Freeport-McMoRan’s highly profitable mine sits atop huge reserves of copper and gold. Waste from the operation pours into the nearby Otomina River, flooding some 90 square miles of wetlands. “Almost all the fish have disappeared,” noted the New York Times on December 30, citing an Indonesian government study.

The Jakarta Post reports that officials have pleaded with the company to construct pipes or provide an alternative to the present system. In a January 9 editorial, the Times noted that Freeport-McMoRan was one of several mining companies under pressure from local governments, which point out that such practices “would never be tolerated in America.”

Leftover rock from the mine covers three square miles and in some places is 900 feet deep, according to the company’s own figures. Scientists say green water in springs in the nearby Lorentz National Park show that chemicals in the rock may already have leaked into the water system.

Before the mine was developed in the early 1960s the area was home to a few hundred people from the Amungme, Kamoro, and other tribes. Now nearby Timika is a city of 100,000 people, including 18,000 miners and other Freeport-McMoRan employees.

The mine owners’ assault on the environment has been one target of protests in the three decades since work was begun on the mine, which officially opened in 1981. In March 1996 thousands rallied in the streets of Timika to demand some share in the wealth being carved out of their lands. Freeport-McMoRan says in response it has hired more West Papua residents and allocated 1 percent of revenue to meet social needs. Amungme spokesperson Thom Beanal, who supports West Papuan independence, told Times reporters that the resulting construction has primarily benefited the company’s operations.

Company records show that from 1998 through 2004 Freeport-McMoRan gave $20 million to Indonesian military and police officers—part of an “intricate web of political and military ties that have helped shield Freeport-McMoRan from [pressures] to clean up their practices,” the Times reported.

Tom Benedetti of the West Papua Action Network in Canada reports that 50,000 Indonesian troops, including police and marines, are stationed in West Papua today. In addition to protecting the mining operations, they are there to block the movement for independence. Despite the island’s natural wealth, more than 40 percent of the population lives below the official poverty line.

In Papua New Guinea, the other half of the island of New Guinea, similar controversies have swirled around the Ok Tedi copper and gold mine. The owner, Australian-based BHP mining company, has faced protests over the annual release of tens of millions of tons of liquid and rock wastes into the Fly River. Last year company officials admitted that sulphide-bearing wastes are leaving patches of dead vegetation the size of football fields along the river banks.  
 
 
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