Walhi asks government to temporarily close Newmont operation

The country's noted environmental group Walhi has asked the government to temporarily suspend the operation of PT Newmont Minahasa Raya's gold mine in the Rotatok district, North Sulawesi for alleged environmental destruction and data manipulation made by the United States-based gold mine operator in the area.

The organization's senior executive Moudy Gerungan said in Manado on Wednesday that the company's gold mine operation should be temporarily closed to allow an independent team to study the impact of its mining activities.

According to Moudy, the company's submarine dumping site in the Buyat Bay has caused a massive destruction to the environment. He also charged that the company had manipulated information and data to cover up the environmental crime it had made in the area.

He said that the group's special team had conducted a survey in cooperation with the local community recently to study the impact of the company's mining operation especially its dumping site in the Buyat Bay.

"The results of the survey show that tons of tailings or mineral waste dumped by the company into the Buyat Bay have caused a major destruction to the coral reef. A great number of spices that used to live in the bay have been disappeared due to the tailings, " he was quoted by Bisnis Indonesia as saying.

Such kind of environmental destruction has never been disclosed before although the company in cooperation with local and foreign auditors have carried out a number of environmental assessments in the sea. Moudy said Newmont intentionally hid the fact to cheat the public.

Newmont, which operates a massive gold mining operation in Minahasa regency, North Sulawesi, dumps its mineral waste in the bay under the so-called undersea dumping site technology. But the operation of the dumping site, claimed by the company as using the safest technology, has been widely criticized. (*)