Review asked of Freeport environmental analysis

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)