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DJ 2nd UPDATE: Output Suspended At Indonesia's Grasberg Mine(Comtex Finance Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)JAKARTA, Feb 22, 2006 (Dow Jones Commodities News Select via Comtex) --(Updates item timed at 0519 GMT with production information, analyst comment). Production at the world's largest copper and gold mine was suspended Wednesday after illegal miners blocked the road leading to the site in Indonesia's remote Papua province, a company spokesman said. The suspension could cost some 1,800 metric tons of copper and 9,000 troy ounces of gold production a day. Copper production in the fourth quarter of 2005 was 212,000 metric tons, while gold output was 1.1 million ounces. Around 400 illegal miners have set up wood and stone barricades on the road leading to the Grasberg mine in Indonesia's Papua province, which is run by a local unit of New Orleans-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX), said police spokesman Kartono Wangsadisastra. "Mining and milling operations have been temporarily suspended as a precautionary measure," said Freeport spokesman Siddharta Moersjid in Jakarta. "The Indonesian authorities are working to resolve the situation in a peaceful and expeditious manner." The last time the mine closed down was in 2003 after a landslide killed several workers. "A week long stoppage could loose 12,600 tons of copper and 63,000 oz of gold," said analyst John Meyer of Numis Securities Limited. "This is at a time when the copper market can ill afford to lose production although the supply of gold is far less critical from a market and industrial perspective," he added. The protest followed clashes Tuesday after police and company security guards tried to disperse the miners, who earn their living retrieving gold from waste rock dumped by the mine, said Wangsadisastra. Three Freeport employees, one policeman and two illegal miners received minor injuries in the clash, said Moersjid. The mine in the remote province has long had an uneasy relationship with local people, most of whom are desperately poor. Papua is also home to a separatist rebellion, complicating Freeport's security still farther. Security practices at the site have came under renewed scrutiny since a 2002 attack on a convoy of teachers working at the mine killed two U.S. citizens. Local and foreign rights groups claim soldiers took part in the attack, allegedly to extort more security payments money from Freeport. (END) Dow Jones Newswires 02-22-06 0431ET |