Review asked of Freeport environmental analysis

JAKARTA (JP): A legislator urged the government on Monday to review the environmental impact analysis (Amdal) certificate awarded to gold mining company PT Freeport Indonesia for its expansion plan.

Legislator Pramono Anung of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle said terms of the analysis were too weak to protect the environment.

"Using the present Amdal, Freeport will never be found guilty of violating environmental standards," Pramono, a member of the House of Representatives Commission VIII, which oversees mines and energy, said.

Freeport conducted a regional environmental analysis as a requirement for the company to increase its output to 300,000 tons per day from more than 200,000 tons per day at present at its copper and gold mines in the Grasberg area of Irian Jaya.

The Office of the State Minister of Environment approved the analysis in December 1997.

Activists allege that Freeport has damaged the environment even without the production increase.

Pramono believed there were irregularities behind the approval.

He said Freeport's analysis was approved with the backing of then president Soeharto.

The Asian Wall Street Journal in its Sept. 30, 1998 edition, noted that Freeport received approval for its expansion from Soeharto months before the Office of the State Minister of Environment issued the certificate.

James R. Moffet, the chairman of Freeport's American parent company, Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold, is known to be a close associate of Soeharto.

Freeport is 81.28 percent owned by Freeport McMoRan, 9.36 percent by the Indonesian government and 9.36 percent by PT Indocopper Investama Corporation. Indocopper is 50.48 percent owned by Nusamba Mineral Industries, 49 percent by Freeport McMoRan and 0.52 percent by the public.

Pramono recommended the government review the certificate based on international standards.

"We might, for instance, use Malaysia's environmental standards in reviewing the Amdal," he said.

He said he would propose the commission officially request the government review Freeport's analysis.

President Abdurrahman Wahid has repeatedly said that the government would honor contracts and agreements made by previous governments with foreign investors. (bkm)