Papua
Grasberg mine—$34B to state since 1992, 208,000 jobs; Amungme sacred mountain destroyed, 51.23% now Indonesian-owned, indigenous displacement continues.
The Grasberg mine sits where a mountain once stood—the sacred mother of the Amungme people. Since Freeport-McMoRan began operations in the 1960s, this single mining complex has contributed approximately $34 billion to the Indonesian state through taxes, royalties, and dividends. It created 208,000 jobs across the archipelago. It also displaced indigenous communities from ancestral lands, generated allegations of military violence against local populations, and transformed a rainforest ecosystem into one of the world's largest open pits.
Indonesia now owns 51.23% of PT Freeport Indonesia through state mining company MIND ID, with plans to increase the stake beyond 61%. The operation's centrality to national revenue—projected to exceed $6 billion annually by 2028-2029—makes Papua economically indispensable. Yet over 250 indigenous tribes live in a province where 69% of mine-related jobs exist outside the region. A November 2025 landslide killed seven workers; copper prices rose on the supply disruption.
By 2026, the phased restart of the Grasberg Block Cave underground mine will test whether majority Indonesian ownership translates to different outcomes for local communities. Six decades of extraction have demonstrated that resource wealth and indigenous wellbeing rarely correlate. UN bodies urged transparent human rights investigations in 2024 reviews. Whether anyone listens depends on whether copper and gold prices make silence affordable.