Indonesians have been deprived of billions of dollars in royalties by a US mining giant for decades, claims an author being ‘monitored’ by the Indonesian government. Duncan Graham reports.
The Indonesian Republic’s 286 million poverty-plagued citizen owners of the world’s third largest mountain of gold and second largest copper deposit, have been deliberately dudded of billions, allegedly.
Decades of interviews and research by Australian academic historian Dr Greg Poulgrain allegedly show that Indonesians have been secretly cheated out of royalties through the gross undervaluing of gold deposits between mining and processing.
In brief, the ore is dug up at 15 grams a ton, but later measured for royalty purposes at one gram a ton.
The US company Freeport-McMoRan controls almost 50 per cent of the Grasberg mine in West Papua – the rest is owned by the Indonesian Government, though only since 2018.
Curse of gold
Poulgrain’s findings have been published in Indonesia as Kutukan Emas Papua. When the 311-page book was launched in May this year without the author present, the Jakarta event was reportedly monitored by Indonesian Intelligence agents.
It’s due to be released this year in English as Curse of Gold by Indonesia’s premier publisher Kompas Gramedia.
It shows the concentration of gold in the Papuan mountains was assessed by international geologists last century at 15 grams a ton. However, the company claims the value is one gram a ton, one-fifteenth of the original valuation. In 2023, about 50 tonnes of gold were recovered and mostly exported.
The retail price is now at an all-time high of $3,700 an ounce. (There are 28.3 grams in an ounce.)
The Western section of the island of New Guinea has been part of Indonesia since the 1969 UN-supervised ‘Freedom of Choice’ referendum. Just over a thousand selected leaders of 800,000 indigenous landowners voted to leave Dutch colonial control and become an Indonesian province.
Poulgrain says that since the 1930s, the high value of the gold deposits was known by a select few scientists and a clique of intelligence services from Japan, the Netherlands and the US, but largely kept Though not to Allen Dulles, the head of the Central Intelligence Agency. He was also the lawyer representing Freeport.
In 1958, a US-backed insurgency involving soldiers and activists from the provinces of Sumatra and North Sulawesi was launched to unseat the pro-Communist Soekarno. It failed.
Indonesia’s founder-president apparently did not know of the riches and was disinterested in including Papua in the Republic. His priority was expelling the British from what was then Malaya through an armed campaign of Konfrontasi. Australian troops were involved in defending the transition to Malaysia.
After Soekarno was dumped in the 1965 military coup, reportedly involving the CIA, General Soeharto became President.
Poulgrain says he’s unsure when Soeharto first heard of Papua’s resources, but in 1967, he signed a 30-year contract with Freeport to mine copper tax-free for three years plus a 100,000-hectare concession.
No strings attached…
There was no Indonesian equity, compensation for landowners or environmental protection clauses. The World Bank reckons more than half the population of Indonesia earns less than $13 daily, and around ten per cent get below five Aussie dollars.
Mining in Grasberg started in 1972 when the US company’s commitment was $450m. Investments since have been huge. The operation, known as a “copper mine with some gold”, has an underground railway running slurry to the coast.
The company has movedfrom a 550-metre open-cut to deep shaft mining, going below 350 metres. There are more than 20,000 workers – mainly Filipinos – and 7,000 security staff.
Some make extra money by sifting through the waste-dump tailings … It’s been estimated that about $450m in fine gold is washed down with the toxic waste each year, which contains mercury.
The gold deposits weren’t in the 1967 agreement, and it’s not known if Soeharto was paid, though that’s widely rumoured. His monthly salary was $2,700.
In 1999, a Time magazine cover story headed Suharto Inc claimed the second president was Asia’s biggest kleptomaniac, amassing $14B through corrupt deals during his 32-year autocracy.
His family sued for libel and won $150m; this was overturned in 2009 by Indonesia’s Supreme Court.
Professor Jean Dozy, the top Dutch geologist and his team found the deposit and measured more than 30 samples. They scaled the peaks and confirmed 15 grams/ton.
He was twice interviewed in Holland by Poulgrain: “I asked Dozy to read from his original report, which had been published shortly before the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands. He read in English:
“15 grams per ton – like a mountain of gold on the moon.
“The Dutch Geological Foundation in the early 1960s published a report in English that stated the gold concentration as ’15 grams per ton’
“Realising this was not a typo or misplaced punctuation was a pivotal moment.
“Because the prewar Dutch government control over the territory was so flimsy, they kept the richness concealed as both Hitler and the Japanese had expressed interest in the territory.”
Poulgrain said Joseph Luns, former Dutch FM and longest serving (1971 -84) secretary general of NATO, confirmed Dozy’s statement, adding that
the gold deposits were the richest in the world.
Freeport-McMoRan
Last year, Freeport “made a revenue of $39B,” a $4B increase over the previous year. However, future earnings are expected to be lower after operations were halted following an accident that killed two workers.
The company said sales will be lower in the next quarter as it had “temporarily halted operations” after an 800,000 tonne mud rush blocked access to the underground mine, killing two workers. Five others are missing.
Royalties in Indonesia vary widely according to the mineral and location. For gold, it’s generally between 3.5 and 5 per cent. They were increased this year.
Poulgrain said he’d been to Papua about 25 times using high-level administration contacts – though not into the mine – focusing on the apparent discrepancy of valuations. He told MWM:
“Royalties are assessed on the gold in the water and ore slurry of minerals piped 116 km to the coast. This is about one per cent, though the gold in the freshly mined ore is said to be fifteen times richer.
“With royalties based on 15 grams a ton, the Indonesian government could have funded education, health and welfare programmes for years.
“It seems the people may have been cheated.”
In an intro, Dutch senior geologist Dr Gerard Aalders describes Poulgrain’s book as a “forensic excavation of geopolitical deceit, corporate greed and colonial continuities … of betrayal of the Papuans.
“This is history as it should be: unsettling, illuminating, and profoundly relevant.
The curse of gold is not just that it corrupts. It conceals.
This book lifts that veil.”
Freeport McMoRan hasn’t responded to a request to comment on Poulgrain’s allegations.
Duncan Graham has a Walkley Award, two Human Rights Commission awards and other prizes for his radio, TV and print journalism in Australia. He now lives in Indonesia.
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2) Four rescued after rebel attack at illegal mine in Papua
September 28, 2025 15:48 GMT+700
Jayapura, Papua (ANTARA) - Indonesian security forces evacuated four gold panners who survived an armed rebel attack at an illegal mining site in Bingki, Yahukimo District, in Papua Highlands Province.
The survivors had hidden in the forest after the attack by a separatist armed group (KKB) that killed two of their companions on Sunday (September 21), Papua police said on Saturday.
“Joint TNI/Polri personnel evacuated the four survivors who ran and hid in the Bingki forest after the KKB attack that killed two panners,” said Papua Police Spokesperson Senior Commissioner Cahyo Sukarnito.
The rescued miners were identified as Berty, Bakri Laode, Febri, and Tarim Baroba. They were taken to the Yahukimo District Police headquarters in Dekai for questioning and medical checks.
During the evacuation, police said the rescue team came under fire from KKB members. A brief exchange followed, but there were no casualties. The survivors were found near Kali Kabur at around 06:30 a.m. local time.
Earlier, five gold panners were reported killed in two separate incidents involving the same group. The victims were identified as Desem Dominggus, Marselinus Manek, Roberto, Yunus, and Unu.
“Information about the victims came from fellow panners who escaped from the remote mining site,” Cahyo said.
The attacks took place on Sunday (September 21) and Monday (September 22) at two different locations — the first in Bingki and the second near Kali I.
Evacuation of the five bodies has been delayed due to continued gunfire and heavy rain since Tuesday (September 23), causing flooding and difficult terrain.
Cahyo said the attackers were members of the KKB’s Kodap XVII Yahukimo faction, led by Kopitua Heluka.
In April, the same group was linked to a deadly attack in Bingki that killed 16 illegal gold miners.
Over the past few years, armed rebel groups in Papua have frequently employed hit-and-run tactics against Indonesian security personnel and mounted acts of terror against civilians to spread fear.
Victims of these attacks have included construction workers, motorcycle taxi (ojek) drivers, teachers, students, street food vendors, and also civilian aircraft.
Related news: Sorong riots prompt police to deploy 100 elite Brimob officers
Related news: Missing man found dead with arrow wounds in Papua unrest: police
Translator: Evarukdijati, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Arie Novarina
- A new study shows the Bird’s Head Seascape in West Papua is a crucial nursery for juvenile whale sharks, where most sightings involved young males feeding around fishing platforms.
- Researchers documented 268 individuals over 13 years, with more than half showing injuries tied to human activity, raising concerns about fisheries, tourism and emerging mining pressures.
- Scientists warn that protecting these habitats with stricter rules and better management is essential for the survival and recovery of the endangered species.
A new study reports that the Bird’s Head Seascape off Indonesia’s West Papua serves as a vital habitat for juvenile male whale sharks, but lift-net fisheries, tourism boats and emerging mining activities in the region underscore the urgent need for stronger protection and management.
The population demographics of the whale shark (Rhincodon typus) within the four key BHS regions (Cendrawasih Bay, Kaimana, Raja Ampat, and Fakfak) showed a dominance of juvenile males that use these habitats as nursery or foraging grounds and reducing predation risk while growing, according to the research published Aug. 28 in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science. The international group of researchers also found that more than half of the whale sharks in the study had injuries from preventable human causes.
“The scars and wounds we see on whale sharks are like a diary of their encounters with people,” Edy Setyawan, lead conservation scientist at the Elasmobranch Institute Indonesia who is the lead author of the paper, told Mongabay in an email.
From 2010-23, the researchers tracked 268 whale sharks across the BHS — a region hosting a network of 26 marine protected areas and a hotspot for marine megafauna and tropical marine biodiversity — using photos from scientists and citizen divers. Nearly all sightings were in Cenderawasih Bay and Kaimana, where the sharks often fed around lift-net fishing platforms called bagans. Most were young males about 4-5 meters (13-16 feet) long, and more than half were spotted more than once, sometimes years apart. While many bore minor abrasions from boats and nets, serious injuries were less common but still linked mostly to human activity.
Whale sharks, the world’s biggest fish, are endangered and their numbers have dropped sharply by more than half globally and nearly two-thirds in the Indo-Pacific. They take around 30 years to reach adulthood, making it hard for populations to bounce back from threats such as hunting, habitat loss and getting caught in fishing nets. Setyawan said that every injury had a cost: It can slow them down, make feeding harder or divert energy away from growth and maturity toward healing.
“By keeping juveniles safe as they grow, we give them the chance to reach adulthood, reproduce with females and ultimately support the recovery of whale shark populations across the Indo-Pacific,” he said.
While not accounted for in the original study, the Raja Ampat archipelago is particularly facing an emerging threat of nickel mining on several of the islands, including Gag, that many experts fear will exacerbate sedimentation, pollution and potentially habitat destruction of the surrounding marine ecology. The nickel from Gag Island is shipped 250 kilometers (155 miles) to Halmahera’s Weda Bay industrial park, a hub for stainless steel and electric vehicle battery production.
Setyawan said allowing nickel mining around Gag Island in Raja Ampat to continue could threaten whale sharks by polluting waters, disrupting their food supply and adding heavy metals to the food chain. He added that increased ship traffic from mining raises the risk of collisions and disturbance. “For whale sharks, that combination means less food, poorer water quality and greater danger,” he said.
The study’s authors said their findings of the whale shark demographics in the BHS should lay the groundwork for more advanced analyses (such as research of sites preferred by the females and older, sexually mature individuals) and for developing better management strategies for conservation and economic development.
For instance, Setyawan suggested stricter year-round protections, including boat speed limits, propeller guards, tourism caps and safer fishing platforms to reduce injuries in Cenderawasih Bay and Kaimana, which have high rates of whale shark residency and resighting. He added seasonal tourism closures in Cenderawasih Bay and stronger safeguards for whale shark migratory routes and feeding grounds beyond Kaimana.
“These straightforward steps can make a big difference in reducing harm to whale sharks,” Setyawan said.
Citations:
Setyawan, E., Hasan, A. W., Malaiholo, Y., Sianipar, A. B., Mambrasar, R., Meekan, M., Gillanders, B. M., D’Antonio, B., Putra, M. I. H., & Erdmann, M. V. (2025). Insights into the population demographics and residency patterns of photo-identified whale sharks Rhincodon typus in the Bird’s Head Seascape, Indonesia. Frontiers in Marine Science, 12. doi:10.3389/fmars.2025.1607027
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