Newmont denies charges of polluting Senunu Bay

Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post, West Sumbawa

Copper and gold miner PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (NNT), together with local villagers, have rejected charges by a group calling itself the People's Lawyers Union (SPR) that its tailings have damaged the environment in the area around its operations.

Senior External Relations Manager Malik Salim said in a statement released on Tuesday that there was no evidence that the two West Sumbawa residents, Salamudin Daeng and Heri Zakaria, who plan to file a class action through the SPR represented the local community.

"The people here support NNT's operation," he said.

Endang Arianto, the head of Jereweh district in West Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara, where the open pit mine is located, said that none of the local residents had suffered from any sort of "strange ailment", similar to that reported in Buyat Bay in North Sulawesi.

Several media outlets reported that Habiburokhman, a member of the SPR, had said that his organization planned to file a US$10 million class action against NNT on Friday with the South Jakarta District Court for causing environmental damage around Senunu Bay, where the company has been disposing of its tailings in a trench 3,000 meters under the water.

SPR said the huge volume of the tailings -- some 43.2 million tons a year -- had resulted in the majority of villagers in Keruak district, East Lombok regency, suffering from itching and other skin ailments. It also said fishermen along the regency's coast had seen a drop in fish catches over the past two years.

Countering the accusation, Endang, who was accompanied by a number of other villagers at a press conference held at the NNT concession, said the fish in Senunu Bay were not contaminated and were consumed on a daily basis by the villagers.

"We should be the ones to feel the effects first," he said. According to NNT, East Lombok is located 50 kilometers away from Senunu Bay.

NNT, a local unit of U.S.-based mining giant Newmont, is currently trying to renew its license to dump tailings at sea. The current license, valid for three years, will expire next month.

Non-governmental organizations have been urging the government to reconsider submarine tailing disposal, claiming that the method is unsafe, particularly in the light of the high profile case involving another Newmont subsidiary, Newmont Minahasa Raya, last year.

SPR also said it planned to report NNT to the Police on Wednesday, accusing the company of not paying overtime amounting to Rp 400 billion ($42.15 million) since 1999.