Double Levee Area Masterplan Framework
Freeport Indonesia has a 30-year mining concession in Papua with large scale tailings deposition between two rivers Otomona and Ajkwa that now needs planning for future reclamation.
PT Freeport Indonesia’s (PTFI) is the local subsidiary of US parent Freeport McMoran. It is a major copper producer and operates the world's largest gold mine, the Grasberg mine in Papua, Indonesia via a 30-year concession from the Indonesian government. Tailings deposition areas contained between levees regulate the Otomona and Ajkwa Rivers have been an integral part of the operation of PTFI during its more than 30-year concession from the Indonesian government. PTFI has now ceased tailings deposition in the Ajkwa River so that the area can be used as a test bed for the future reclamation of all the lowland concession areas once mining operations cease in 2041.
Buro Happold Ltd, supported by the Jakarta team was appointed by PTFY to develop an integrated reclamation framework for the this 20 km river corridor that would allow it to simultaneously function as a mining operations area, a flood defense, a key infrastructure backbone, a site for research of regional and global importance, a restored forest ecosystem for local communities and a test bed for new high value sustainable agriculture and aquaculture approaches which can support the post mining transition of the regional economy. All key project data was brought together in 3D GIS and numerical model of the Double Levee region that allowed us to integrate our findings and test our reclamation strategies, as well as various proposals designed to encourage socioeconomic development of the non-mining economy.
