Martabe liquid waste well within limits: Labs
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan | Archipelago | Tue, January 22 2013, 10:31 AM
Paper Edition | Page: 5
Three independent laboratories announced on Monday that the metal content of waste water being discharged by the Martabe gold mine into the Batang Toru River in South Tapanuli regency, North Sumatra, was below the maximum limit.
The report was read out in front of North Sumatra caretaker Governor Gatot Pujo Nugroho, South Tapanuli Regent Syahrul Pasaribu, deputy regent Aldinz Rapolo Siregar and community figures at the miner’s Permata Camp in Batang Toru district.
The three laboratories — PT Intertek Utama Services, PT ALS Indonesia and the Environment Ministry’s Environmental Impact Control Facilities Center — said the waste discharged was still below the limit set by a 2004 environmental ministerial decree on waste water quality for gold or copper mining.
The laboratory tested the wasted water for two months for water acidity and levels of mercury, cyanide, copper, cadmium, chromiun, lead, nickel, zinc and arsenic.
Aldinz said a team would verify the results in the next three days and submit a recommendation to the regent to issue a permit to allow waste water to be discharged into the river.
“We will issue the permit as soon as possible after the team has submitted its recommendation. Besides, Martabe has fulfilled all the requirements,” he told The Jakarta Post.
Three months ago, local communities complained about the Hong Kong-based company discharging waste water into the river for fear that it would pollute the water.
The local authorities decided on Nov. 12, 2012 to run independent tests.
“For us in Martabe, today [Monday] becomes an important milestone to demonstrate and reaffirm our commitment as a transparent and credible foreign investor in conducting our business in Indonesia,” said G-Resources president director Peter Albert.
Albert added that the commitment also included managing its water management system to be safe and not harm the environment.
Managed by G-Resources, Martabe is the first mine to produce gold in North Sumatra. The concession area is 1,360 square kilometers with a forecast reserve of 8.05 million ounces of gold and 77 million ounces of silver.
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HEAR THAT, EAS, BE A GOOD CORPORATE CITIZEN...N U WILL GET YOUR PERMIT.....U FOLKS GOT SOMETHING TO LEARN FROM THE HONGEEE.....