rumbiak, said that the conspiracy was made to give impression that security condition in Timika and its surrounding remained uncertain.

The operation of Freeport has made Timika not only the center of economic growth but has also become the center of the military operation, he said. (*)