Mining Indonesia

A labor dispute with Indonesian contract workers employed by a Fluor Corp. subsidiary has been resolved after slowing down work for several days at the $2-billion Batu Hijau copper and gold mine in Indonesia, mine operator Newmont Mining Co. said Thursday. Denver-based Newmont said that the dispute, which resulted in minor property damage, began Friday when local workers confronted general contractor Fluor Daniel over wage policies.

Investigators hired by Canada's Bre-X Minerals Ltd. said Tuesday that its dead chief geologist, Michael de Guzman, orchestrated the world's biggest gold swindle deep in the jungles of Indonesia. The investigators' report released Tuesday said de Guzman, who died of an apparent suicide shortly before the fraud was exposed, led a small group of Bre-X employees who salted samples from the Busang site over a four-year period. Bre-X hired Forensic Investigative Associates Inc.

Investigators hired by Canada's Bre-X Minerals Ltd. said Tuesday that its dead chief geologist, Michael de Guzman, orchestrated the world's biggest gold swindle deep in the jungles of Indonesia. The investigators' report released Tuesday said de Guzman, who died of an apparent suicide shortly before the fraud was exposed, led a small group of Bre-X employees who salted samples from the Busang site over a four-year period. Bre-X hired Forensic Investigative Associates Inc.

In an unprecedented action against environmental abuse by an American company overseas, the Clinton Administration on Wednesday cut off $100 million in federal insurance to a U.S. company whose gold and copper mining in Indonesia was said to be damaging tropical rain forests and rivers. The Overseas Private Investment Corp., the federal agency that provides insurance for U.S.

A labor dispute with Indonesian contract workers employed by a Fluor Corp. subsidiary has been resolved after slowing down work for several days at the $2-billion Batu Hijau copper and gold mine in Indonesia, mine operator Newmont Mining Co. said Thursday. Denver-based Newmont said that the dispute, which resulted in minor property damage, began Friday when local workers confronted general contractor Fluor Daniel over wage policies.

Fluor Daniel said Monday that it has won a $300-million contract to expand a copper mining operation in Indonesia but confirmed that another contract--estimated to be worth $450 million--for construction of a cereal plant in Tennessee has been put on hold. The Indonesia project is the second major copper mining contract that Fluor Daniel, the primary engineering and construction arm of Fluor Corp., has won in 12 months.

In a remote part of Western Australia, a two-hour drive from the nearest town of Meekatharra, Homestake Gold of Australia Ltd. is building a water supply for a small town it is developing to support its gold find. When gold production starts late this year at the Fortnum mine, workers will be flown into the remote location on a rotating basis. Meanwhile, northward across the India Ocean, Newmont Mining's Australian subsidiary is exploring for gold on four islands of Indonesia.

Indonesia's government plans to put mining contracts on hold until it's certain of the size of Calgary, Canada-based Bre-X Minerals Ltd.'s Busang deposit. The delay will affect dozens of companies, including Canada's Indomin Resources Ltd., Placer Dome Inc. and Barrick Gold Corp., that want to do exploration work in the country. Bre-X won't receive its permit until the size of the deposit is known, said Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, Indonesia's director general of mining.

U.S. Reaches Settlement With Mining Firm: Overseas Private Investment Corp., a U.S. government finance agency, and New Orleans-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. settled a bitter dispute after the mining company agreed to establish a $100-million trust fund to finance environmental cleanup measures at its giant copper mine in Irian Jaya, Indonesia. In exchange, OPIC agreed to reinstate the company's $100-million political risk insurance through the end of the year.

Bre-X Minerals Ltd.'s former exploration chief said Friday that he was unaware of, and did not participate in, any tampering with gold samples at Bre-X's now-worthless Busang deposit in Indonesia. The former executive, John Felderhof, also said in a statement from his home in the Cayman Islands that he still believes "there is a significant amount of gold at Busang."

The saga of a tiny Canadian mining company that boasted of discovering the richest gold mine on the planet--turning many of its penny-stock investors in Canada and the United States into paper millionaires in the process--reached an inglorious climax Sunday with evidence that the whole thing was a huge fraud. Bre-X Minerals Ltd. of Calgary, Alberta, released results late Sunday of an independent analysis of samples drawn from its Busang claim in the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo.

Indonesia's government plans to put mining contracts on hold until it's certain of the size of Calgary, Canada-based Bre-X Minerals Ltd.'s Busang deposit. The delay will affect dozens of companies, including Canada's Indomin Resources Ltd., Placer Dome Inc. and Barrick Gold Corp., that want to do exploration work in the country. Bre-X won't receive its permit until the size of the deposit is known, said Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, Indonesia's director general of mining.

A Canadian gold prospector's claim to have made the biggest gold discovery this century was cast into doubt Wednesday when tests of the deposit deep in the jungles of Indonesia showed insignificant amounts of gold. Calgary-based Bre-X Minerals Ltd., which found the deposit, admitted that the test samples from the Busang gold property on the island of Borneo may have been overstated.

A small Canadian mining company has enlisted U.S.-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. to help it develop one of the world's richest gold deposits. The alliance announced by Calgary-based Bre-X Minerals Ltd. is a setback for Barrick Gold Corp. and Placer Dome Inc., two other Canadian mining companies that were vying for a stake in the giant Busang project in Indonesia. Bre-X will own 45% of the project, while Freeport will own 15% and be its sole operator.

Placer Dome Inc. plans to acquire Bre-X Minerals for about $5 billion in stock, moving to replace Barrick Gold Corp. as Bre-X's partner in developing the world's largest gold find in Indonesia. The unsolicited bid offers Bre-X shareholders a 1-for-1 stock swap that would give Bre-X between 45% and 55% of Placer Dome. Analysts said the proposal is an attempt to force a bidding war for Bre-X. The Indonesian government has ordered Bre-X to sell a 75% stake in the Busang find to Barrick.

Abdul Rasyid Kalyku turned a small chip of quartz in his fingers and held it to the light. "There," he said, "that dark streak. That's gold!" A crooked smile cracked his face. He rolled the stone into his fist and held it tightly. Gold. The 35-year-old former merchant seaman had sunk a life's savings, $3,600, into a mill to extract gold from the unforgiving clay soil of Gurupahi, and he had hit it big, more than $200 clear a day, an Indonesian fortune--while it lasts.

Bre-X Minerals Ltd.'s former exploration chief said Friday that he was unaware of, and did not participate in, any tampering with gold samples at Bre-X's now-worthless Busang deposit in Indonesia. The former executive, John Felderhof, also said in a statement from his home in the Cayman Islands that he still believes "there is a significant amount of gold at Busang."

U.S. Reaches Settlement With Mining Firm: Overseas Private Investment Corp., a U.S. government finance agency, and New Orleans-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. settled a bitter dispute after the mining company agreed to establish a $100-million trust fund to finance environmental cleanup measures at its giant copper mine in Irian Jaya, Indonesia. In exchange, OPIC agreed to reinstate the company's $100-million political risk insurance through the end of the year.

In an unprecedented action against environmental abuse by an American company overseas, the Clinton Administration on Wednesday cut off $100 million in federal insurance to a U.S. company whose gold and copper mining in Indonesia was said to be damaging tropical rain forests and rivers. The Overseas Private Investment Corp., the federal agency that provides insurance for U.S.