Walhi regrets government's stance on Newmont tailing issue

Indonesia's most outspoken environmental group Walhi has expressed its regret over the reluctance of Director General of General Mining Surna Tjahja Djayadiningrat to carry out the recommendation of a verification team on the impact of Newmont Minahasa Raya's tailings at its gold mine site in North Sulawesi, Neraca reported on Saturday.

"We see an indication that the director general will stop the verification works and other activities recommended by the verification team," Walhi's director Emmy Hafild said in Jakarta on Friday.

According to Emmy, the director general's reluctance to carry out the verification team's recommendation is regrettable and it could weaken all efforts towards the legal enforcement in the mining sector.

The government established an independent verification team in 1999 to verify the surveys made by Walhi related to the impact of Newmont's tailings dumped into the Buyat Bay. The results of Walhi's surveys which concluded that the company's tailings could pose a serious problem to the environment, have angered the local people, who then demanded the government to close the mining site.

In its desk survey, the verification team agreed that they could not make any conclusion related to Walhi's surveys because they found lack of samples and methodology. The team then agreed to follow up the desk works with a field study before coming with a final conclusion. (*)