JAKARTA: A worker was fighting for his life after a new tunnel collapse yesterday at Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc’s Indonesian mine, a union official said, calling on members to stop work after the second major accident in just over two weeks.
Company and government officials could not be immediately reached for comment, but the latest accident at the world’s second-biggest copper mine raises questions over how much longer Freeport will be able to supply its customers.
“The victim is in a critical condition. Hopefully, we can save his life,” Papua-based union official Virgo Solossa said.
“We hope this is the last incident... that’s why we ask the company to stop all activities at the mining area to review safety systems for the sake of the workers.”
Another worker said that two were rescued and taken to hospital after the tunnel collapsed at the Deep Ore Zone underground mine in the Grasberg complex.
Freeport suspended operations at the complex in eastern Indonesia on May 15, a day after a training area in another tunnel, away from the site of its main operations, caved in on 38 workers. Twenty-eight people died in what was one of the worst mining disasters in Indonesia.
The accidents also cast doubts over Freeport’s plans to turn Grasberg into the world’s biggest underground mining complex after 2016 when its open pit operations end. Open pit mining accounts for two-thirds of production.
“You have to ask questions of Freeport,” said one Singapore-based industry source. “Is it the result of a seismic event, or has the underground mine become unsafe after the recent collapse?”
Sources say large mining operations typically have three to four weeks of ore stockpiled at port, and around three days on site. Freeport declared a force majeure on some concentrate sales about one month into a 2011 strike, freeing itself from some of its contractual supply obligations.
Freeport said on Wednesday it had resumed some operations at the mine, which also holds the world’s largest gold reserves. The union had reiterated that work would not resume until all investigations into the May 14 accident were complete.
“This latest accident shows how Freeport management is arrogant after they have forced themselves and the workers to go back to work and re-start production activity,” the union’s Solossa said.
“That’s why the union calls on all workers to stop working at all Freeport mining areas,” said Solossa. The union represents about 18,000 of the mine’s 24,000 workers.
After the May 14 tunnel collapse, the company and the union put on hold pay talks that began on May 13.
Now thousands of workers are refusing to return to work until investigations into the accident is completed. The union that represents 18,000 of the more than 24,000 workers at the mine said its members would not return to work until investigations into the accident were complete.
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