Fidelis E Satriastanti – A probe by a panel of experts has found that gold miner PT Newmont Minahasa Raya did not do harm to the environment over years of dumping mine tailings into Buyat Bay in North Sulawesi.

In a report issued on Saturday, the panel said the seawater quality in the surrounding areas met national and international standards.

Since 1996, the gold mining company has been releasing tailings from its mine into the bottom of the bay, attracting strong criticism from local residents and green groups, who have accused it of polluting seawater and affecting people's health. Tailings are the portions of ore left over after the gold has been separated out.

The independent scientific panel was established under the so-called Goodwill Agreement entered into by the government and the Newmont subsidiary. It comprises experts from Manado State University, Sam Ratulangi University, the University of Indonesia and foreign scientists from Australia and the United States.

Panel member Amin Soebandrio said the group had examined all aspects of the water, including physical, chemical and biological measurements, before determining that arsenic and mercury levels fell within national and international standards.

"We also compared fish captured within 10 kilometers of the area with those captured in other coastal areas, and their heavy metal contents were also very low," said Amin, from the University of Indonesia.

But Rignolda Djamaluddin, director of Manado-based Kelola Foundation, said the findings ignored important aspects such as biodiversity and social welfare.

"We proposed for them to check on the impact on fish by breeding them on site. We also asked them to examine cells on the algae, but not one of our considerations was included," said Rignolda, who has participated in the Buyat research since the beginning. "They also did not include the impact on the ground, whether the pollution had reached people's wells to cause so many diseases."

Residents in the area have long reported inordinate numbers of seizures, headaches, lumps, skin irritations and birth defects.

He also demanded the State Ministry for Research and Technology evaluate the work of the team, which he believed leaned toward believing that the company had not polluted the areas.

However, Amin said the panel's task was only to test the condition of the water around the tailings and not to deal with ground contamination.

"There has been an assumption from the Ministry of Health that there are increased levels of arsenic and mercury in the wells, but it's not in our authority to make that connection," he said.

"But if we have already discovered no arsenic or mercury in the seawater, then there is no reason to check the groundwater, especially considering that people's wells are far away from the ocean."

He insisted the panel had no relationship with Newmont. "The panel was not authorized to do sampling; we only worked and analyzed the data presented to us by an independent contractor."