"Landep News"
Walhi Indonesia said that the Environment Ministerial Decree No. 92/2011 dated May 5, 2011 to allow the disposal of PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara mining waste to the sea is a sign that the Environment Minister has failed to protect the environment.
Based on this disposal permit, PT Newmont is allowed to dump mine waste (tailings) as much as 148,000 tons / day to the sea. This amount is equivalent to 22 times the daily waste of city as big as Jakarta. Within one year of waste Newmont reached 51.1000.000 tons and will continue until 2020.
This permit is controversial because the West Sumbawa regency Government has previously issued a letter of suspending tailing disposal at Teluk Senunu, located in the south and southwest of the Sumbawa island on April 27, 2011. WALHI urges the West Sumbawa regency to uphold the tailing disposal into the sea.
Batu Hijau operation
Newmont’s Batu Hijau mine is located in West Sumbawa and Newmont’s mine waste disposal within 3.4 kilometers of beach, or equal to 2.11 miles. According to the Environmental Protection Act tailings disposal into the sea is the authority of the Regent of West Sumbawa. And the Regent of West Sumbawa has issued a letter banning the disposal of waste into the sea Newmont.
The permit issued by the Minister of Environment makes living creature that lives around the Teluk Senunu to be in danger of contamination by hazardous materials. Arsenic content of which is determined by the MoE of 0.1 mg / L. These levels of 5-fold higher than natural levels of arsenic Indonesia’s seas, which is equal to 0.175 micrograms / L (R Kevin Henke, Arsenic, Environmental Chemistry, Health Threat and Waste Treatment, 2009). This level was also 2.8 times higher than that stipulated Biological exposure index of the American Conference of Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH).
It is ironic that the Teluk Senunu is included in Coral Triangle Initiative at the World Ocean Conference in Manado in 2009, but Newmont’s tailings dump into the very sea with the blessing of the central government.
The method that can be employed by PT Newmont and the Government to stop the ocean tailing is by back filling (re-covers the pit with the waste). The process is more expensive. Dumping garbage to the ocean as a garbage dump causing lower production costs, but raises a high ecological cost. Heavy metals contained in the mine waste will remain at sea within a hundred years to cause damage to the ecosystem.
Newmont in 2010, allocates the cost of reclamation and environmental remediation in the United States by 48 million dollars (74%); outside the U.S., only about 17 million dollars (26%). On the other hand, the sale of gold and copper from mines outside the U.S. amounting to 7429 million dollars (78%), and from U.S. mines only for 2111 million dollars (22%).
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