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)