UPDATE: Shots Fired At Freeport Indonesia Vehicles Saturday
August 24 2009 - 12:21AM
Dow Jones News
Unknown attackers fired shots at a truck convoy belonging to
Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.'s (FCX) Indonesian
operations Saturday, but no one was injured in the attack and
mining operations were unaffected, the company said Monday.
This was the latest in a string of shooting attacks on PT
Freeport Indonesia personnel and property since July, raising new
security concerns after the gold and copper mine in Papua province
- the world's largest by production and reserves - had remained
free of major incidents for several years.
"Mine production and milling are running normally," PT Freeport
spokesman Mindo Pangaribuan told Dow Jones Newswires. The company
earlier said in a statement that it has indefinitely suspended
operations on part of the road that leads to its Grasberg mine, in
eastern Indonesia.
A company official said separately that the stretch of road that
has been closed isn't within the company's mining area.
Recent Attacks
An Australian mine technician and an Indonesian security guard
working for PT Freeport were killed last month in an attack. A
police officer also died of injuries sustained during a recent
attack.
Police investigations have led to several people - at least one
of them an employee of Freeport itself - being charged in
connection with the attacks.
PT Freeport has frequently contended with violence around
Grasberg since discovering the deposit in the late 1980s.
The mine has been targeted by separatists, who since the 1970s
have sought independence - sometimes through violence - in what is
among the poorest parts of Indonesia.
Security in Papua has generally improved in the past few years,
in part due to new laws that give the local government more say
over revenue from its natural resources, but violent incidents
haven't completely stopped.
In 2002, two U.S. school teachers were killed on the same road
as Saturday's attack, while in 2006 illegal miners near Grasberg
rioted and burned Freeport property after being forced off the
land.
PT Freeport targets output of 1.3 billion pounds of copper and
2.2 million ounces of gold from Grasberg this year.
-By Reuben Carder, Dow Jones Newswires; 62 21 3983 1277;
Reuben.Carder@dowjones.com