Batu Hijau mine
Encyclopedia
The Batu Hijau mine is an open pit
copper
-gold
mine
operated by Newmont Mining Corporation's subsidiary company PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara
(PT Newmont). The mine is located 1530 kilometres (950.7 mi) east of the Indonesia
n capital Jakarta
on Sumbawa
, in southern Taliwang Regency, an island in West Nusa Tenggara
. The mine is the result of a ten-year exploration and construction program based on a 1999 discovery of the porphyry
copper deposit. Production began in 2000.
The mine utilizes a "truck and shovel" open-pit mining method, with ore reporting to semi-Autogenous Grinding and ball mills
, followed by a flotation circuit
. The finished product is a thickened copper-gold concentrate, which is shipped via pipe to a storage facility on the Indonesian coast.
The Batu Hijau mine has been the site of ownership disputes between PT Newmont and the Indonesian government based on agreements on the timeframe of which PT Newmont was required to transfer ownership of the mine to the government. There have been environmental controversies with the mine based on PT Newmonts practice of disposal of tailings
in the ocean, and waste rock in the rainforest
.
on the island of Sumbawa resulted in the discovery of copper mineralization that would be developed into the Batu Hijau mine. Over the next ten years PT Newmont continued to delineate the resource and began developing the mine and building the required infrastructure. In 1999 construction was complete and by the next year Bata Hijau was producing ore
.
. The host rock for porphyry copper deposits in southeast Asia is typically diorite
and quartz
-diorite. Copper sulphides such as chalcopyrite
and bornite
are frequently associated with the gold component of these deposits. As of the end of 2005 the remaining ore reserves at the Batu Hijau included 2.77 million tonnes of copper with an average grade of 0.69g/t gold, which would allow mining to continue until 2025.
Batu Hijau is an open-pit mine. Ore is removed from the mining face using P&H 4100 electric shovels (pictured) and loaded into Caterpillar
793C haul trucks. Each haul truck can move a payload 220 t (242.5 ST) of ore. The trucks haul ore from the shovel to primary crusher
s. Crushed ore is sent by a conveyor
1.8 m (6 ft) wide and 6.8 km (4.2 mi) long to the mill
. Daily production from the mine is an average of 600000 t (661,386.8 ST) ore and waste combined. Ore from the mine has an average copper grade of 0.49% and an average gold grade of 0.39g/t.
Crushed ore is further reduced in size by Semi-Autogenous Grinding and ball mills
. Once milled it is sent through a flotation circuit
which produces a concentrate with a grade of 32% copper and 19.9g/t gold. The mill realizes a copper recovery of 89%. The concentrate is thickened into slurry
and piped 17.6 km (10.9 mi) to the port at Benete
where water is removed from the slurry. The concentrate storage at the port can hold 80000 t (88,184.9 ST) of copper-gold concentrate.
The Batu Hijau mine is owned by three independent parties with varying percentages of ownership. PT Newmont controls 45%, Nusa Tenggara Mining Corporation (owned by the Japan
ese company Sumitomo) controls 35% with PT Pukuafu Indah (an Indonesian company) controlling the remaining 20%. Before production began at Batu Hijau Newmont and Sumitomo signed a contract with the Indonesian government that allowed the two foreign companies to operate the mine until 2030 provided 51% of the mine was sold to domestic investors by 2010. The Indonesian government was to be given the first offer to purchase. In 2006 and 2007 Newmont offered to sell a combined 10% of PT Newmont to the Indonesian government for a total of $391 million. The government did not have the money to move forward with the investment and declined to purchase. Local governments on the island of Sumbawa wanted to purchase the stake in PT Newmont that the federal government passed on, with Newmont refusing to sell insisting that the governments were funded by unknown groups in the private sector and Newmont wanted control over who purchased the company.
By the end of March 2008 a total of 17% of PT Newmont was to be sold to Indonesian investors. When Newmont had not sold the required percentage of PT Newmont to Indonesian parties as required the Indonesian government requested arbitration
from United Nations Commission on International Trade Law. The Indonesian government had hoped that in arbitration Newmont would be found in breach of contract and would be required to turn over control of the company to the government without compensation. On April 1, 2009 the arbitration committee declared that Newmont would not have to turn over complete control of PT Newmont to the Indonesian government, but was still required to sell the 17% to the government (or a buyer designated by the government) as committed. Newmont was given 180 days to complete the sale.
from the processing operation of the Batu Hijau mine takes place in the ocean
, using a process called Submarine Tailings Disposal (STD). Indonesia is currently the only location that Newmont uses this process, claiming that it is more an environmentally sound practice despite being more costly to the company. The process involves piping the tailings 2.1 miles (3.4 km) off the coast to a drop-off of 400 feet (121.9 m), which carries the waste down another 10000 feet (3,048 m). Waste rock from the Batu Hijau mine is disposed of in the rainforest
, with space for newly produced waste rock running out. Environmentalists are raising concern with the declining population of the Yellow-crested Cockatoo
. Newmont's request to expand their permit to clear an additional 79 acre (0.31970194 km²) of rainforest has not been approved.
Open-pit mining
Open-pit mining or opencast mining refers to a method of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by their removal from an open pit or borrow....
copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
-gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
mine
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
operated by Newmont Mining Corporation's subsidiary company PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara
PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara
PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara is a subsidiary company of Newmont Mining Corporation that operates their Batu Hijau mine in Indonesia on the island of Sumbawa....
(PT Newmont). The mine is located 1530 kilometres (950.7 mi) east of the Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n capital Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
on Sumbawa
Sumbawa
Sumbawa is an Indonesian island, located in the middle of the Lesser Sunda Islands chain, with Lombok to the west, Flores to the east, and Sumba further to the southeast. It is in the province of West Nusa Tenggara....
, in southern Taliwang Regency, an island in West Nusa Tenggara
West Nusa Tenggara
West Nusa Tenggara is a province in south-central Indonesia. The province encompasses the western portion of the Lesser Sunda Islands, except for Bali as the Wallace line running the length of the Lombok Strait forms the western boundary of the province....
. The mine is the result of a ten-year exploration and construction program based on a 1999 discovery of the porphyry
Porphyry (geology)
Porphyry is a variety of igneous rock consisting of large-grained crystals, such as feldspar or quartz, dispersed in a fine-grained feldspathic matrix or groundmass. The larger crystals are called phenocrysts...
copper deposit. Production began in 2000.
The mine utilizes a "truck and shovel" open-pit mining method, with ore reporting to semi-Autogenous Grinding and ball mills
Mill (grinding)
A grinding mill is a unit operation designed to break a solid material into smaller pieces. There are many different types of grinding mills and many types of materials processed in them. Historically mills were powered by hand , working animal , wind or water...
, followed by a flotation circuit
Froth flotation
Froth flotation is a process for selectively separating hydrophobic materials from hydrophilic. This is used in several processing industries...
. The finished product is a thickened copper-gold concentrate, which is shipped via pipe to a storage facility on the Indonesian coast.
The Batu Hijau mine has been the site of ownership disputes between PT Newmont and the Indonesian government based on agreements on the timeframe of which PT Newmont was required to transfer ownership of the mine to the government. There have been environmental controversies with the mine based on PT Newmonts practice of disposal of tailings
Tailings
Tailings, also called mine dumps, slimes, tails, leach residue, or slickens, are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction of an ore...
in the ocean, and waste rock in the rainforest
Rainforest
Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...
.
History
In 1990 mineral explorationMineral exploration
Mineral exploration is the process of finding ore to mine. Mineral exploration is a much more intensive, organized and professional form of mineral prospecting and, though it frequently uses the services of prospecting, the process of mineral exploration on the whole is much more involved.-Stages...
on the island of Sumbawa resulted in the discovery of copper mineralization that would be developed into the Batu Hijau mine. Over the next ten years PT Newmont continued to delineate the resource and began developing the mine and building the required infrastructure. In 1999 construction was complete and by the next year Bata Hijau was producing ore
Ore
An ore is a type of rock that contains minerals with important elements including metals. The ores are extracted through mining; these are then refined to extract the valuable element....
.
Geology
The orebody at Bata Hijau is porphyry copper and includes a high gold component, which is common for a copper deposit in southeast AsiaSoutheast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
. The host rock for porphyry copper deposits in southeast Asia is typically diorite
Diorite
Diorite is a grey to dark grey intermediate intrusive igneous rock composed principally of plagioclase feldspar , biotite, hornblende, and/or pyroxene. It may contain small amounts of quartz, microcline and olivine. Zircon, apatite, sphene, magnetite, ilmenite and sulfides occur as accessory...
and quartz
Quartz
Quartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...
-diorite. Copper sulphides such as chalcopyrite
Chalcopyrite
Chalcopyrite is a copper iron sulfide mineral that crystallizes in the tetragonal system. It has the chemical composition CuFeS2. It has a brassy to golden yellow color and a hardness of 3.5 to 4 on the Mohs scale. Its streak is diagnostic as green tinged black.On exposure to air, chalcopyrite...
and bornite
Bornite
Bornite is a sulfide mineral with chemical composition Cu5FeS4 that crystallizes in the orthorhombic system .-Appearance:Bornite has a brown to copper-red color on fresh surfaces that tarnishes to various iridescent shades of blue to purple in places...
are frequently associated with the gold component of these deposits. As of the end of 2005 the remaining ore reserves at the Batu Hijau included 2.77 million tonnes of copper with an average grade of 0.69g/t gold, which would allow mining to continue until 2025.
Mining & milling
Caterpillar Inc.
Caterpillar Inc. , also known as "CAT", designs, manufactures, markets and sells machinery and engines and sells financial products and insurance to customers via a worldwide dealer network. Caterpillar is the world's largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas...
793C haul trucks. Each haul truck can move a payload 220 t (242.5 ST) of ore. The trucks haul ore from the shovel to primary crusher
Crusher
A crusher is a machine designed to reduce large rocks into smaller rocks, gravel, or rock dust. Crushers may be used to reduce the size, or change the form, of waste materials so they can be more easily disposed of or recycled, or to reduce the size of a solid mix of raw materials , so that pieces...
s. Crushed ore is sent by a conveyor
Conveyor system
A conveyor system is a common piece of mechanical handling equipment that moves materials from one location to another. Conveyors are especially useful in applications involving the transportation of heavy or bulky materials...
1.8 m (6 ft) wide and 6.8 km (4.2 mi) long to the mill
Mineral processing
In the field of extractive metallurgy, mineral processing, also known as mineral dressing or ore dressing, is the process of separating commercially valuable minerals from their ores.-History:...
. Daily production from the mine is an average of 600000 t (661,386.8 ST) ore and waste combined. Ore from the mine has an average copper grade of 0.49% and an average gold grade of 0.39g/t.
Crushed ore is further reduced in size by Semi-Autogenous Grinding and ball mills
Mill (grinding)
A grinding mill is a unit operation designed to break a solid material into smaller pieces. There are many different types of grinding mills and many types of materials processed in them. Historically mills were powered by hand , working animal , wind or water...
. Once milled it is sent through a flotation circuit
Froth flotation
Froth flotation is a process for selectively separating hydrophobic materials from hydrophilic. This is used in several processing industries...
which produces a concentrate with a grade of 32% copper and 19.9g/t gold. The mill realizes a copper recovery of 89%. The concentrate is thickened into slurry
Slurry
A slurry is, in general, a thick suspension of solids in a liquid.-Examples of slurries:Examples of slurries include:* Lahars* A mixture of water and cement to form concrete* A mixture of water, gelling agent, and oxidizers used as an explosive...
and piped 17.6 km (10.9 mi) to the port at Benete
Benete
Benete is a small settlement in the hills to the east of Nova Vas in the Municipality of Bloke in the Inner Carniola region of Slovenia.- External links :*...
where water is removed from the slurry. The concentrate storage at the port can hold 80000 t (88,184.9 ST) of copper-gold concentrate.
Ownership and operation disputes
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese company Sumitomo) controls 35% with PT Pukuafu Indah (an Indonesian company) controlling the remaining 20%. Before production began at Batu Hijau Newmont and Sumitomo signed a contract with the Indonesian government that allowed the two foreign companies to operate the mine until 2030 provided 51% of the mine was sold to domestic investors by 2010. The Indonesian government was to be given the first offer to purchase. In 2006 and 2007 Newmont offered to sell a combined 10% of PT Newmont to the Indonesian government for a total of $391 million. The government did not have the money to move forward with the investment and declined to purchase. Local governments on the island of Sumbawa wanted to purchase the stake in PT Newmont that the federal government passed on, with Newmont refusing to sell insisting that the governments were funded by unknown groups in the private sector and Newmont wanted control over who purchased the company.
By the end of March 2008 a total of 17% of PT Newmont was to be sold to Indonesian investors. When Newmont had not sold the required percentage of PT Newmont to Indonesian parties as required the Indonesian government requested arbitration
Arbitral tribunal
An arbitral tribunal is a panel of one or more adjudicators which is convened and sits to resolve a dispute by way of arbitration. The tribunal may consist of a sole arbitrator, or there may be two or more arbitrators, which might include either a chairman or an umpire...
from United Nations Commission on International Trade Law. The Indonesian government had hoped that in arbitration Newmont would be found in breach of contract and would be required to turn over control of the company to the government without compensation. On April 1, 2009 the arbitration committee declared that Newmont would not have to turn over complete control of PT Newmont to the Indonesian government, but was still required to sell the 17% to the government (or a buyer designated by the government) as committed. Newmont was given 180 days to complete the sale.
Environmental issues
Disposal of tailingsTailings
Tailings, also called mine dumps, slimes, tails, leach residue, or slickens, are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction of an ore...
from the processing operation of the Batu Hijau mine takes place in the ocean
Ocean
An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...
, using a process called Submarine Tailings Disposal (STD). Indonesia is currently the only location that Newmont uses this process, claiming that it is more an environmentally sound practice despite being more costly to the company. The process involves piping the tailings 2.1 miles (3.4 km) off the coast to a drop-off of 400 feet (121.9 m), which carries the waste down another 10000 feet (3,048 m). Waste rock from the Batu Hijau mine is disposed of in the rainforest
Rainforest
Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...
, with space for newly produced waste rock running out. Environmentalists are raising concern with the declining population of the Yellow-crested Cockatoo
Yellow-crested Cockatoo
The Yellow-crested Cockatoo, Cacatua sulphurea, also known as the Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, is a medium-sized cockatoo with white plumage, bluish-white bare orbital skin, grey feet, a black bill, and a retractile yellow crest. The sexes are similar...
. Newmont's request to expand their permit to clear an additional 79 acre (0.31970194 km²) of rainforest has not been approved.