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A unit of Jardine Matheson is resuming gold exploration in Indonesia despite concerns from scientists and environmental groups that any expansion of mining operations could threaten the habitat of the world’s most endangered great ape.
Jardines, one of Hong Kong’s oldest colonial-era business empires, controls Indonesian conglomerate Astra International, whose subsidiary Agincourt Resources operates the Martabe gold mine in Sumatra.
The mine is located in the only habitat for the Tapanuli orangutan. Identified as its own species in 2017, fewer than 800 of the great apes remain in the wild.
Jardines signed a moratorium in 2022, agreeing to work with the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the global environmental protection organisation, on an independent assessment of the project’s impact and pause further exploration of the site.
But the sides fell out, and the IUCN task force called off the agreement with Jardines in April 2023, criticising the subsidiary’s approach and saying its own role had been reduced to a “tick-box exercise”.
The IUCN also noted that a biodiversity panel of independent scientists assembled to advise on the project was paid by the mine project, raising a “conflict of interest”.
Last month, Agincourt announced it would press ahead with exploration for a new site, saying the panel had assessed and approved its plans.
Environmental group Mighty Earth, which has been tracking the Martabe project for years, has said that the new pit is located within a Key Biodiversity Area deemed critical for endangered animals and ecosystems. Jardines has acknowledged that the project “overlaps” with the Key Biodiversity Area.
The area has also been recognised by conservation group Alliance for Zero Extinction, which identifies locations that are the only habitat for endangered species.
“What’s at stake here is the survival of the world’s rarest great ape. Jardines needs to think again and if the mine must expand, go in a different direction away from critical orangutan habitat,” said Amanda Hurowitz, managing director for Mighty Earth.
Jardines told the Financial Times that the plan was limited to “low-impact exploration” and that if mining was found to be commercially viable, the commencement of any activity would be subject to further assessments from the biodiversity panel.
A member of the biodiversity panel, Onrizal, an associate professor at the University of North Sumatra who goes by one name, said the group greenlit exploration after finding the risks could be mitigated, based on surveys of the orangutan habitat.
Agincourt’s planned exploration work would amount to one hectare in total. It said it would also build a new dry tailings facility covering 78 hectares for the existing mine, while an additional 20 hectares will be cleared “mostly in the immediate surrounding perimeters of the existing mining pits . . . to ensure proper slope stability and effective mine drainage”.
“It’s just one hectare now. But the concern is how far will these explorations and potentially exploitations go,” said Serge Wich, a primatologist.
In its notice cutting ties, IUCN said the project’s impact remained unclear and Jardines had “failed to find a way forward which would allow the [task force] to conduct an independent and effective review of the project’s data on orangutans”.
It added that the task force “has successfully engaged with, and provided advice to, approximately 20 projects worldwide and we have never encountered this issue”.
Genevieve Campbell, IUCN task force chair, said Jardines uses the “biodiversity advisory panel [BAP] to green light their operations and expansion plans, but these scientists are paid by the project and reviewing their own data, so there is nothing independent about this panel”.
Jardines said Agincourt “did not obstruct” the task force’s review and that it was disappointed by the decision to end the agreement. Jardines told the FT it “remains committed to working with relevant third parties, to obtain advice on how best to minimise the impact of the mine’s operations on the Tapanuli orangutan”.
It added that the biodiversity advisory panel had required Agincourt to ensure their independence as a condition of their engagement.
Agincourt and the Indonesian ministries of environment and forestry and energy and mineral resources did not respond to requests for comment.
Puji Rianti, a member of the biodiversity advisory panel, said “Agincourt does honour what our study results show”. She noted that the company had cancelled a tailings facility to be built over 101 hectares following the panel’s recommendation.
Agincourt was in discussions with the panel on the next steps if it did decide to begin mining, she said. “We have ongoing studies on how to mine gold in a more sustainable way, including underground mining and phytomining”, or growing plants that accumulate heavy metals in the soil.
But environmentalists raised concerns about the impact on the orangutans’ habitat. “Is a reckless gold rush worth pushing a species to the brink of extinction?” asked Hurowitz.
