Jakarta – Newmont Mining Corp., the world’s biggest gold miner, will know on Sept. 20 whether it will face its first criminal trial, on charges in an Indonesian court of polluting the sea off Sulawesi Island.
“The court is adjourned until Tuesday Sept. 20, 2005, when the judges will give their decision,” Presiding Judge Ridwan Damanik said in court today. Newmont argued on Aug. 19 that the charges against the company and its local head, Richard Ness, 55, have no basis in law and should be dismissed. Ness, who denies the charges, faces as many as 10 years in prison if convicted.
“We don’t want to be hasty,” Damanik said yesterday in an interview yesterday in Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi province, where the hearing is taking place. “We need to carefully consider arguments from both sides and look into the case to see if they are sufficient for a case to proceed.” Indonesia has some of the world’s largest deposits of copper, gold and tin and depends on mining for 10 percent of its economic output. A conviction against Newmont may harm the country’s attempts to attract foreign investment, said James Van Zorge, a partner at political risk consultancy Van Zorge, Heffernan & Associates, in a Sept. 1 interview.
Tests Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is scheduled to visit New York this month to garner foreign funding for Southeast Asia’s largest economy.
The government claims waste from Denver-based Newmont’s exhausted mine on Sulawesi polluted the sea, causing health problems among local villagers. Newmont denies wrongdoing.
Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar said in November that waste from Newmont’s unit PT Newmont Minahasa Raya in Sulawesi caused arsenic levels on a seabed to rise to 10 times the levels allowed in the U.S.
The dispute centers on interpretations of pollution tests.
Villages living near the mine complained to police in July 2004 on health issues after eating fish from nearby Buyat Bay. Newmont has said its waste-disposal processes are in line with legal limits.
The company closed the Sulawesi mine last year after the deposit was worked out. The company employs 7,000 workers at another site in the country, a $2 billion copper and gold mine in Batu Hijau in West Sumbawa province, where workers excavate reserves estimated to last until 2033.
Defense lawyer Luhut Pangaribuan said Aug. 19 the indictment was deficient legally because Newmont and Ness had been denied the right to present evidence and witnesses, and a civil suit was still open in the South Jakarta district court.
Victims State prosecutor Robert Ilat said in a separate interview yesterday he would challenge the objections from Newmont. “We have a strong case here, people were worried and there were victims, so some subsidiary aspects, which Newmont argues, can be neglected, so the case should move forward,” Ilat said in a telephone interview in Manado.
The prosecution hadn’t made a strong case against Ness or the company, said Pangaribuan, in a separate interview yesterday.
The case is the Ministry of Environment vs PT Newmont Minahasa Raya and Richard Ness, number 284/PID.B/2005/PN.MDO, in the Manado district court of North Sulawesi.
