International Mining continues its major series of articles on PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) with the Grasberg open pit in the December and the DOZ underground mine in the January issues of the magazine. Latest news from site is that through successful compliance audit results, PTFI will maintain the ISO 14001 certificate of its EMS (Environmental Management System) as stated by the SGS International Certification Services auditing team, during a surveillance audit closeout meeting on November 13.
The audit team was comprised of Yosephine Hartanto Nugroho, Farhan Supangkat and Professor RM Partanto Prodjosumarto, who explained during the close-out meeting that there were no major findings in this year’s audit, there is one minor finding related to environmental regulation monitoring; which will be solved after the Environmental Department implements new software, currently on trial. “This is why PTFI is qualified for certification for another year” said the lead auditor Yosephine.
Professor RM Partanto Prodjosumarto as the audit team expert passed on his appreciation to PTFI for the success. “PTFI maintains good operations, especially with regard to handling environmental issues and management,” he said.
The auditor team made recommendations on 18 observation findings, based on: the evaluation of PTFI compliance related to government regulations; the compatibility of PTFI SML with ISO 14001 Standards; related standard operation procedure in respective work areas and the effectiveness of prevention/reparation and other evaluation aspect. These recommendations were related to various items such as radioactive management, assay laboratory emission monitoring at the mill, wood palette certification management; overburden management in the underground mine, hazardous and toxic waste; environmental and monitoring equipment observation, spill mitigation at DWP, contractor performance evaluation, landfill operation and liquid waste management, Lowland reclamation SOP, NOx emission from electric generator and RKL/RPL report improvement at PJP.
The audit team from PT Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS) Indonesia conducted their five-day-audit throughout various areas around Jobsite. In the highlands, the auditors audited Grasberg Operations and Engineering, Toyota Shop to Mega Shop area, GRS reclamation nursery, Mahaka Lime Plant, Mill, and Underground Mine shops and several warehouses. In the lowlands, they visited MP38 landfill, MP38 shop and pump station, Central Shop, TRMP including the visit to West Levee, Maurupauw Reclamation area, DWP and Warehouse in Portsite, Coal Plant, Timika Environmental Laboratory and Material Management followed by close out meeting at OB1 Kuala Kencana.
Executive Vice President, Technical Services, Jeff Monteith in his closing remarks thanked everyone including Environmental Department whose support and leadership in implementing environmental best practice has resulted in a good PTFI achievement: continued certification of ISO 14001 until next year.