Newmont confident on Indonesian pollution verdict

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2007

JAKARTA (AFP) — US mining giant Newmont voiced confidence Friday it would win a controversial pollution trial next week, saying claims the company and one of its executives poisoned an Indonesian bay were baseless.

Newmont executive Richard Ness said the prosecution's case against him and the Indonesian unit of the company had been "torn apart" during the 20-month trial closely watched by foreign investors.

An Indonesian court is expected to rule Tuesday on whether Newmont and Ness polluted Buyat Bay in northern Sulawesi with arsenic and mercury from its now defunct gold mine on the island.

They are also accused of sickening villagers and killing marine life around Manado where the mine was sited, around 2,300 kilometres (1,400 miles) northeast of Jakarta....