Nevada mine: Newmont seeks to squash 'green vote'

[NVMojo]

As some of you may already know, the mining vote in northern Nevada played a huge part in keeping Bush in office. They helped bring Dick Cheney and Gail Norton to Elko for starters and participated in the smear job that went on against Kerry about how he was going to raise the mining royalty fee for mining companies on public land. Well, here's the latest from one of the Nevada mines involved, no wonder they needed Bush and his daddy's pals to stay in office ...the same goes for the Republican state elected officials involved:

11:12 AEDT Sun Jan 2 2005


AP - Newmont Mining wants to bar shareholders from voting on a proposal that would require a company review of waste disposal programs in Indonesia, where it is accused of poisoning villagers.

Attorneys for the Denver-based company, the world's largest gold producer, made the request to federal regulators last week, saying the company should be allowed to exclude the proposal from a shareholder vote at its 2005 annual meeting.

Under the proposal, Newmont would have to evaluate its disposal programs in Indonesia and determine the degree of potential environmental and public-health risks from its mining operations.

The proposal was sponsored by the Office of the Comptroller of New York City on behalf of several pension funds representing New York employees, teachers, firefighters and police.


more...

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=25642

[NVMojo]

1. some recent background

JAKARTA - An Indonesian court said on Thursday the detention of five executives of a local unit of US gold miner Newmont Mining Corp. earlier this year was illegal.


But the court said its decision had no bearing on plans by prosecutors to bring a pollution case against the executives and subsidiary PT Newmont Minahasa Raya to trial.
The case involves allegations surrounding mercury and arsenic levels in Buyat Bay near one of Newmont's mines in the far north of Sulawesi island, 2,200 km (1,400 miles) northeast of Jakarta.

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/28700/story.htm

[nevadascandal]

2. Contributions from Newmont to NV lawmakers:

Jim Gibbons got $6,000

http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/memberprofile.asp?cid=N00006652&cycle=2004&expand=E04

Shelley Berkley got $5,000

http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/memberprofile.asp?cid=N00009818&cycle=2004&expand=E04

Jon Porter got $7,000

http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/memberprofile.asp?cid=N00012560&cycle=2004&expand=E04

John Ensign got $2,000

http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/memberprofile.asp?cid=N00006619&cycle=2004&expand=E04

Reid got tons of mining money ($34,000), but not from Newmont

http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/memberprofile.asp?cid=N00009922&cycle=2004&expand=E