Newmont Minahasa resumes its mining operations
Newmont Minahasa resumes its mining operations
JAKARTA (JP): Gold mining firm Newmont Minahasa Raya in
Minahasa, North Sulawesi, resumed operations early on Friday
after a blockade of the company's ore crusher by protesters
ended.
Company manager for government and community relations Tri
Harjono said on Friday the protesting locals and former
landowners agreed to leave following a meeting with the
management and local authority, during which they accepted the
firm's proposal to hold a discussion to review their demands.
"The protesters left our site in the wee hours on Friday. They
agreed to sit down later for a one-on-one discussion to review
their demands on a case-by-case basis," he told The Jakarta Post.
He said the discussion was scheduled for Monday.
He said the group, which numbered about 40 people, went to the
company's ore crusher on Wednesday and blockaded the site,
demanding Newmont pay additional compensation for the land they
sold to the company in the early 1990s.
Tri said the company stood by its statement that it would not
meet the protesters' demand for additional payment because it had
already properly compensated all 400 former landowners from whom
it bought the land.
"We believe that we did everything right," he said.
"However, if we really did so something wrong here, for
instance an error in land measurements, we would be
responsible," he added.
The land dispute is the latest in a series of problems
experienced by the company.
Last year, the Minahasa regency filed a lawsuit against
Newmont, demanding the company pay Rp 62 billion (US$7.5 million)
in overdue taxes on building materials and insisting the local
district court order the closure of the firm's operation.
Newmont refused to pay the taxes, arguing that the taxes were
not included in the contract of work it signed with the
Indonesian government in 1986.
The tax dispute was resolved in April through an out-of-court
settlement, in which Newmont agreed to pay the regency $500,000
in overdue taxes plus some "compensations".
In June, Newmont was involved in a land dispute with locals
who blockaded the company's mining site for a week, demanding
additional compensation for their land.
The week-long blockade cost the company about 2,000 metric
tons of lost gold production per day.
Tri said the company was relieved the ore crusher blockade was
over and it could immediately recommence operations.
The company also expressed appreciation for the local
authority's help in negotiating with the protesters and
persuading the latter to end the blockade.
Tri said the blockade, although only lasting for three days,
caused Newmont losses because it had to stop operations for a
while.
He said Newmont was expected to stop its gold production in
Mesel in the next two or three years because the gold deposits in
the area were depleted due to fast and extensive production
activities in the early years of operation.
The company is currently pondering the possibility of working
on a new mining site in the nearby village of Limpoga, on which
it found possible gold deposits, he said.
The company estimates both Mesel and Limpoga have a combined
gold deposit of about two million ounces.
Newmont Minahasa Raya, which began its commercial operations
in mid-1996 after conducting exploration projects at the Minahasa
mining site from 1986 to 1988, is 80 percent owned by Denver-
based Newmont Mining Corp. and 20 percent by Tanjung Sarapung, a
firm owned by local businessman Yusuf Merukh.
Newmont Mining Corp. also operates a mining site in Sumbawa,
West Nusa Tenggara, as well as China, the Philippines, Kazakhstan
and Mexico. (cst)