- Communities in Indonesia’s Dairi district continue to protest a zinc and lead mine being developed by a Chinese-backed company.
- They warn the PT Dairi Prima Mineral (DPM) mine poses unacceptable risks to human life and the environment, given the potential for its waste dam to collapse in the earthquake-prone region.
- There are 11 villages located around or downstream of the proposed tailings dam, making the prospect of its collapse potentially disastrous. Some homes and houses of worship lie less than a kilometer (0.6 miles) from the dam, while an entire village of 2,010 people, called Pandiangan, is just 1.8 km (1.1 mi) from the dam.
- This would make the project illegal if it was built in China, since that country’s regulations prohibit the construction of a tailings dam within a kilometer of a populated area, according to Emerman.
- These concerns are borne out in a series of independent analyses of the project’s environmental impact assessment, which experts say fails to live up to the standards the developers claim to follow.
- Despite the questions over the assessment, the Indonesian government has issued environmental approval for the project, which local communities are now challenging at the Supreme Court.
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a Chinese state-controlled company has agreed to loan $245 million to mine developer PT Dairi Prima Mineral
“China-backed” is a bit of an overstatement… and understatement at the same time.
China is giving the loan to reap some interests… but it wouldn’t be the first time when they give out a loan, the local company is unable to complete a project staying inside the budget, then China refuses to increase the loan, but still requires repayment of the initial one, with interests, while the locals suffer from both a half-done project, and having to pay interests through taxes when the local company goes under… while it gets bought for pennies by the Chinese company.
