Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold, Inc. Resolution

Whereas:    Since 1967, PT Freeport Indonesia Company (PT-FI), an operating unit of Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold, Inc. (FCX) has been operating on lands traditionally inhabited by indigenous people, especially the Amungme and Komoro;

Whereas:    PT-FI currently discharges over 110,000 tons of tailings per day into local Irian Jaya rivers and is considering the expansion of milling operations to exceed 190,000 cubic tons per day.  In 1995, prior to a settlement with PT-FI, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, a U.S. government agency which provided political risk insurance to this operation, stated that the mine "created and continues to pose unreasonable or major environmental, health, or safety hazards with respect to the rivers that are being impacted by the tailings, the surrounding terrestrial ecosystem and the local inhabitants";

Whereas:    PT-FI has attempted to ameliorate the social and environmental damages by proposing the "One Percent Trust Fund Offer" and the establishment of an Amungme Foundation, but the Amungme Tribal Council (LEMASA), an organization representing one of the indigenous communities affected by PT-FI operations in Irian Jaya, has issued a resolution "unconditionally and absolutely" rejecting these two proposals;

Whereas:    It is unclear to shareholders how much environmental liability, cleanup responsibility, and remediation cost may exist, and no existing audit contains information on any actual environmental liability.

Resolved:    That shareholders request the Board of Directors of PT-FI to take steps to:

1.    Postpone the expansion of milling operations until a just, accepted, peaceful and permanent resolution of local indigenous concerns can be reached in consensus-based process with all stakeholders.

2.    End company cooperation with the Indonesian military as soon as legally possible so that PT-FI does not provide food, transportation or shelter to Indonesian military to drastically reduce military presence in and around PT-FI's Contract of Work Area.

3.    Publicly release in their full entirety the 1996 Labat Anderson social audit, the March 1996 Dames and Moore environmental audit, and all other environmental audits on the Indonesian operations from the last five years.

4.    Allow independent environmental monitoring of PT-FI operations and local river and ecosystems by non-governmental organizations.

Submitted on 20 February 1997 by

Seattle Mennonite Church
3120 N.E. 125th St.
Seattle, WA  98125