Indonesia: PT Weda Bay Nickel-01/Weda Bay

Date Filed
06 Jul 2010
Status
Closed
Phase
Compliance
Country
Indonesia

Case Tracker

Eligibility
Eligibility
Assessment
Transferred
Assessment
Dispute Resolution
Compliance
Appraisal
Closed
CURRENT Status
Appraisal (COMPLIANCE)
Closed

Complaint Overview

Complainant

Confidential

Concerns

Environmental impacts to water, fields, and forests

Cross-Cutting Issues
Risk Management Resource Efficiency Land Resettlement Biodiversity Cultural Heritage Land Water Social Order / Conflict Violence / Abuse Loss of Livelihoods

Project Information

Region
East Asia & the Pacific
Institution
MIGA
Name & Number
PT Weda Bay Nickel 8113
Company
PT Weda Bay Nickel (WBN)
Sector
Mining, Oil, Gas and Chemicals
Category
A
Commitment

Proposed $207 million guarantee

Synopsis

Complaint

PT Weda Bay Nickel (WBN) is proposing to develop a nickel and cobalt mine and a hydrometallurgical processing plant in Central Halmahera and East Halmahera Regencies in the North Maluku Province of eastern Indonesia.  In August 2010, MIGA issued a guarantee of $207 million to Strand Minerals for its equity investment in the PT Weda Bay Nickel Project. Strand Minerals is jointly owned by Eramet SA of France and Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan.

In July 2010, a complaint from Indonesian NGOs and concerned citizens was filed with the CAO.  The signatories of the complaint comprise both national NGOs, local NGOs and directly affected people living in Halmahera Island.  Broadly, the most important issues raised in the complaint are environmental impacts to forests, fields, and bodies of water on which communities in the area depend.  The complainants have requested confidentiality.

Action

Ombudsman:
The complaint was deemed eligible for assessment in August 2010. In January 2011 the 120-day assessment period was extended, with the agreement of the parties. The additional time was requested by the complainants and was needed in order to allow the CAO Ombudsman team to meet and communicate with the local community complainants in a manner that protected their identities. The CAO Ombudsman team spent significant time working with all parties to assist them in understanding and exploring their options for resolving the complaint issues. Ultimately, the complainants informed the CAO that they would not participate in or support a dispute resolution or dialogue process convened by the CAO and they reiterated the request to keep individual community-member complainant identities confidential.

In June 2011, the CAO Ombudsman concluded its involvement in the case and released its Assessment Report. In accordance with CAO’s Operational Guidelines, and to provide assurance that there were no outstanding concerns regarding MIGA's compliance with applicable social and environmental requirements related to the project, the case was transferred to CAO Compliance for appraisal.

Compliance:
The compliance appraisal aimed to establish whether MIGA assured itself that it diligently reviewed and assessed the environmental and social risk and potential impacts of the project. Specifically, whether there is evidence of risk of significant adverse social and environmental outcomes arising from MIGA's guarantee and the related project that indicates that policy provisions failed to provide an adequate level of protection. The CAO appraisal did not find this to be the case.

The appraisal also investigated whether a compliance audit of MIGA could yield information that may improve the application of policies (or other audit criteria) to future projects. The CAO found that an audit of MIGA’s due diligence of the guarantee related to the engineering and feasibility phase of developing the project, against the applicable policy provisions, would yield limited information and would be of limited value beyond the findings already identified in the appraisal:

1) The appraisal found that during its due diligence of the guarantee, MIGA classified the project as Category A under MIGA’s Environmental and Social Review procedures.  MIGA did not expect impacts on critical habitats or on biodiversity or the consequences of pollution to be significant during the engineering and feasibility phase. However, MIGA identified several significant potential impacts during the construction and operations phase, such as: potential erosion; impacts on biodiversity; effects of disposal of solid residues; and consequences of population influx.  MIGA stated that these impacts could be irreversible if not addressed properly.

2) MIGA identified Performance Standards 1–8 as relevant and applicable to the engineering and feasibility phase.

3) MIGA also identified that, in order to assess the impacts of construction and operations, the client had committed to conduct further work and studies related to: terrestrial biodiversity; marine biodiversity and the ecology of the Sagea Lagoon; community social assessment; public consultation and disclosure plan; community and indigenous people development plan; cultural heritage preservation plan; land acquisition and compensation plan; greenhouse gas emissions assessment; metals background study; residue management impact assessment; karst limestone deposit analysis; Kobe River watershed study; and population influx.

4) MIGA stated that the project sponsors had committed to comply with MIGA Performance Standards and the Equator Principles; the World Bank Group Environmental, Health and Safety Guidelines; the World Business Council for Sustainable Development Mining Guidelines; and the International Council on Metals and Minerals (ICMM) Sustainable Development Framework, and that third party ISO 14001 certification of the managements system would be sought.

Status

The CAO concluded that the case did not merit an audit of MIGA at the current stage, and the case was closed in October 2011.  The full CAO appraisal report for this case is available under the documents link below.

Case Documents

  • Complaint
    Complaint
    Jun 02, 2010
    English
    Complaint
    Keluhan
    Jul 02, 2010
    Indonesian
    Keluhan
    Assessment Report(s)
    MIGA Response to Ombudsman Assessment Report
    Jun 28, 2011
    English
    MIGA Response to Ombudsman Assessment Report
    Ombudsman Assessment Report: Complaint Regarding the MIGA
    Jun 01, 2011
    English
    Ombudsman Assessment Report: Complaint Regarding the MIGA
    Laporan Penilaian Ombudsman
    Jun 01, 2011
    Indonesian
    Laporan Penilaian Ombudsman
  • Compliance

    Appraisal Report(s)
    CAO Appraisal for Audit of MIGA
    Oct 03, 2011
    English
    CAO Appraisal for Audit of MIGA
  • Mailchimp Survey

     

    We Value Your Feedback

    Thank you for visiting CAO’s new website. Help us improve your experience by taking our short survey.

    Give Feedback No thanks