Newmont Mining Corporation

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Newmont Mining Corporation NYSE: NEM, based in Denver, Colorado, USA, is the world's largest producer of gold, with active mines in Canada, Bolivia, Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. Holdings include Battle Mountain Gold, Normandy Mining, and Franco-Nevada Corp. Newmont produces about 7.5 million troy ounces (233,000 kg) of gold annually and holds reserves of about 90 million troy ounces (2,800,000 kg) of gold. Production in the Americas accounts for about 70% of the company's production, but even so Newmont is the lead gold mining operation in Australia. Other metals that the company mines include copper, silver, and zinc.

Newmont is in a joint venture project with Southwestern Resources Corporation for exploration and extraction of many precious metals. Subsidiary operations include Yunnan Porphyry Copper and Gold Project in China, and the Liam Gold-Silver Project in Peru.

In December 2004, government officials in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, anticipate the closure of Newmont Canada's Golden Giant mine in about one year. [1]

Alleged illegal pollution in Indonesia

In Indonesia, where about thirty percent of Newmont's revenue is produced, the corporation became involved in a controversy pitting their mining operations against the Indonesian Environment Ministry and an emerging grassroots environmental activism movement.

In August 2004, a USD $543 million lawsuit was filed against Newmont by local villagers who claim that pollution caused by the company's mining activities has caused serious illnesses and other health problems, including skin disease, tumors, birth defects, and a decline in fish stocks. At around the same time, the mine was shut down as planned because its reserves were depleted.

In November 2004, an independent report found that sediment and fish in Buyat Bay, located in North Sulawesi province, were contaminated with Mercury and Arsenic as a result of mining at Minahsa Raya. Newmont vehemently denies the findings of this report, which contradicts its own studies, and reports released by Indonesia's former environmental minister. They claim that the decline in public health is as a result of poor sanitation and substandard living conditions. [2]

Initially, police arrested five Newmont officials, including both Indonesians and foreigners, but released them in October 2004 and later dropped plans to prosecute them. Instead, only Richard Ness, the American head of Newmont's Indonesian subsidiary, was charged with a crime; his trial began in Manado in August 2005

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