Rio Tinto backgrounder 7

The RIO TINTO Campaign site

BACKGROUNDER No. 7

March 1998

RIO TINTO – FREEPORT MINE, GRASBERG, WEST PAPUA

The Freeport/Rio Tinto copper and gold mine, the world's second largest, is situated in Irian Jaya (a province formerly known as West Papua, New Guinea). Through a rigged election process (and despite protests to the UN) Indonesia took control of the region in 1965 – leaving the fate of the indigenous people, the mineral resources and the environment in the hands of a corrupt military regime. Rio Tinto has a 12% shareholding in the operator Freeport McMoRan, which is based in the US. These are facts central to understanding the present day situation at Grasberg, which has become the focus of criticism from human rights agencies, church groups and environmentalists because of the massive social and environmental damage that the mine's operations have caused. ^[1]

The region has been physically devastated. Each day 100,000 tonnes of ore are mined at the site. A huge amount of the waste rock and tailings from the mine go into the nearby river system. The company itself has estimated that 40 million tonnes of toxic tailings were dumped in the Otomona-Ajkaw river system in 1996 alone. Rainforest around the site has been cleared for roads and for a mine town. The mining has scythed 400 metres off the top of the Grasberg mountain, a place considered sacred to the indigenous Amungme people. The local people have not benefitted financially from the mine. Under the Indonesian government's transmigration policy thousands of Javanese people have been moved into the region and these migrants are given preference for work at Grasberg. Only 4% of those employed at the mine come from the local region.

Some of the local people, robbed of their basic rights by the Indonesian armed forces, deprived of their land and forced to watch the destruction of their sacred mountain, have taken to armed opposition. However, many of those targeted for interrogation and beatings by the Indonesian military are not armed 'guerillas' but simply ordinary people who oppose the Freeport/Rio Tinto operation. Some protestors have been killed. A 1995 report from the Australian Council for Overseas Aid found that between June 1994 and March 1995 (in an area close to the mine) some 22 civilians and 15 alleged `guerillas' disappeared or were killed by the military - they were assisted by security forces employed by the mine. Many others were arrested, beaten, tortured or forced to flee into the jungle.

In recent times the mine area has been closed to outsiders and traditional landowners. The Indonesian military is steadily moving more troops into the region. The reason for this is the expansion of the mine and increased production to 200,000 tonnes of ore per day. In order to accommodate the vast tailings dams and waste rock sites because of the expansion some 2000 people will be forced off their land. More dams, which will further deplete water supplies in the region, are also being planned. Rio Tinto, instead of seeking to withdraw from this project, has taken a 40% stake in the expansion program. Indigenous people and Indonesian environmental groups are considering legal action against the mine in both Indonesian and US courts.

Footnotes

^[1] See West Papua Information Kit, 1998, from the Australia-West Papua Association at PO Box 65, Millers Point, Sydney, 2000.. Tel. 02-9960 1698.