Landslides In Freeport Mine, Evacuation Of 7 Workers Trapped In Ruins

Tembagapura Police Chief Iptu Firman. ANTARA/Evarianus Supar

TIMIKA - The joint team of PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) is still trying to evacuate seven employees who were reportedly trapped in an underground mine area in the Grassberg area, Tembagapura, Mimika, Central Papua, due to landslides that occurred since Monday, September 8 evening.

The Head of Tembagapura Police, Iptu Firman, said that his staff was still coordinating with the management of PTFI to immediately evacuate seven employees trapped in the underground mining area.

"The information we received from PT Freeport's internal security officers was that seven people were trapped. It happened since last night at 22.00 WIT. So far there have been no reports of casualties, hopefully all of them are safe and immediately evacuated," said Firman, quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday 9 September.

Based on information gathered in Timika, Tuesday, the landslide occurred inside the Grasberg Block Cave (GBC) underground mine area on Monday (8/9) night at around 23.21 WIT.

The location is exactly below the open mining area of Grasberg, which has been out of operation for several years. The wet material (wetmuck) is thought to have come from the GBC panel area.

In the underground mining area of PTFI in the Tembagapura District, Mimika Regency, Central Papua, there are always shelter facilities (chamber) for workers in the event of a dangerous situation.

Chamber is an emergency facility in an underground mine equipped with clean air supply, logistics, and communication facilities to ensure the safety of workers during emergency situations, such as fires, collapses, or exposure to toxic gases.