Freeport to spend US$36 million on environment

Freeport to spend US$36 million on environment

JAKARTA (JP): PT Freeport Indonesia, the giant American copper
mining company, announced on Wednesday that it plans to spend
US$36 million to protect the environment around its mining
operation at Tembagapura in Irian Jaya.

Freeport, often a target for attacks by environmental groups,
said it plans to build a waste treatment plant capable of
processing 110,000 tons of deposit waste, which is produced
everyday.

Wisnu Susetyo, of the company's environmental monitoring
laboratory, told reporters that $23.4 million would go toward the
construction of two dams and $12.6 million for annual operations.

"The dams, covering 130 square kilometers, will be able to
hold the tailings and natural sediments resulting from the
production of an accumulated total of 1.5 billion tons of copper
ore," he explained.

The company, which has been operating one of Indonesia's most
profitable mining sites since 1967, is constantly scrutinized by
environmental groups, who accuse it of neglecting its obligations
to ensure environmental sustainability.

Last week, the Indonesian Forum for the Environment filed a
lawsuit against the company and the government, charging both of
excluding the group in securing the Environmental Impact Analysis
approval for the Tembagapura operation.

However, Freeport Vice President Paul Murphy said the company
has complied with all legal procedures to gain approval and that
the Indonesian Forum for the Environment was involved in
preparing the Environmental Impact Analysis report. The
Indonesian Forum for the Environment is represented in the
commission preparing the report, he pointed out.

Freeport has also been blamed for the depletion of tropical
ice on the Carstenz Mountains snow peaks, for causing crevices
along the mountain walls and for causing pollution to areas near
the summit, which stands at over 5,000 meters above sea level.

Bruce E. Marsh, Senior Manager for Environmental and Public
Affairs, explained that, according to various studies, the
depletion of ice was caused by global warming and the crevices
were not caused by blasts from the company's mines, but from
hikers tramping on the ice.

"What people think is soot coming from Freeport's plant, is
actually algae. And the dust found on the ice by several
expeditions, which, according to studies, is suspected to have
come from Freeport, is thought to have actually come from
surrounding ground, which has been leftover by the melting ice."

Freeport gained government approval to implement its
environmental and monitoring plans on Feb. 17.

Murphy said the waste-management plant is needed because the
tailing, or waste, has increased over the years.

Some 20 to 25 years ago, the amount of tailing and overburden,
or rocks which had no economic value, "were insignificant" and
therefore needed no special treatment, he said.

Tailings and overburdens would now be treated and used for
land reclamation in the lowlands.

Wisnu said Freeport's studies discovered that many local
species of plants could be cultivated in the reclaimed land.
(pwn)