Indonesian courts will decide if personnel from a wholly owned subsidiary of
Local prosecutors will charge as many as six men with failing to obey the country’s environmental laws after a probe sponsored by the Indonesian government found significant levels of arsenic and mercury in samples taken from an ocean bay near a mine once run by PT Newmont Minahasa Raya. Operations have wrapped up at Minahasa, on Sulawesi Island, and reclamation work is now under way.
Minahasa Raya will likely be charged separately.
Newmont says the pollution is from other sources and has followed Indonesian law. Indonesian police have named six Newmont employees — two Americans, one Australian, and three Indonesians — as suspects, though they have not been charged. Five of the men were detained for more than a month over the matter, and their movements remain restricted.
Charges of breaching Indonesia’s environmental laws carry jail terms of up to 15 years if it is proven that someone has died or become seriously ill as a direct result of pollution.
A report published after the government probe found that fish in the bay were contaminated with enough arsenic to make them dangerous for human consumption. It recommended the health ministry carry out more tests on villagers who have complained of rashes, breathing difficulties and dizziness.
The findings were the latest of several studies on Buyat Bay after some villagers from the area filed a US$543-million lawsuit against Newmont, charging waste from the mine had caused illnesses and ruined local fishing.
Newmont says it was vindicated by two earlier studies — one by the Indonesian government and another by the World Health Organisation — which concluded Buyat Bay was not polluted.
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