Goldmine
PT Meares Soputan Mining (PT MSM), the company that develops the Toka Tindung gold mining site, holds a 4th generation government mining contract for a 741,125 hectare concession that goes back into 1986. The concession area covers the regencies North Likupang and Bitung, touching protected jungle reserves Tangkoko and Dua Saudara as well as world famous dive area Lembeh Strait – all with a unique fauna not to be found elsewhere in the world.

The majority shareholder in PT MSM was the Australian company Aurora Gold, until Toka Tindung was purchased by the Aurora subsidiary Archipelago Resources Plc in July 2002. Archipelago Resources Plc. is a small Australian mining company established in April 2002, with headquarters in Perth. The company is listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange since September 2003. After years of being on care and maintenance status, the company has started to continue the Toka Tindung Project in May 2005 using the old Environmental Impact Assessment Analysis (AMDAL/EIA). Despite broad rejection from the local people, the provincial government and holding a permit that the Ministry of Environment stated has expired, MSM has started construction of the mine with Dames & Moore as consultants.

The company plans to use the sub-sea tailings disposal (STD) method with an annual disposal of 1.25 mio tons finely ground tailings at 150 metres depth 3.6 kms offshore. The gold reserves of 1.75 million oz of gold as the company states will be exploited within five to six years. Despite its promise to employ newest and environmentally friendly technology it will use a secondhand processing plant shipped in from Chile. The submarine tailings disposal (STD) which Indonesia so far only granted to American owned gold mines Newmont Minahasa Raya and Newmont Sumbawa is internationally despised for its high environmental risk. Severe contamination through leaking has taken place on both Newmont sites. Currently PT.

MSM is backed and protected by the Ministry of Energy and Mining and it appears that the AMDAL/EIA is being revised towards a disposal of tailings on land. The risk though of cracks and spills is still given. Therefore the people of North Minahasa and Bitung regencies still reject it unless the tailings will be loaded on tank ships and shipped out for disposal on the Australian continent.