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artly owned by the Government of Indonesia, PT Freeport Indonesia is an affiliate of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., the


“ Papua’s


population growth has been the fastest in Indonesia





world’s largest publicly traded copper company. Freeport Indonesia operates one of the world’s biggest mines in the Mimika regency of Papua, Indonesia’s largest province. Since the early 1990s Papua’s population growth has been the fastest in Indonesia as people from all over the country have arrived in search of better opportunities. In 15 years the regency’s capital, Timika, has grown rapidly as migrants have arrived to work in the mine. Formerly an isolated village of just 5,000 people with virtually no modern infrastructure, Timika is now a busy sprawling town and the population of the regency as a whole has reached over 250,000.


22 Hotline Silver Edition, 2010


the long view P


Complex challenge “Such rapid growth always brings public health challenges”, says Dr Myles Neri, Group Medical Director at International SOS. “In Papua, unhealthy living conditions created by unregulated housing settlements become a breeding ground for disease. Migration also brings the potential for new infections.” Other challenges include the wide geographical spread of the population across highlands and lowlands, and the need to educate the community about the risks of disease – especially those caused by human behavior. While Freeport Indonesia has a responsibility to safeguard the health of its workers at the mine and their families, the company has reached far beyond its immediate duty of care. Dr Morrison Bethea is


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