Verdict on Newmont Indonesia boss expected next month

Fri Mar 16, 2007 4:30am EDT


MANADO, Indonesia, March 16 (Reuters) - A verdict in a high-profile pollution trial involving the Indonesian unit of Newmont Mining Corp and its American chief will be delivered on April 4, the judge trying the case said on Friday.

PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (NMR), which once operated in North Sulawesi province, and its president director Richard Ness face charges over allegations the miner dumped toxic substances into a bay near its now defunct gold mine, making villagers sick.

"I and other members of the panel will consult each other to reach a just verdict in this case," chief judge Ridwan Damanik told Reuters after a hearing on Friday.

During legal arguments in January, Ness and his firm said they had obtained valid licences to carry out mining, including a licence for the disposal of tailings on the Buyat Bay seabed. Permission had also been granted for an environmental impact analysis by the environment ministry.

During Friday's hearing Ness again urged the judges to throw out all the charges and order an investigation into those whom he said had "perpetrated false allegations" against him.

He said those individuals "wilfully and knowingly manipulated data and referenced non-existing regulations to deceive the public by creating the illusion that a village needed to be relocated because of pollution when in fact no pollution existed".

Ness also thanked the judges for allowing the trial to be conducted independently and fairly.

In November, the prosecutor asked for a three-year jail term for Ness over allegations he failed to stop the firm from polluting the environment and demanded he pay 500 million rupiah ($54,483) or serve an additional six months in prison.

The prosecutor also demanded the firm be fined 1 billion rupiah.

Newmont opened the North Sulawesi gold mine in 1996 and closed the site after the last ore was processed in August 2004.

The company also operates Asia's second-largest copper mine, Batu Hijau, on eastern Sumbawa island, which produced 718 million pounds of copper and 719,000 ounces of gold in 2005. ($1 = 9,177 rupiah)




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