Yanacocha mine
The Yanacocha gold mine in northern Peru is considered one of the largest and most profitable in the world, producing over US$7 billion worth of gold to date. Before 1994 the mine was co-owned by Newmont, Buenaventura (a Peruvian mining company), and Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (BRGM), a French government-owned company. This partnership collapsed in 1994 after BRGM tried to sell part of its shares in the company to an Australian company which was a rival of Newmont. Newmont and Buenaventura would both go to court to challenge the trade.
Larry Kurlander, then a senior executive at Newmont, claimed the French President Jacques Chirac had sent a letter to then Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori asking him to intervene in the court case in favor of the French owned company. Kurlander had been sent by Newmont to Peru in order to try and get a favorable outcome for Newmont in the dispute. The legal battle would eventually make it all the way up to the Peruvian Supreme Court.
During this period Kurlander acknowledges having met with Vladimiro Montesinos, the Peruvian intelligence chief who has since been found guilty of embezzlement, illegally assuming his post as intelligence chief, abuse of power, influence peddling and bribing TV stations. However, Kurlander claims that he did nothing illegal and that the French government were taking similar steps in trying to contact Montesinos. The French ambassador to Peru Antoine Blanca denies this, pointing to the fact that Montesinos was on the CIA payroll and thus would naturally side with the U.S-based company.
After the fall of Fujimori in 2000 a number of videos Montesinos had taped of himself meeting with several domestic and foreign leaders and offering bribes and accepting them had emerged. In October 2005 Frontline in co-production with The New York Times found a February 1998 recording of a telephone conversation between Montesinos and Kurlander. The following is an excerpt from the tape:
- Kurlander:...we have a very serious problem in Peru with our company (Newmont) and Minera Buenaventura so I have enlisted the support of some of my friends from a variety of intelligence communities. I need it especially because the other side (the French government) has been acting quite strangely.
- Montesinos (to interpreter): Tell him that I am perfectly aware of the problem he has and the people he represents have with the French, as well as the problem he has with the judiciary.
- Kurlander: So now you have a friend for life. I want a friend for life.
- Montesinos (to interpreter): I thank you very much for what you have just told me and well you already have a friend. Tell him I'm going to help him with the voting. I would like to know the tricky practices of the French. The French Connection!
- Kurlander: The French Connection!
- (laughter)
Along with this telephone conversation, Frontline and The New York Times also re-broadcast three other videos. One was filmed in April 1998 and shows Montesinos talking to "Don Arabian", the CIA station chief in Peru, in an attempt to get CIA to pressure the U.S. to back Newmont in the case. In the video Montesinos claims to have found e-mails from Paris to Peru of French officials trying to influence the court to get a decision favorable to France.
Another video recorded in May 1998 shows Montesinos meeting with Peruvian Supreme Court Justice, and former classmate, Jaime Beltran Quiroga. In it Montesinos states that state interests are at stake in the case between Newmont and BRGM. He tells Quiroga that if the decision goes to Newmont that the United States will back Peru in its boarder dispute with Ecuador which had a few years ago exploded into the Cenepa War. He also tells Quiroga to deny any connection with him to the press. Quiroga would later play a crucial role in the case, his vote would be the deciding vote in the Newmont victory. After the video was first broadcast in Peru in 2001, on a Peruvian local television station the French Ambassador Antoine Blanca was quoted as saying "Now I know why Newmont won".
In the final July 1999 video, Montesinos is again seen with the now departing CIA station chief "Don Arabian" giving him a gift and thanking him for the help he has given Peru stating "[W]e hope that when you're back their [in Washington] you'll remember your friends".
Buyat Bay, Sulawesi, Indonesia
In August 2004, the Indonesian Ministry of Environment filed a US$133.6 million civil lawsuit against Newmont, claiming tailings from the company's Minahasa Raya mine polluted Buyat Bay in the North Sulawesi province, contaminating local fish stocks and causing nearby villagers to become seriously ill. Newmont denied the allegations, arguing that the illnesses had more to do with poor hygiene and poverty.
On November 15, 2005, a South Jakarta court dismissed the suit on technical grounds, saying the government had breached the terms of its contract with Newmont when it took legal action before seeking arbitration. Environmentalists urged for the suit to be appealed, but on December 1, 2005, Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar said the government expected to reach an out-of-court settlement with Newmont's local subsidiary. "By negotiating a settlement, we hope to be able to quickly compensate people living near the mine," he said.
The government negotiating team was led by chief Economics Minister Aburizal Bakrie. On February 16, 2006, the Indonesian government announced it would settle the civil suit for US$30 million to be paid over the next 10 years. The agreement also includes increased scientific monitoring and enhanced community development programs for the North Sulawesi province.
With the civil lawsuit settled, attention focused on the criminal charges against President Director Richard Ness. In December 2006, Newmont Mining Corp. objected to a documentary entitled Bye Bye Buyat being nominated for Indonesia's top film award, FFI's Citra Award. The company said that it interfered with Ness' ongoing trial.
After a 21-month trial—one of the longest proceedings in Indonesian history—Ness was found innocent of the pollution charges on April 24, 2007. The court found that the company was in compliance with all regulations and permits during its operations at the site, and failed to find evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that Nemont's subsidiary had polluted Buyat Bay. At the end of May, the prosecution appealed to the Supreme Court to overturn the ruling.
A week after being found not guilty of criminal charges, Richard Ness sued The New York Times in Indonesian court for libel. The lawsuit asks for nearly US$65 million in damages, and that The New York Times print a page-one retraction of previously published articles.
Akyem, Ghana: Hall of Shame 'winner' 2009 of the Public Eye award
Newmont received the 2009 Public Eye award for it's Akyem project in Ghana. According to the jury it had destroyed unique natural habitats, carried out forced resettlement of local people and polluted soil and rivers. Newmont described the information as misleading and said the project had been extensively studied by international and national environmental experts, members of the local communities, and by the appropriate governmental agencies and departments.
In March 2010 Newmont admitts to pay a compensation "in accordance with the law". January 2010:Ghanaian authorities are ligitate Newmont Mining for millions of dollars (reportedly 4.9). Newmont is accused of negligently spilling cyanide at its Ahafo gold mine in October 2009, resulting in water contamination and fish kills.
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