Inspectors Finish Initial Investigation at Freeport

Jayapura, Papua (Antara) - Mining inspectors from the ministry of energy and mineral resources have finished their initial inspection of PT Freeport Indonesia's Bog Gossan underground facility that collapsed on May 14. "The ministry has given several recommendations which are now being and have also been followed up," the US-owned mining company's vice president for corporate communications, Daisy Primayanti, said in a press statement to ANTARA here Thursday. She said the results of inspection on main underground facilities done internally by the company meanwhile had showed that they are in general safe. "However several facilities need to be closed for the time being for further inspection and repair to meet safety and health standards (K3)," she said. Following the collapse of the Big Gossan underground training facility an internal team from PT Freeport Indonesia had carried out inspection since May 16 physically as well as using equipment such as ground penetration radar, seismic and survey prisms on permanent facilities, production areas, service areas and active development tunnel in the Grasberg Block Cave (GBC) and DMLZ. Daisy said the main inspection priority was put on permanent facilities in the underground mine and in areas with high concentration of workers such as dining rooms, prayer houses, offices, workshops, warehouses, mining locations and main entry gates. "This is done to assure that all of the facilities in the underground mine are stable, have good buffers to assure comfort for workers to resume their activities safely," she said. (*)