Is this natural beauty, rich biodiversity under threat?<\/p>\n
Fly over PT Freeport's concessional area in Irian Jaya and you
\nwill see a spectacular view below.<\/p>\n
The raw beauty of the land; vast, breathtaking rain forests,
\nubiquitous swamps and tall mangroves, verdant mountains and
\ntowering peaks, and alpine tundra covered with glacial ice are
\njust part of what you will see.<\/p>\n
Then, when you ascend the 14,000-foot mountain, along the 74-
\nmile-long road on the ridge, you will see the company's heavy
\nequipment in action. There on Grasberg, PT Freeport is doing
\nbusiness, digging through a mountain searching for copper, gold
\nand silver.<\/p>\n
At the contract-of-work site, development has been progressing
\nat an alarming pace. It provides direct jobs to 16,000 people --
\n2,000 of those indigenous -- and indirect jobs to over 75,000
\npeople.<\/p>\n
The huge operation has raised a number of environmental issues
\nwhich have called for serious attention. The issues that
\nenvironmentalists often raised are the operation's affect on
\nglaciers, the tailings management and overburdened storage.<\/p>\n
Over the years, PT Freeport has been making a great deal of
\neffort to disprove its opponents' charges that its environmental
\nmanagement has not received the same priority as the engineering
\nchallenge of establishing the mining operation.<\/p>\n
Since the discovery of the Grasberg resources, the perception
\nof PT Freeport has changed from a mine that has about to close to
\nthe expectation of extended activities for at least 40 years.<\/p>\n
Dames and Moore, an international environmental consultancy
\nrecently assigned to conduct PT Freeport's environmental audit,
\nrecognizes that this has led to increased commitment in
\nenvironmental management.<\/p>\n
\"During the course of the audit, the team recognized a growing
\nrealization of the environmental problems and a commitment to
\naddress them,\" the company says.<\/p>\n
With support from an international consulting organization, PT
\nFreeport Indonesia's environmental department has developed a
\nlong-term environmental monitoring program (LTEMP).<\/p>\n
LTEMP includes monitoring the environment, reclamation,
\nrecycling and education. It provides the company with vital data
\non a wide range of environmental impact categories.<\/p>\n
PT Freeport Indonesia was already pioneering environmentally
\nfriendly industrial activities when it submitted to a voluntary
\nindependent environmental audit.<\/p>\n
With criteria approved by the Environmental Impact Management
\nAgency and the Ministry of Mines and Energy, PT Freeport selected
\ntwo companies out of 10 bidders to conduct the audit.<\/p>\n
International consultancy Dames and Moore announced in March
\nthe results of its audit and Labat Anderson is expected to report
\nits findings in the near future.<\/p>\n
Besides the external audit, PT Freeport Indonesia's parent
\ncompany conducts internal audits to ensure that it complies with
\nIndonesian law.<\/p>\n
To provide analytical support for its environmental programs,
\nPT Freeport Indonesia operates a state-of-the-art environmental
\nlaboratory at Timika.<\/p>\n
The facility is manned by highly-professional staff and
\nequipped with sophisticated technology, including
\nspectrophotometers, a flow injection mercury analyzer and a
\npotentiometric stripping analyzer.<\/p>\n
It processes hundreds of samples and performs thousands of
\nindividual measurements. Regular samples are taken of mine water,
\nriver water, ground water, tailings, soil, plant tissues, and of
\nthe fish and shrimp in the area.<\/p>\n
Tailings<\/p>\n
Currently, about 125,000 tons of tailings and 20,000 tons of
\nnatural sediment are washed into the Ajkwa watershed.<\/p>\n
Dames and Moore has confirmed in its recent audit that
\ntailings are nontoxic.<\/p>\n
Tailings are finely-ground natural rocks from which copper,
\ngold and silver minerals have been removed using standard
\ngrinding and flotation techniques. No chemical is used in the
\nprocess.<\/p>\n
On the government's approval, PT Freeport uses the river
\nsystem to transport the tailings and natural sediment to
\nlowlands, where they are contained and reclaimed.<\/p>\n
\"The present tailings management system is considered by the
\nteam appropriate, given the circumstances that apply,\" the Dames
\nand Moore report states.<\/p>\n
The company has contained about 130 square kilometers between
\nthe east and west levees it has built inside the Ajkwa deposition
\narea for the tailings and sediment.<\/p>\n
The deposition area is designed to handle a cumulative
\nproduction of 1.5 billion tons of ore. For that, the company's
\nboard of directors have approved US$25 million in capital and
\nUS$12 million for annual operating costs.<\/p>\n
PT Freeport Indonesia will remove about 2.8 billion tons of
\noverburden from the Grasberg pit in addition to the 420 million
\ntons already extracted.<\/p>\n
Overburden is the rock with no economic value that covers the
\ncopper, gold and silver ore. This must be removed during the
\nmining process to reach the ore.<\/p>\n
All areas affected by mining activities are revegetated under
\nthe overburden management and reclamation program approved by the
\nIndonesian government.<\/p>\n
\"PT Freeport Indonesia has made the long-term commitment to
\nensure the revegetation of all areas affected by tailings
\ndeposition as soon as these areas become available, as well as
\nincluding the local Irianese people in these reclamation
\nactivities,\" says Bruce E. Marsh, the Vice President for
\nEnvironmental Affairs.<\/p>\n
Environmental groups have, over the past decade, raised
\nconcerns that the mine's activities -- heat, blasting and dirt --
\nhave led to the glacier receding.<\/p>\n
But computer models, using historical data, photographs and
\nmorainal debris, show that the recent recession began 120 to 150
\nyears ago. It is similar to the recession taking place in other
\nequatorial countries, where glaciers are present.<\/p>\n
Dr. Alex Wilson of the University of Arizona, after studying
\nrecently the glacial environment, concluded that the glacial
\nrecession is caused by global warming and is completely
\nunrelated to the operations of PT Freeport Indonesia.<\/p>\n
It is apparent that with its recently-conducted environmental
\naudit and increased transparency, Freeport Indonesia has turned a
\nnew page in its corporate history.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/is-this-natural-beauty-rich-biodiversity-under-threat-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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