Forensic Team Probes Timika Blasts

The Jakarta Post
Sunday, September 14, 2008

Forensic Team Probes Timika Blasts

Markus Makur, The Jakarta Post, Timika

Five members of the Jakarta-based National Police Forensic
Laboratory scoured bomb-explosion sites Saturday on a highway
leading to PT Freeport Indonesia’s gold and copper concession in
the Mimika regency of Papua.

Accompanied by Papuan police, the forensic team combed the area
in search of remains from the mortar-like bombs that exploded
near a gas station at Mile 50 as well as under a bridge over the
Kabur river, at Mile 39.

Timika

Breaking News : 2 explosions near Freeport mine in Indonesia

Members of an Indonesian police elite anti-terror unit board a bus to be deployed to the site where an explosion went off near a massive mine operated by Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. in Timika, Papua province, Indonesia, Friday, Sept. 12, 2008. Two suspected bombs went off early Friday near the mining facilities, police said. No one was injured and there was little damage. (AP Photo/Andreas Marianno M.)

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) – Two small bombs exploded early Friday on a road leading to a massive copper and gold mine in eastern Indonesia and a third unexploded mortar was found nearby, police said. No one was injured and there was little damage.

The near-simultaneous explosions near the mine operated by Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. targeted a bridge and a nearby security post 10 miles from the Grasberg mine in Papua province, said PT Freeport Indonesia spokesman Mindo Pangaribuan.

He refused to elaborate until a police investigation was complete. “We can only say that the incident did not disturb our operations,” he said. “Things are running normally.”

Papua is home to separatist rebels who have long denounced the mine as a symbol of Jakarta’s rule over the region and were blamed for a 2004 attack on the same road that left two Americans dead. Indonesian security forces hired by Freeport were initially suspected of taking part in those killings to extort higher protection payments from the New Orleans-based company.

Freeport pays Indonesia 1.8 billion dlrs in 2007

Source: AFP 

JAKARTA (AFP) – The local Indonesian unit of US mining giant Freeport said Monday that it paid the government here 1.8 billion dollars in 2007 amid soaring commodity prices and solid production.