Fight Freeport

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


“They [Freeport] take our land and our grandparents’ land. They ruined the mountains. They ruined our environment by putting the waste in the river. We can’t drink our water anymore.”
— Tom Beanal, Amungme leader, Irian Jaya, Indonesia

“[The environmental impact of our mine] is the equivalent of me pissing in The Arafura Sea.”
— Jim Bob Moffett, CEO, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold

Since 1973, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold has operated the world’s largest gold mine, located in Irian Jaya, Indonesia. In 1995, the company made $1.8 billion and — in four separate reports — was charged with environmental destruction and implicated in human rights abuses. (See “Spinning Gold,” September/October 1996).

An April 1995 report released by the Australian Council for Overseas Aid (ACFOA) attributed the deaths or disappearances of 37 people and the dislocation of 115 families to clashes between native independence fighters and the Indonesian military near Freeport’s mine. Subsequent investigations by the Catholic Church of Jayapura and the National Human Rights Commission of Indonesia corroborated these reports of murder and torture. None of the reports accused Freeport of direct involvement in these abuses, but military troops guard the company’s mine in exchange for food, shelter, and transportation. In addition, the Indonesian government holds a 9 percent share in the mine, and was estimated to receive $480 million in 1996 from royalties, taxes, and benefits.

Freeport’s involvement in human rights abuses may be open to speculation, but the impact of their mining practices on the local environment is well-documented. The company itself estimates that it released over 40 million tons of tailings — the pulverized rock left over after precious metals are extracted — into the Ajkwa River system during 1996 alone. An independent environmental audit conducted by Dames & Moore — and endorsed by Freeport — confirms that “tailings deposition has adversely impacted about 30 square kilometers of tropical lowlands rainforest.”

In October 1995, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, a federal agency that assists U.S. companies investing overseas, concluded a lengthy investigation by cancelling Freeport’s $100 million political-risk insurance policy. Although OPIC later backtracked and reinstated the policy in April 1996, its initial report stated that Freeport’s activities “posed an unreasonable or major environmental, health, or safety hazard in Irian Jaya.”

What You Can Do

The Seattle Mennonite Church has posted a resolution to Freeport-McMoRan’s board of directors, calling on the company to:

  • Postpone the expansion of milling operations until a just, accepted, peaceful and permanent resolution of local indigenous concerns can be reached with all stakeholders.

  • End company cooperation with the Indonesian military as soon as legally possible.

  • Publicly release in their entirety social and environmental audits conducted by consultancies in 1996.

  • Allow independent environmental monitoring of the Freeport operations, and local river and ecosystems by non-governmental organizations.

The board has already advised shareholders and the Securities Exchange Commission that it will unanimously reject the Mennonite Church’s resolution. To help change their minds, you can write a letter in support of the resolution before Freeport’s annual shareholders meeting in New Orleans on April 29.

Send your letter to:

Mr. James Moffett, CEO
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.
1615 Poydras Street
New Orleans, LA 70112
USA

Fax it to: (504) 582-4028

Or e-mail Moffett’s assistant at: lynne-cooney@fmi.com

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate