Andrew Marshall, Jakarta – Canada's Newmont Mining Corp. said on Thursday it had evacuated women, children and non-essential staff from its gold mine in north Sulawesi after intimidation by protesting locals who have blockaded the site.
Newmont said mining and milling operations had been halted at the site. The mine was forced to close temporarily earlier this month because of the blockade, which was reimposed on Monday.
"Some very irresponsible people have been guarding the roadblock and have been physically threatening our personnel," Paul Lahti, general manager of the Newmont Minahasa Raya mine, said in a statement.
"They have been drinking alcohol every night and generally have sought to strike fear into the people who live and work on this site." The protesters are former landowners who are demanding higher compensation for the land used by the mine.
But Newmont, North America's second largest gold producer, said the company had given healthy compensation packages to some 400 landowners from 1989 to 1994, paying five times the market rate.
"It's as if I went to the market and bought a fish, cooked it and ate it, then the fish seller came to me five years later and said 'you owe me more money for that fish I sold you'. It's illogical and not fair," Lahti said. He called on Indonesia's government to uphold the rule of law.
Officials have said Newmont Minahasa Raya's gold output in 1999 was 11 tonnes and targeted to reach 12 tonnes this year.
Mining firms face mounting problems
Foreign miners have increasingly found themselves at odds with local residents, especially over land compensation, since authoritarian rule under former president Suharto came to an end amid economic and social chaos in 1998. Protests, legal conflicts and environmental battles have hit several foreign mining firms in Indonesia.
In May, gold and silver miner PT Kelian Equatorial mining, owned by Rio Tinto, was forced to temporarily halt production and evacuate workers from its site in East Kalimantan after protesters seeking land compensation blockaded all access roads to the site. The incident followed the occupation late last year by Dayak tribespeople of another mine in Kalimantan – the PT Indo Muro Kencana, a subsidiary of Australian Aurora Gold.
Newmont's mine in Sulawesi faced problems earlier this year when a tax row with regional authorities threatened to close the mine. A compromise was eventually found after Newmont agreed to pay $3 million for tax and community services.
There has also been trouble for the giant Freeport gold and copper mine in remote Irian Jaya, majority owned by Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc. The mine has been dogged by protests by locals and environmental groups, and was ordered by the government to temporarily cut production.