Rio Tinto signs a production sharing agreement with Freeport McMoRan thus playing a pivotal role expanding the mine in West Papua. Rio Tinto’s investment provides the financial capacity to expand production at the mine from the initial Ertzberg open pit to the current open-cast pit at Grasberg, ‘Nemangkawi’ in the indigenous Amungme language. Without this investment, the mine would never have expanded to the point it has today. The mine still continues to develop and expand, with plans to create underground block-cave mining. Under the new agreement with the Indonesian government, it is set to continue to exploit these vast mineral reserves until 2041.
The Grasberg / Nemangkawi mine’s entire history is noticeably absent from Rio Tinto’s own timeline, including its association with colonialism, human rights abuses and denying West Papuans autonomy and control over their lands, as well as its pollution of the environment through waste dumping which has detrimental impacts on people’s health and livelihoods.
Cut and Run report by LMN