Chinese involvement in Indonesia mining project sparks protests, concerns of environmental disaster

An Indonesian community is protesting against the involvement of the Chinese government in a zinc and lead mine in North Sumatra, citing the region’s earthquake-prone nature and the high risk that could result in environmental disaster.

Twenty-five residents of the Dairi Regency of North Sumatra on Tuesday rallied outside the Chinese embassy in Jakarta against the planned underground mine by Dairi Prima Mineral (DPM), saying they wanted to send a message to Beijing.

“This is the second [protest] we have carried out in front of the Chinese embassy,” Monica Siregar, a resident of Dairi and coordinator of the environmental NGO Diakonia Pelangi Kasih, told This Week in Asia.

“We want the embassy to convey [to the Chinese government] that the majority of people reject the presence of the mine and that there is no need to provide loans to DPM.”

DPM is an Indonesian joint venture between mining giant China Nonferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering and Construction Co (NFC) and Bumi Resources Minerals, a subsidiary of the Indonesian coalminer Bumi Resources, which is owned by the Bakrie Group.

NFC said on April 27 it had scored a loan of US$245 million from Carren Holdings Corporation Limited to DPM to develop the mine. Hong Kong-registered Carren Holdings is fully owned by Chinese state-owned investment company CNIC Corporation, whose 90 per cent stake is owned by China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

The protesters had sent a letter on Tuesday addressed to Wu Zhiwei, economic and commercial counsellor at the Chinese embassy, underlining the “serious and irreversible risks” posed by the planned mine.

“Multiple internationally renowned experts confirmed that there is a high risk that the planned tailings dam of the