Indonesia tells Freeport to repair lake damageSurna Tjahya Djajadiningrat, director general of mining at the Mines and Energy Ministry, said Freeport's agreement on Wednesday to temporarily limit daily ore output at the giant mine in Irian Jaya to 200,000 tonnes from 230,000 was not enough to settle matters."The problem is not over yet. They have to repair Lake Wanagon. There is an indication that landslides have continued at Wanagon, and the damage must be repaired," he said.
Freeport said on Wednesday intensive studies were still under way on the cause of the accident at the waste dump, where a landslide of waste from the mine on May 4 triggered flooding down an adjacent valley, sweeping four workers to their deaths.
"Based on an analysis of data produced, no threat to human health and no long-term environmental impacts have been identified as a result of the overflow event," Freeport said, adding that it would compensate locals and families of the workers affected.
Along with cutting output, Freeport has agreed to temporarily stop dumping waste at the site, until a solution can be found.
PT Freeport is majority owned by U.S.-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. The Indonesian government also holds a stake.
Bill Collier, Freeport-McMoRan director of communications told Reuters on Wednesday PT Freeport "was not placing any of the overburden in the area of the Wanagon right now."
"We have alternative overburden storage sites. One is the Carstenz Valley, located to the east, and there are also other sites at higher elevation," he said.