Newmont CEO calls accusations 'unfounded'
Newmont CEO calls accusations 'unfounded'
Lely T. Djuhari, Associated Press/Jakarta
The chief executive officer of Newmont Mining insisted on Saturday that the U.S. company's gold-mining operations did not pollute a bay in central Indonesia and said it would continue to seek business here.
Police have accused Newmont Minahasa Raya, a subsidiary of Denver, Colorado-based Newmont Mining Corp., of dumping heavy metals into Buyat Bay on Sulawesi island, causing residents to develop skin diseases and tumors.
Tests have produced conflicting results about water quality in the bay. The World Health Organization and an initial Environment Ministry report found the water unpolluted. But a subsequent ministry study found that arsenic levels in the seabed were 100 times higher at the waste-dumping site than in other parts of the bay.
"It's clear that those allegations are totally unfounded," Newmont CEO Wayne Murdy told reporters on Saturday at the end of a five-day visit to Jakarta to lobby Indonesian Cabinet ministers and other officials.
Murdy accused "critics of the mining industry" of manipulating scientific data and "taking advantage" of Buyat residents. He did not elaborate.
Last month, the police filed a dossier of evidence against five Newmont executives -- an American, an Australian and three Indonesians -- accusing them of corporate crimes. If found guilty, they could face up to 15 years in jail.
Prosecutors have yet to file official charges.
Asked if the threat of legal action would stop Newmont from conducting feasibility studies and exploring for new mines in Indonesia, Murdy said "not at this time".
"Our view is this is a nation that has tremendous potential. From a geological standpoint there is a lot of minerals," he said.
"It's a place we want to do business here and we want to make a long-term commitment."
He also said the company would not change its waste dumping system, calling it "extremely sound."
Newmont stopped mining two years ago at the Sulawesi site, 2,000 kilometers northeast of the capital, Jakarta, after extracting all the gold it could, but kept processing ore there until Aug. 31, 2004, when the mine was permanently shut.