1) Freeport Accident Probe Unlikely to Take Three Months
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1) Freeport Accident Probe Unlikely to Take Three Months
A government-led investigation into the tunnel collapse that killed 28 people at Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc’s (FCX.N) copper mine in Indonesia should not take three months to complete, the head of the probe said on Friday.
This signals production could resume sooner than expected at the Grasberg complex in west Papua, the world’s No.2 copper mine where operations were shut on May 15, a day after a training tunnel away from the mining operations caved in on 38 workers.
“The three-month period stated by the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Jero Wacik was not just for the accident investigation, but for the whole investigation and inspections of all underground mining in Indonesia,” Ridho Wattimena said.
“I think (the accident) investigation will be not too long,” said Wattimena, who is also head of the mining engineering graduate program at the Bandung Institute of Technology. “We do not need months to investigate it.”
The government investigation will focus on the cause of the collapsed tunnel to prevent a similar accident in the future, and once completed, a report and recommendations will be sent to Wacik, Wattimena added.
Arizona-based Freeport briefly resumed open-pit mining production on May 28, but after a worker was killed in a separate accident, the government asked the company to suspend operations until a government investigation was completed. The probe was forecast to take up to three months.
A three-month production loss could slash Freeport’s 2013 earnings per share by 24 percent, if costs are expensed, to an estimated $2.54 per share, according to a BMO Capital Markets research note this week.
BMO estimates Grasberg will contribute 32 percent of Freeport’s earnings before interest and tax this year.
Freeport Indonesia could not be contacted on Friday, but earlier this week it said that results of internal inspections confirmed that overall underground mine facilities were safe.
Indonesia’s chief economics minister has called for the speedy completion of the government probe into the accident, so that open-pit mining can resume quickly.
Freeport Indonesia estimates it contributed around $1 billion to the Indonesian economy last year in taxes, royalties and dividends to the government.
A trade union representing the mine workers, wants both government and company-led investigations into the accident to be completed before production is resumed.
The Grasberg complex, which also has the world’s largest gold reserves, normally produces around 220,000 metric tons (242,508 tons) of concentrated ore a day, with about 140,000 metric tons coming from open-pit mining and 80,000 metric tons from underground operations.
A stoppage of three months would cut around 125,000 metric tons of copper or about half a percent from global supply, according to Reuters estimates, which combined with other disruptions could wipe out an expected small market surplus and boost global prices.
Although Freeport has not said what level of stocks it has left, large miners typically have three to four weeks of ore stockpiled at port, and around three days on site.
Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange traded at $7,365 a metric ton on Friday, slightly lower than the day before the accident.
Reuters
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Posted at 05:28 on 07 June, 2013 UTC
Australia’s Foreign Minister has accused people who advocate self-determination rights of West Papuans of misleading the indigenous people of Indonesia’s Papua region.
Bob Carr made the comment during a Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee hearing on his government’s response to ongoing human rights abuses in West Papua.
Johnny Blades looks at the growing scrutiny on Canberra’s support for Indonesia’s hold on West Papua.
JOHNNY BLADES: It’s not the first time that Bob Carr has been called on to defend Canberra’s stand on issues of human rights abuses and the conduct of Indonesia’s military in West Papua. But when taken to task over West Papua by the Greens Senator Richard Di Natale, the Minister launched an unprecedented attack. Insisting that Canberra regularly raises rights issues in West Papua with Jakarta, Bob Carr criticised the international West Papuan solidarity movement.
BOB CARR: The people who fly Papuan flags are the people who talk the language of secession and independence. They are planting in the minds of people who actually live in the place the notion that this campaign has some kind of international resonance. And that is a cruel deceit by self-indulgent people safe in their own beds, safe in a democracy - a cruel deceit about the potential of a demand for secessionism. Australia and the world recognise Indonesian sovereignty over West Papua.
JOHNNY BLADES: Senator Di Natale found Mr Carr’s comments deeply offensive.
RICHARD DI NATALE: It is incredibly patronising and incredibly arrogant that you would suggest that a movement within a nation of people who are able to make decisions for themselves are somehow being controlled by people externally.
BOB CARR: This is the Green Party cause of the day. It’s a game for the Green Party, it’s a little game, but its implications on the ground for Papua can be very serious.
RICHARD DI NATALE: Can I finish... Can I finish my question, Senator Carr? Well, again, I find the notion that somehow standing up for the democratic rights of the people is a cause for the day. That is, again, deeply offensive.
JOHNNY BLADES: The Greens senator asked the government about the lack of impact from its representations to Jakarta over ongoing rights violations and a growing list of security forces atrocities in West Papua. Allaster Cox from the South-East Asia Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs explained that Canberra supports Jakarta’s efforts to improve life in West Papua through economic development.
ALLASTER COX: It’s correct to say that the situation is not adequate yet - the Indonesians themselves recognise that, including on issues of freedom of expression and so forth. And I think if you ask any of the Indonesian officials and people concerned with this policy area they will say, ’Yes, it is not yet where we want it to be’.
JOHNNY BLADES: Canberra recently boosted military co-operation with Indonesia. However, echoing calls in the Senate by the Democratic Labour Party, Senator Di Natale said the time has come for Australia to make its extensive funding and support for Indonesian security forces conditional on an end to human rights abuses in West Papua.
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