mine operation by funding the expansion of operations.
Tembagapura    ("Copper City"), is a company town built by Freeport to-house its workforce. It has a population of about 9000. The local Amungme people, on whose land this has been built, are banned from the town and are being forcibly relocated to the south coast town of Timika.
Freeport is currently building new ABRI barracks for 6000 soldiers, and also plans to build a naval base at Timika.
A $500m 'new town' being built near Timika, by Freeport and an Indonesian partner, will eventually house up to 20,000 workers and their families. Local Komoro people, on whose land 'new town' is being built, object to the loss of their ancestral lands Freeport has started to build a giant power plant in Timika and expects to have it completed by the end of 1997. Because it is being built to US standards, excess electricity will not be able to be used locally.
Freeport today (before expansion): Facts & Figures Size of mining concession: 3.6 million hectares Proven reserves Copper: 447 tonnes Silver: 35 million ounces Gold: 27 million ounces (one of world's largest deposits - valued at $40 billion at 1996 prices) Annual revenue: $US 1 billion Profits: $US 1 million daily Employees: 15,000 only 4% are West Papuan Freeport is contributing up to 1/5 of the Indonesian government's tax base Freeport-McMoRan New Orleans-based FreeportMcMoRan Copper & Gold has an annual revenue of nearly $US 2 billion. The Chief Executive Officer, James Robert ('Jim Bob') Moffett, who, in 1995, paid himself $US 42 million in salary, bonuses and stock options, is a close friend and golfing partner  of  Indonesia's  Foreign Minister,  Mr  Ali  Alatas.  Henry Kissenger, former US Secretary of State, is a director of the company .
In the United States, Freeport has an appalling environmental record.  According  to  the  US Environmental Protection Agency, Freeport is the biggest corporate polluter in the USA. The EPA's 1993 pollution statistics showed that, for the second year in a row, FreeportMcMoRan was the largest polluter of land, air and water, both in terms of volume and toxicity, in the whole of North America, putting out nearly three times as much as the next biggest corporate polluter. In 1987 Freeport attempted to dump 12 million tonnes of low-level radioactive gypsum into the Mississippi River (The Nation Jul 31/Aug 7 1995).
In March 1995, Moffett said of his company's projects: "The potential is only limited by the imagination Every other mining company wants to get into Irian Jaya. Bougainville and Ok Tedi don't hold a candle to Grasberg" Freeport has lobbied Washington for military aid to Indonesia and has strengthened its links to other multinationals such as    Fluor Daniel, Mitsubishi, Rio Tinto and Asarco.
The company has provided an estimated sum of $730,000 to members of the US Congress, including President Clinton and the Democratic Committee.