Newmont in new environmental row with fresh leak

By Hera Diani

JAKARTA (JP): Mining firm PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (PT NNT) said a leak had occurred on the tailing pipeline from its operation in the western half of Sumbawa Island, West Nusa Tenggara, but claimed that everything was under control.

Company officials maintained that the leak, which has reportedly spilled some 10,000 liters of waste, was minor and that the spill was harmless.

The company's Media Relations Superintendent T. Iradati Fuad told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that the high pressure leak is believed to have started on Monday afternoon.

"But we have already shut off the flow," she said in a telephone interview.

"It's actually categorized as minor, so it is not something that we should insert in the environmental reports," she remarked.

She claimed that the tailings did not contain any toxic or poisonous substances that would harm the environment.

Tailing is waste produced in the mining process in which ores are changed into concentrate. The waste usually consists of scraping stone, liquids and chemical compounds.

The waste is separated and piped for disposal into the sea.

Meanwhile, in its written statement received here on Wednesday, Newmont's Senior Manager for External Affairs Robert Humberson stated that the spillage was from a two-centimeter hole in one of the pipes.

"It wasn't due to error in the pipe design, but due to damage to the rubber coat on several parts of the pipeline," Humberson said in the statement which was dated Tuesday.

According to Humberson, the spilled waste was being retained in the closed area built around the pipe.

The company, he said, has ordered a number of new pipes.

Humberson added that the damage had only affected the overland pipeline.

The pipeline which carries the tailing into the sea and which is made of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), Humberson said, had not leaked.

The company said it used a technology called the Submarine Tailing Disposal (STD) system, which involves the disposing of tailing into the sea.

"We have also reported it to the head of mines inspection at the Directorate General of Geology and Mineral Resources, as well as village heads and local community figures," Humberson said, while giving assurances that the accident would not occur again in the future.

American-based gold and copper miner Newmont has two subsidiaries in Indonesia, PT NNT and PT Newmont Minahasa Raya in Minahasa, North Sulawesi.

The accident, however, is not the first that has occurred involving Newmont.

Between July and August 1998, the pipeline in Minahasa blew out four times, contaminating the ocean and giving rise to a foul odor.

The company then temporarily halted its operations in the area.

Separately on Wednesday, two Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) demanded the government temporarily close the company's operations until an investigation over the latest incident had been conducted.

Coordinator for the Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam), Chalid Muhammad, was skeptical of claims that there was little environmental damage.

"The stones must be washed in acidic water. We also suspect that the volume of the spillage is larger based on the radius of the leak," he told the Post over the telephone.

He claimed that a recent investigation conducted by Jatam revealed that the leak actually began on Jan. 4, and before that, in January of last year, the pipeline in Sumbawa had also ruptured.

The investigation also showed that the leak had damaged plants and grasses, he said.

The head of the advocacy division at the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) Longgena Ginting said that the leaks were proof that the STD system which was said to be safe is actually not secure.

"We demand that the system be changed. STD is not safe technology," Longgena said, adding that Walhi was also demanding that the government temporarily close Newmont's operations.

As an example, Longgena said, during Walhi's investigation in Minahasa, they had found that the tailings contained arsenic, mercury and cyanide acid at well above tolerable levels.

"We haven't investigated the case in Nusa Tenggara yet. But we're afraid it will be similar," Longgena said.