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Why is this relevant to you or indeed birds you might think?

The waste produced from Freeport McMoran's mines has allegedly polluted 35,820 hectares of land onshore and 84,158 hectares offshore.

It has also caused health problems for the local population of Indonesia, not to mention destroying the forests and its inhabitants. Many of which are already endangered or threatened with extinction.

Freeport McMoran are an international mining company from Louisiana, New Orleans in the United States of America.

November 22 - Two workers die. Asphyxiated by sulphur fumes in an underground tunnel.

This is the second fatal accident to occur in the mine in less than two months. The landslide on October 8 was blamed by Indonesian government officials on 'likely negligence by the company'.

Jim Bob Moffett (Freeport McMoran's Chairman) however said the landslide 'could not have been foreseen'. Come on Jim Bob - give us some credit.

Uncontrolled logging strips mountainsides of the vegetation that holds rainfall and the earth itself.

When will we realise that logging the rainforests has so many knock-on effects?

October 8: U.S.based mining company Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold Inc. announced on Thursday two of its employees were killed and six others were missing following a massive mud slide at its Grasberg mine in the province of Papua.

One of the survivors had his legs amputated and was flown to an Australian hospital for further medical treatment. 

Mines & Communities Network, a London-based group that lobbies for residents of eight countries where global mining companies are active, said Freeport's Grasberg mine has a particularly poor environmental record, they state, 'It is probably the most devastating mine I can think of anywhere in the world'. 

 The group said Freeport's Grasberg mine dumps more than 285,000 tons of mining waste in local rivers every day.

Friends of the Earth Indonesia (WALHI), demands the government halt operations at the Grasberg mine following the disastrous landslide on Thursday morning 9 October 2003. The Grasberg mine in West Papua is jointly owned by USA-based Freeport McMoran and UK/Australian mining company Rio Tinto Ltd.

Large Corporations

This report is not solely to lay blame at their feet, as other large corporations also play a part but:

Environmentalists have demanded for a long time that Freeport McMoRan should be sued for dumping (estimated) 285,000 tons of tailings (metal deposits) per day into a local river system at its Grasberg mine.

Grasberg is a mine located in Tembagapura, Irian Jaya, Indonesia. It is one of the world's largest gold mines.

The Grasberg open-pit mine is a high volume - low cost operation for Freeport discovered in 1988.
The mine is a bowl-shaped hole, just under 1 mile across at the surface, in the side of Grasberg mountain in Papua, Indonesia's easternmost province. 

About 18,000 employees work in the mine area, which is about 60 miles north of Timika, a town of about 100,000 people.
Why is this relevant to you or indeed birds you might think?

The waste produced has allegedly polluted 35,820 hectares of land onshore and 84,158 hectares offshore. It has also caused health problems for the local population and not to mention destroying the forests and its inhabitants. Many of which are already endangered or threatened with extinction.

It is estimated that Freeport will discharge 2.675 billion tons of waste up to the year 2014.
In terms of waste by volume, Freeport is by far the largest polluter in Indonesia.

They have been warned by the Indonesian environment minister to improve their record of environmental care or face legal action. 
This can be achieved by: 
1. Freeport installing a pipeline to carry the waste out to sea or:
2. Modifying the existing dumping area.  
It is believed that Freeport prefer the latter option because of cost - yes you have got that right - because of cost.

A tribal leader has stated 'Freeport take our land and grandparents land. They ruined the mountains. They ruined our environment by putting waste in the river - we cannot drink our water anymore.'

Who is telling the truth?

Freeport's chief executive Jim Bob Moffett is reported to earn $40 million per year.

Yes that is also correct.

He has dismissed the criticism of the environmental impact by Freeport's mines by stating ' the environmental impact of the mine is equivalent of me 'pissing in the Arafura Sea' (which is between the Timor and Coral seas, separating Australia from New Guinea).

Certain words do spring to mind.

Freeport insist the tailings (deposits) are not a health hazard but:

OPIC (Overseas Private Investment Corporation) withdrew in 1996 a $100 million political risk insurance policy due to environmental problems linked with acid mine drainage, toxic metals and the mismanagement of solid and hazardous wastes at the Freeport site.

On May 4, 2000, four local Freeport workers died in an accident at the banks of Lake Wanagon when a pile of waste rock collapsed on them following several days of heavy rainfall.

The Freeport mine uses Lake Wanagon, a lake sacred to the indigenous Amungme people, to dispose of waste rock from its massive gold/copper mining operation. It is estimated that 3 billion tonnes of rock will have been dumped in the lake by the time the mine closes in 2041. This waste is acidic and contains heavy metals. The water from Lake Wanagon flows into the Ajkwa River system that flows down to the Arafura Sea. In addition the mine dumps 300 000 tonnes of tailings (waste) into the Ajkwa river every day.

Earlier this month, the waste rock disposal dam collapsed, killing four workers and sending several 40 metre-plus "tidal waves" of waste roaring down the Wanagon river towards Banti village. Incredibly there was no loss of life at Banti despite most people being asleep when the waves arrived, passing just metres below homes, killing livestock and destroying the village graveyard. Adding insult to injury, thirty minutes after the flood reached Banti, an early warning system installed by Freeport rang the alarm.

"It's typical that Freeport's solution is an early warning system which failed to alert villagers in the path of a deadly tidal wave of waste. This incident occurred hot on the heels of similar incidents two months ago, and also in June 1998, but this company is too arrogant to address legitimate community safety concerns and stop dumping waste in such a dangerous manner".

The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) later attempted to sue Freeport, claiming it had failed to disclose information about the accident. 

Rainforest Landslide

Environmentalists said unsafe waste disposal practices, not rain, had caused the deadly landslide. 
Shortly after the incident, then environment minister Sonny Keraf considered suspending production at the Grasberg mine, but surprise surprise - big business won at the end of the day - and there was no closure.

Article from Freeport 's web:

Tailings are finely ground natural rock particles derived from the processing of copper ore by physical grinding and flotation methods. Most tailings are similar in size to sand and silt, with some clay-sized material. The PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) operation currently produces approximately 200,000 tons of tailings sand per day. Tailings are channeled into the Aghawagon River at the mill complex in the mountains, approximately 74 miles from the coast. This small river, which later joins the Otomona and Ajkwa Rivers, transports the tailings to a deposition area in the flat lowlands. The Ajkwa Deposition Area (“ADA”), essentially a portion of the flood plain of the Ajkwa River encompassing some 230 square kilometers, is operating as designed as an engineered, managed system in which the majority of the tailings will deposit. The ADA is bordered by a system of two levees, which prevent the lateral spread of tailings to the east and west. The Ajkwa Deposition Area can be readily revegetated with native and agricultural plant species once mining is completed.

The joining of the Ajkwa River & Otomono River - Freeport's reclamation program

A section of the traditional land rights recognition and compensation document (hak ulayat and rekognisi) states that when the life of the mine is over and the reclamation of the tailings area is completed, the ownership will be with the government of Indonesia - with the important provision that the local Kamoro would be given "priority on the use of the land....during the post-mining period.

Your choice, who do you believe?

The land which the tailings are diverted to (at cost) is unsuitable for re-growth at all for certain plants, time limits incurred for some others. Then this land is to be given priority for use to the locals, for future generations!

No-one knows what damage will have occurred over time. We will not be here to find out.

Indonesia is being raped/deprived of/taken for a ride, (whichever one you want) by the large multi national corporations out to make a buck (or a few billion).

Q. What begs the question is what of the chief executive, managers, share holders etc? Do any of them really care about what will happen to Indonesia 50 years down the road and really and truly believe in what they are doing? 

A. Not in the slightest, they will not be here to worry, but hey - they have plenty of money now so who cares?

Open-cut mining in ‘Protected Forest’ is not permitted under Indonesian law. Yet, there have been representations made by the Australian government on behalf of Australian companies to have the prohibition of open-cut mining in ‘Protected Forest’ overturned.The Ministry of Environment (KLH) has delayed publishing the results of its environmental management Company Rank Evaluation Program (Program Penilaian Peringkat Perusahaan, Proper) until 31 January 2004.

The results should have been made public earlier this year. 

Proper is an annual KLH program to assess companies' environmental management ranking. Using Proper, companies are categorised as gold, green, blue, red or black. 

Red and black rankings are given if a company is considered unwilling to address environmental pollution.

The government has given companies that received red or black rankings until 31 January 2004 to make necessary improvements. "If no changes have been made by the deadline then we will publish their rankings," they state.
Companies participating in Proper are divided into three sectors: manufacturing; energy mining, oil and gas; as well as agriculture and forestry.

Energy, oil and gas mining sector companies include PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI), PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (PTNNT) and PT Antam Tbk. "Of the 80 or so companies that joined Proper in 2002 a large number have been given either black or red rankings. However, they have promised to improve their environmental management systems if given time. 

More information to be added soon - keep viewing.

Visit RAN - Rainforest Action Network

'RAN hasn't yet stopped rainforest destruction. But by motivating corporations to get out of Indonesia, we are closer to the day when products made from the last rainforests are as taboo as ivory from endangered elephants.
Michael Brune, Executive Director - Rainforest Action Network

What about Rio Tinto?

A British Company with 15% interest in Grasberg mine
Freeport Indonesia and Rio Tinto have a joint venture agreement that entitles Rio Tinto to a 40 per cent interest in additional material mined as a result of expansion of Grasberg in 1998. Since initial production began in 1989, the mine complex has been permitted and expanded in stages.

 A quote from their site:
The majority of the local population accept the mine’s presence and the benefits derived from it. They want more jobs at the mine. On several occasions Papuan employees have vetoed strikes proposed by employees from other parts of Indonesia. Freeport has established a mine training school in order to help more Papuans achieve their employment aspirations and further increase local emplo

Environment

Freeport conducts ongoing biological, water quality and sediment chemistry, monitoring programmes to assess potential effects of its operations on ecosystems in the lowland rivers and estuaries. This is part of Freeport’s commitment to the Government of Indonesia for environmental management and monitoring in its CoW area.

An environmental impact assessment (ANDAL), which involved 42 studies between 1996 and 1998, approved expansion up to 300,000 tonnes of ore per day. Extensive studies demonstrate that the currently approved Tailings River Management Plan, whereby tailings are deposited in a designated lowland area contained by levees, perform to design and have not threatened human health. The assessments continue and are regularly reviewed internally and externally.What about the health of the forests and the wildlife therein?

How come MOST reports about this mine categorically state this mine IS hazardous to the environment?

Who is doing the spinning?
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