Ministry Blasts ‘Illegal’ Freeport Mining
The increasingly frustrated Indonesian Ministry of Forestry has issued a second warning to mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia for not obtaining a permit to mine in protected forest areas. London-listed Rio Tinto helped to finance expansion of Freeport’s massive Grasberg mine in Indonesian-occupied West Papua and continues to profit from it. Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan [...]
Conflicts over mining: the illusory boundary between “legal” and “illegal”
It’s widely believed that “illegal” mining is only undertaken by small groups of entrepreneurs or artisanal operators. If, and when, the state cracks down on their operations, the culprits are removed (sometimes with considerable violence, as in Brazil and Indonesia) to be replaced by registered and “more responsible” companies. But the reality is often more [...]
Six wounded in ambush near Freeport-Rio Tinto mine in West Papua
Six people were wounded Sunday in a shooting ambush near US company Freeport McMoRan’s massive gold and copper mine in Indonesia’s eastern Papua region, police said. Three policemen and three mine workers were hurt in the ambush on a convoy of buses and land cruisers heading to the coastal city of Timika from the Grasberg [...]
BHP Billiton isn’t putting another nickel in
Recently there’s been some speculation that BHP Billiton – the world’s biggest mining company – may be about to exit from nickel production.
In 2008, it pulled out of the Gag Island project in West Papua. See: http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=8921.
The following year, the company also sold a major nickel refinery in Australia. See: http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=9384.
Then, last month, BHP Billiton [...]
West Papua: Police slay Tribal Activist at world’s biggest copper-gold minesite
Last month, a legendary leader of the West Papua self-determination movement, OPM, was ambushed and shot dead by Indonesian police. Kelly Kwalik was accused of having “master-minded” recent fatal attacks on workers within the huge Freeport-Rio Tinto mining concession area. This line was adopted uncritically by several reporters, despite an earlier statement by Indonesia’s army [...]
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