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nergy and Mineral Resources Minister Darwin Zahedy Saleh said on Wednesday that the ministry would supervise how PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara’s (NNT) managed its tailings after the local administration’s raised concerns that the company’s activities might disrupt the environment.

He promised that the ministry would encourage NNT to comply with all regulations in its operation at the Batu Hijau gold and copper mine in West Nusa Tenggara, including how it managed residues from its activities.

“The company has shown a positive signal and will cooperate with the ministry and abide by all laws and regulations. We’ll monitor its activities closely,” he told reporters at a press briefing at his office in Jakarta.

The statement was made following a letter sent to NNT by the West Sumbawa regency administration stating that the company would no longer be allowed to dump tailings into an ocean trench in Senunu Bay starting on May 9, the day after the company’s dumping permission expires.

The ministry’s newly appointed director general for minerals and coal, Thamrin Sihite, said that the Environment Ministry issued a new permit for NNT to continue dumping its tailings but would apply stricter standards to ensure that residues would not harm the environment or the health of people living nearby.

“The new permission was issued by the Environment Ministry. The company is allowed to dump its tailings into the bay but it isn’t allowed to contaminate the environment,” Thamrin said at the briefing.

NNT president director Martiono Hadianto said that in 1999, the company had conducted two studies on tailings management.

The first study aimed to observe the possibility of dumping residues on land, while the second study focused on the potential impacts of dumping tailings into the sea, he said.

“The results said that dumping the tailings on land was too risky since the area was prone to earthquakes. Once an earthquake happened, the tailings might contaminate the surrounding areas and affect people living nearby,” he said.

In the bay, the tailings were dumped at the depth of 3,000 to 4,000 meters and this was safer than the first alternative, Martiono claimed.

He confirmed that the newly issued permission contained stricter requirements for the company in dumping its tailings into the bay. He said that the amount of residues the company could dump had been cut to 51.4 million tons a year from 58.4 million tons.

“The quality of water dumped into the bay must also be more environmentally friendly, with a lower acidity level,” he said.

He added that the company had also received the Green Proper award from the Environment Ministry five times, proving that the company was committed to keeping its operations environmentally friendly.

“Each year, the standard to win the Green Proper award is being raised, but last year, we managed to get the trophy once again,” Martiono said.

The company’s data shows that in 2010, it extracted 737,000 troy ounces of gold and 542 million pounds of copper from the Batu Hijau mining site in West Nusa Tenggara. The company will start exploration at the Elang mining site, 60 kilometers from Batu Hijau.

Currently, only 30 percent of its production is processed at a smelter in Gresik, East Java, while the remainder is processed abroad, including in Japan and South Korea.

— JP/ Rangga D. Fadillah