Freeport ramps up security after attack kills employee near Grasberg mine

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) confirmed that one employee was killed and another employee and contractor were seriously injured in a shooting in Papua, Indonesia, near the company’s administrative offices in Kuala Kencana, a lowlands company town 60 km from its Grasberg mine in the highlands.

“Security has been increased in the area, and government security forces are actively working to apprehend the assailants,” Linda Hayes, Freeport-McMoRan’s vice president communications told The Northern Miner by email after repeated requests for more information on the attack.  “We are deeply saddened by this incident, and our large workforce is grieving the loss of the long-time employee who was killed.”

Hayes did not release any other information and did not confirm the identity of the employee who was killed in the March 30 shooting, but news outlets including Reuters and The Associated Press identified him as a New Zealand citizen.

The Associated Press reported that the West Papua Liberation Army, which is the military wing of the Free Papua Organization, claimed responsibility for the attack and quoted a statement from its spokesman Sebby Sambom: “‘We will keep fighting until Freeport stops operating and talks for the independence of Papua begin.’”

“Attacks by rebels near the Grasberg mine have spiked in the last year,” the news agency reported in an article on March 30 republished in The New York Times, noting that the mine “is seen by separatists as a symbol of Indonesian rule and has been a frequent target for rebels.”

PT Freeport Indonesia (PT-FI), which runs the Grasberg mine, is owned by Freeport McMoRan (48.8%) and PT Inalum, a state-owned company owned by the Indonesian government (51.2%).

PT Freeport Indonesia started mining in the Grasberg minerals district in 1972 and discovered the Grasberg mine in 1988, according to Freeport-McMoRan’s website.

The Phoenix, Arizona-headquartered company says the Grasberg minerals district “contains one of the world’s largest recoverable copper reserve and the largest gold reserve” and features three operating mines – the Grasberg open pit, the Deep Ore Zone (DOZ) underground mine and the Big Gossan underground mine.

The district is situated in the remote highlands of the Sudirman mountain range in the province of Papua, Indonesia, which is on the western half of the island of New Guinea.