Pristine dive sites in North Sulawesi spared from the dumping of mine waste into its waters - NSWA Press Release
15 November 2006
The NSWA's members and communities were very pleased to learn that PT Meares Soputan Mining and PT Tambang Tondano Nusajaya ("The Company") who are in the process of developing a mine in the province of North Sulawesi are announcing their commitment to work with the local stakeholders in a transparent manner and within environmental and socially responsible standards and good practices as they stated in their
Letter to the Jakarta Post (Oct 10, 2006) by Peter Brown, the General Manager.
We have learned from the Ministry of Environment that all members of the AMDAL (environmental impact assessment) team have agreed to EXCLUDE the option for the Company to dispose of its mining tailings to the sea. We are pleased to learn that NSWA's discussions and actions, along with other the support and actions of other stakeholders may have contributed to this decision to protect our marine waters.
Therefore we are delighted to see that The Company has announced its plans to modify its approach for tailings management using a
land-based tailings/rock waste dump, recognizing that this approach will be more expensive to the Company in the short term, but better reflects the true cost of a sustainable extractive enterprise and is better for North Sulawesi in the long run. We applaud the Ministry of Environment, all of the stakeholders who campaigned for this protection, and The Company for the successful application of laws, regulations, the public hearing processes and good citizenship for the peaceful and professional resolution of this issue.
We hope that the statement made by Mr. Brown that the tailings and rock waste "do not contain metals in toxic concentrations, nor with they contain cyanide levels exceeding applicable standards" are true and verifiable as the NSWA supports the protection not only of marine resources but of the larger ecosystem, its services to communities, and the communities themselves.
We understand that this new land-based approach must also be approved by the Ministry of Environment's AMDAL Team
before any production can take place, and that these reviews are still in progress. We know that the seismicity of the area and the volcanic and limestone geology will likely present challenges to the safe design of a land based tailing disposal as well. We hope that the technical solutions of the 21st century and continued commitment by The Company and the stakeholders will identify and approve an alternate approach that will in no way harm the communities in the area, the terrestrial ecosystem, the ground water systems that supply water for irrigation, drinking and that input to the sea.
In addition, although this is a usual and appropriate practice in new enterprises, we appreciate The Company's commitment to and investment in the development or rehabilitation of areas at great cost before income can be generated by the mine, or indeed even before the environmental permits and approvals are in place. The millions of dollars of investment mentioned seem and indeed are quite large, certainly more than any in our association or industry could provide, but are obviously still economically feasible to the enterprise based on the anticipated sales (profits) of the minerals refined at the end of the process. As North Sulawesi has experience with the potentially short life-span of such an extractive operation, we join many stakeholders who support a careful scoping and assessment process as well as production and rehabilitation phases that are equally well defined, reviewed, and implemented.
NSWA is comprised of many people and interests that were born in North Sulawesi, and we have tied our success and our futures to these people and the sustainability of their unique and valuable environment and natural resources. In doing so, we also commit ourselves to these people and their long-term sustainable development, economic growth, quality of life and cultural integrity.
As long as this commitment by PT Meares Soputan Mining & PT Tambang Tondano to North Sulawesi and sustainable business practices is implemented, verified and continuous, we welcome them among the private sector enterprises in North Sulawesi.
We look forward to further discussions and activities with the company, including possible joint support of local independent environmental monitoring (as we support in the marine environment), community services for the families who work for us or live in our communities, and the province at large as it moves towards becoming a World Heritage Natural Site.
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NSWA Press Release 28 July 2006
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