Congo’s South Kivu governor suspends mining operations in province
The decision will hit artisanal miners of metals such as gold and tin hard, as they are the region's dominant producers.
Operations at Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold’s (NYSE:FCX) Grasberg copper mine in Indonesia will resume Tuesday as protesters demanding a review to safety conditions have abandoned a two-day blockade preventing access to the massive open-pit mine.
Indonesia’s mining ministry has stepped in, beginning a probe into the collision involving a truck that killed four workers on Sept. 27.
A spokeswoman for the company told Reuters that copper concentrate shipments have not been affected by the investigation or the blockade. However she said that operations at the world’s third largest copper mine will remain closed at least until Tuesday.
“Operations at the (open pit) Grasberg Mine are temporarily partly stopped until some recommendations to prevent re-occurrence are implemented,” Freeport Indonesia Corporate Communications VP Daisy Primayanti was quoted as saying.
This is not the first time that Freeport employees had blocked the road to express their demands. In May last year they set a tent on a mine access road following a landslide in Big Gossan that killed 28 employees.
Image from archives.
