Newmont Trial Update; Visit to Buyat Bay

UNCLAS JAKARTA 000597 SIPDIS DEPT FOR EAP/MTS AND EB/ESC/IEC SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON EINV EINV PGOV ID SUBJECT: Newmont Trial Update; Visit to Buyat Bay ¶1. (SBU) Summary: The Newmont trial continues to inch towards a conclusion within the next two months. The prosecution's February 23 response to the defense's final arguments yielded no significant new twists or surprises. After the court proceedings, we visited and dived on Buyat Bay and found it teeming with coral and sea life. During visits to the Buyat beach village, allegedly polluted by Newmont, as well as to the company's former mine, we saw scenes that appear to the untrained eye to contradict the charges against the American mining firm. End Summary. Prosecution Responds to Newmont's Closing Statement -------------- -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Government prosecutors on February 23 read aloud their 37-page response to PT Newmont Minahasa Raya's (Newmont) closing statement in the ongoing case involving criminal charges against Newmont and its former President Director Richard Ness. The prosecution began by apologizing for having to request a postponement of the proceedings from February 9 to February 23, noting that the defense's closing presentation was thick and difficult to digest. Prosecutors asked the judges not to be swayed by the slick appearance of the defense's documents, but to concentrate instead on the substance of the case. The prosecution argued that defense's closing arguments had not in any way undermined the credibility of the Government of Indonesia's (GOI) charges against the company. In fact, the prosecution repeatedly asserted that of the defense's 46 witnesses, 28 expert witnesses and 207 items of documentary evidence, the prosecutor considered pertinent only 21 witnesses, 9 expert witnesses and 7 items of documentary evidence. ¶3. (SBU) The prosecution presented its response to the defense's closing arguments in 31 points -- each time restating the defense's arguments, in some detail, followed by the prosecution's rebuttals (at times flimsy). A few prosecution responses appeared to contradict others. For instance, the prosecution stated that certain defense statements were inadmissible and irrelevant since they were sourced from local newspapers. Later, however, the prosecution used as a key piece of evidence an Indonesian newspaper article stating that Newmont had released 33 tons of mercury into the air and sea. The prosecution subsequently challenged the defense's assertion that heavy metal sediments would remain stable on the bottom of the Buyat Bay by citing another recent news article stating that ocean currents at 2,000 meters could shift the 6-kilogram "black box" and debris from the January 1, 2007 Adam Air Flight 574 crash. ¶4. (SBY) The day's court proceedings lasted a little over two hours. There was at least one stretch when the head judge appeared to doze off. At the close of the prosecution's reading of its statement, the judges asked defense attorneys if they would like to respond on behalf of Newmont or Mr. Ness. The defense asked for two weeks to prepare a response. The proceedings are now tentatively scheduled to resume on March 9, but defense attorneys may request an extension. No protests took place during the proceedings, and there appeared to be only a limited number domestic press in attendance. Visit to Buyat Bay -------------- ¶5. (SBU) The day after the February 23 court session, Econ Officer accompanied Richard Ness to Buyat Bay to view the situation there first-hand. Two scuba dives in the relatively small bay revealed beautiful, diverse, and thriving coral reefs and a bounty of small- and medium-sized tropical fish that one would expect in shallower tropical waters and reefs. Underwater photos of these reefs are currently featured in a Garuda Airlines in-flight magazine article, which quotes Newmont staff who apparently guided the authors of the piece, and touts the Bay as one of Indonesia's well-kept diving secrets. Newmont has worked with the villagers to create and SIPDIS submerge as many as 3,000 coral balls to revive the reefs. Ness said that in 2002, Newmont's Buyat Bay effort was the largest private sector reef ball project in the world. ¶6. (SBU) Newmont has cleared o*t signs of its former mining operations off the hillide where they occurred, and most of the area isnow grown-over with recently planted trees and othr vegetation. The mine's main pit contains a smal lake. A large, flat field below the lake (in eistence since the mine started operations) apparntly acts as a natural filter to absorb heavy meals that run off and leech away from the mine. Accrding to Ness, Newmont has met its target of comlying with the toughest of both U.S. and Indonesi waste standards in the Buyat Bay. Illegal Mines Using Mercury -------------- . (SBU) Meanwhile, an estimated 3,000 independentlocal miners continue to truck in rocks dug fromthe mountainside above the former Newmont mine. he rocks are crushed with small-scale pulverizin equipment and ball mills. Ness explained that th miners extract gold fro*m the resulting sedimentby combing it with mercury and burning the resulting gold/mercury amalgamates in the open air. We visited one such operation and saw roughly a dozen empty mercury bottles that once contained roughly 3 kilograms of mercury each sitting open in a cardboard box. Local miners told us they use roughly a dozen bottles of mercury over the course of a week. ¶8. (SBU) According to Ness, three or four of such bottles would contained a quantity of mercury equivalent to the entire amount of mercury contained in the tailings Newmont disposed in Buyat Bay during the period of the mine's operation. Based on tests of its samples taken every two hours throughout the duration of the mine's operation, Ness said Newmont's monthly reports to the GOI indicate a total of 5.9 kilograms of mercury were loaded with tailings into Buyat Bay during its 2000-2004 permit period, and a total of 9.7 kilograms loaded into the Bay over the entire duration of the mine's operation. This works out to an average of 3.6 grams per day of mercury loaded into 66 million cubic tons of water, flushed twice daily by local tides. ¶9. (SBU) Today, with no protective environmental measures in place, Ness explained that waste from the local independent mining operations naturally drains into a second bay adjacent to Buyat, along the coast of which exists one of the area's largest villages. Ness said that Newmont and independent tests have shown no significant levels of mercury in either of the bays, and nothing close to allowable limits under U.S. or Indonesian environmental regulations. Fish Plant to Replace Mine -------------- ¶10. (SBU) At one end of Buyat Bay, Newmont has almost completed construction of a large modern fish processing factory and cold storage facility to provide employment for the mine's former employees. Ness said the factory will draw power from the former mine's 16-megawatt generator, which the company donated to the local government. At a small port nearby, we viewed local fishing vessels returning with tons of fish caught in deeper waters beyond Buyat Bay and the neighboring shoreline. One ship owner told us that, in the near future, these local boats will dock alongside and unload their catches at the Newmont-built factory. HEFFERN