Alison Guerriere Ciaccio, New York – Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. has denied claims of environmental mishaps at its operations in Indonesia, filed by a shareholder group that seeks to examine the company's environmental record.
The shareholder proposal seeks examination into the New Orleans-based company's environmental policies and practices in West Papua, Indonesia, where it operates the massive Grasberg copper and gold mine. The proposal was submitted earlier this week by New York City Comptroller William Thompson, who oversees the New York City Pension Funds.
Citing reports and allegations of water pollution from an organization called Indonesian Friends of the Earth, and charges of violations of water quality regulations from Indonesia's Minister of the Environment, Thompson said that "the least the company can do is to ensure that it is not causing environmental damage to the rivers and in any way harming the people of Indonesia."
The group, citing data from a Norwegian Ministry of Finance report, claims that Freeport has dumped nearly 230,000 tons of waste into the Indonesian river system.
Freeport spokesman William Collier told Dow Jones Newswires that the company "disagrees with the characterizations of our environmental practices" adding that the company plans to either respond in writing to the Securities and Exchange Commission within 30 days or will respond to the proposal in the proxy, which will released next year.
He added that Freeport has recently voluntarily submitted to the Indonesian Environment Ministry's PROPER (Program for Pollution Control, Evaluation and Rating) environmental audit.
"We have been working cooperatively with the environment ministry much of this year in this process, but they have not yet concluded the program and announced the results," Collier said.
He added that the company has implemented some of the changes that the ministry has suggested, however, he wouldn't divulge the specifics of the changes.
In addition to the PROPER audit, Collier said the company has done its own independent audits every three years, most recently in 2005, which are available to the public.
The New York City Pensions Funds' proposal is calling on shareholders at the company's annual meeting in 2007 to urge Freeport to review it environmental policies.
The funds, which hold 544,458 shares of Freeport's stock worth about $29 million, want a report on that review to be given to shareholders by September 2007.