Jakarta, Indonesia – Indonesia plans to pursue charges against Newmont Mining Co.’s top official in Indonesia, American Richard Ness, in a case involving the pollution of a bay with toxic waste, the chief prosecutor said Tuesday.
Prosecutor Robert Ilat indicated charges would not be pursued against five other Newmont officials jailed for a month last year in the case, however.
It was not immediately clear what charges Ness faces. Ilat said a trial could start within weeks.
Ness attorney Rick Kornfeld denied the charges.
“We are disappointed but look forward to vindicating our client in court,” Kornfeld said. “Richard Ness and the company have not committed any crimes and have not polluted Buyat Bay.”
The Denver-based gold mining company’s Indonesian subsidiary, Newmont Minahasa Raya, has been accused of causing dozens of residents on the island of Sulawesi to develop skin diseases and tumors.
The company began operations at the site, 1,300 miles northeast of Jakarta, in 1996 and stopped mining two years ago after extracting all the gold it could.
But the company continued processing ore until Aug. 31, when the mine was permanently shut.
The five other Newmont employees – an Australian, an American and three Indonesians – were involved in running the gold mine. Ilat said there was “no material evidence” linking them to pollution in Buyat Bay.
A spokesman for Newmont said the company had not officially been informed of the prosecutor’s decision.
With conflicting test results, it has been difficult to prove whether mine tailings were the cause of villagers’ health problems and the depletion of fishing stocks in the bay.
The World Health Organization and an initial Environment Ministry report found that the water was unpolluted, but a subsequent ministry study found arsenic levels in the seabed were 100 times higher at the waste-dumping site than in other parts of the bay.
However, the latest government study released in May found heavy metal traces in villagers living close to the mine were within normal levels, although slightly higher than those living far from the facility.
Newmont has long lobbied the government against charging its employees in the case.
Instead, it has argued that authorities should charge the company, insisting it can prove that it did nothing wrong.
The news appears to bring an end to a difficult ordeal for five of the Newmont executives, who were jailed for a month last year over the case and then had a travel ban slapped on them. In May, a court ruled the decision to detain the executives was illegal.
Denver Post staff writer Greg Griffin contributed to this report.
