Environmental audit planned by Freeport

Environmental audit planned by Freeport

JAKARTA (JP): PT Freeport Indonesia says its voluntary
environmental audit is not a response to recent criticism.

Hoediatmo Hoed, president of mining company, which is located
in Tembagapura, southern Irian Jaya, said yesterday the audit to
be conducted at the end of this month has not been motivated by
pressures from outside.

"We volunteer ourselves to conduct the audit although State
Minister of Environment Sarwono Kusumaatmadja has also suggested
to us that we do it," he said.

Siegfried Lesiasel, a staff member of PT Freeport Indonesia's
Environmental and Public Affairs department, said the audit will
cover the mining operations, supporting mining operations,
environmental management and the socio-economic impact.

Hoediatmo said the company had started its initial
environmental impact analyses in 1984, two years before the House
of Representatives passed the law regulating environmental
matters.

He also said that this month's audit is not a response to the
lawsuit filed by the Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi) in
May against the government for approving PT Freeport Indonesia's
environmental management plan.

Walhi is suing the Ministry of Mines and Energy at the Jakarta
State Administrative Court for giving the green light for PT
Freeport Indonesia's activities without consulting the ministry's
own Board of Environmental Impact.

Walhi, which has a non-permanent seat on that board, felt that
the government-approved measures for PT Freeport Indonesia's huge
mining operation in Irian Jaya were not stringent enough.

Hoediatmo charged yesterday that "some people in Walhi might
be against the good relationship now developed between PT
Freeport Indonesia and that forum."

Walhi also objected to an advertisement placed by PT Freeport
Indonesia in Jakarta newspapers recently in which the company
informed the public about the dumping of tailings (ground natural
rocks from which copper, gold and silver minerals have been
removed) into the Ajkwa River, which is located not far from the
mines.

Walhi says the tailings are poisonous and have polluted the
river.

Hoediatmo said that the advertisement was based on reality.

Wisnu Susetyo, Head of PT Freeport Indonesia's Environmental
Laboratory, said that the advertisement did not claim that the
tailings did not affect the Ajkwa River.

"It explained the definition of tailings and our system of
management and monitoring," he added.

Bruce E. Marsh, senior manager of environmental affairs for PT
Freeport Indonesia, said the tailings had resulted in
sedimentation in the area close to Timika town.

"The deposition area, which is about seven kilometers
southeast from Timika, is not dangerous for local people," he
added.

Marsh said the migration of the people, who used to live near
the tailings deposition area, was not caused by the tailings, but
by their nomadic traditions. (05)