Freeport-McMoRan, or Freeport in the colloquial, refers to both the US company and its mine in West Papua, Indonesia.
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. is the world's lowest-cost copper producer and one of the world's largest producers of copper and gold. Listed on the New York Stock Exchange as FCX, and colloquially known as 'Freeport'; its subsidiaries include PT Freeport Indonesia, PT Irja Eastern Minerals and Atlantic Copper, S.A.
Best known for its Grasberg mine in Papua, the company is the largest tax payer to the Indonesian government; mines and mills ore containing copper, gold and silver for the world market; and denies allegations of on-going human rights abuses and theft of native properties.
The company's wealth stems from a mining license agreement signed in 1967. The original license sold to the US company Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., including mining rights for 30 km2. The company holds a 30 year exclusive mining license for the region from the official opening of the mine (1981). Locals have made several violent attempts to dissuade the mine owners, including blowing up a pipeline in July, but order was quickly restored. In 1989 the mining license was extended to an additional 25,000 km2.
In 2003 the company was forced to admit to it has been paying the local Indonesian military to keep the native landowners away from their lands; the company maintains claims of being a good global citizen and helping the Papuan people whose land they are mining. Eyewitness reports of abuses, and repeated statements from the local land owners for over twenty years that they wish the mine and the Indonesians to leave their lands seem incongrous with company statements. Freeport is only one of the foreign mining operations in Indonesia with questionable human and native rights records.
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Last updated: 05-07-2005 16:05:17
Last updated: 05-13-2005 07:56:04
