Jongker Rumteh, Manado – Residents of North Minahasa, North Sulawesi, are protesting a future gold mining operation in the regency because of a possible plan to dispose of tailings into the sea.
Chris Belung, the chairman of the People's Environmental Awareness Movement in North Sulawesi, said that PT Meares Soputan Mining, owned by the British-registered company Archipelago Resources, should update its environmental impact analysis (Amdal) because it was made seven years ago.
He said the company considered the tailings harmless and was planning to dump them at sea. Chris said the tailings would be hard to detect at sea and it was too early to declare them harmless.
Experts are divided on the matter. "In my opinion, the company should take one of the three options suggested by the national Amdal commission, which includes dumping the tailings on land, since it can be turned into products like building materials. Of course, in taking this option, the company will have to install machinery to recycle the tailings," he told The Jakarta Post.
He said the company wanted to go ahead with disposing of the tailings into the sea because it would cost it less and the technology was less complicated. Chris warned, however, of the potential repercussions of the mining operations on the environment.
Frances Carr of the London-based Down to Earth group previously said the gold mine plans to dump some six to eight million tons of mining waste into the pristine waters of Rinondoran Bay and the gold extraction process will use cyanide heap leaching.
She said these wastes, containing cyanide compounds plus arsenic and heavy metals, will not stay on the sea bed as an inert heap. There is a high risk they will enter the food chain as seas around North Sulawesi are subject to tropical storms and strong currents; frequent earth tremors affect the ocean floor, she added.
When previously contacted, the company's manager, Peter Brown, promised to provide a written explanation but as of Wednesday, no response was available.
The regency's community leader, Nauke Paat, said the residents would continue to protest because the company was not transparent about its plan to dump its waste or how it would manage the waste.
"If the company continues to insist on dumping its tailings into the sea, I think the livelihood of thousands of residents living in coastal areas – the fishermen – will be disrupted. So basically, we're against the operation if the tailings are going to be dumped at sea. But even if that's not the case, and the tailings are going to be dumped at a land site, the company still has to be transparent," said Nouke, who is in the shipping business.
The mining operation has also been opposed by Yopy Yorek, who chairs non-governmental organization the Minahasa Custom Land Guardian. He said the environmental group was not only against the plan to dump the tailings into the sea but also against the mining operation in general. He said much of North Minahasa regency, as far as Tangkoko reserve in Bitung, would be affected.
Yopy said there was no guarantee that the popular Bunaken marine park, parts of which are located in North Minahasa waters, would remain untouched. "We reject the gold mining operation. People living in the mining area have already been threatened by security guards hired by the company. Fisherman and residents who work in tourism will also be threatened once the mining starts," he said.
The company is reportedly going to start operating in the regency this month. It is not clear whether the protest will cause a delay.