Two Steps to the Devil
“They signed a pact with the devil.”
The New York Times has been doing a series of articles examining gold mining around the world. The latest article, Below a Mountain of Wealth, a River of Waste, examines the practices of Freeport-McMoRan and the Grasberg mine, the world’s largest gold mine in the province of Papua in Indonesia.
With a few taps on a keyboard, satellite images quickly reveal the deepening spiral that Freeport has bored out of its Grasberg mine as it pursues a virtually bottomless store of gold hidden inside. They also show a spreading soot-colored bruise of almost a billion tons of mine waste that the New Orleans-based company has dumped directly into a jungle river of what had been one of the world’s last untouched landscapes.
The Times article details Freeport paying off the local military and police in exchange for protection from locals opposed to their operations, and even intercepting email messages to spy on their opponents. Freeport spent $35 million on military infrastructure, provided vehicles, hired a former C.I.A. operative and other former American military officers, and began making direct monthly payments to Indonesian military commanders and police.
“They signed a pact with the devil,” said an American who was part of Freeport’s security operations at the time.
So what are Austin’s ties to a gold mine in Indonesia and a pact with the devil?
- Much of the development that has happened (and is happening) in Southwest Austin has direct ties to Freeport-McMoRan, led by CEO Jim Bob Moffett. The Austin Chronicle had an article in 2002 that walked through a timeline of efforts to save Barton Springs from Jim Bob and those like him - The Battle for the Springs: A Chronology.
- On the Forty Acres at UT, there’s a building named after one of the worst environmental desperadoes of the modern era. His name is James R. (”Jim Bob”) Moffett and he’s the chairman of New Orleans-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.
- Also according to the Chronicle, Jim Bob has remarried, and he and his new wife, Lauree, have built a $3 million home here in Austin, on Escala Drive, overlooking Barton Creek Country Club’s Fazio Canyons golf course.
- In 1998, FM Properties cut its ties to Freeport-McMoRan and changed its name to Stratus Properties Inc., naming William “Beau” Armstrong as president and CEO. According to MoveAMD.com, Stratus and Freeport still have the same Financial Controller and Vice President, C. Donald Whitmire, who, according to SEC filings, works at Freeport’s office in New Orleans. Whitmire is listed as a Vice President on Freeport’s webpage, and also named as a Vice President of Stratus on their SEC filings.
- Now, AMD has agreed to pay Stratus Properties $21.25 million for approximately 58 acres at Southwest Parkway and William Cannon Drive, where they want to build an 860,000-square-foot office campus. This is part of the Lantana Tract, which was purchased by Freeport-McMoRan in 1993. Why would AMD want to get tangled up in such a mess?
Think about it next time you walk by the Louise and James Robert Moffett Molecular Biology Building: You’re two steps from the Devil.
Seems Stratus and Freeport-McMoRan may not be so separated, after all.
The second largest shareholder of record in Stratus stock is Ingalls and Snyder, an investment firm in New York that holds the stock in trust for two undisclosed investors. Who are those investors? That’s a secret that Stratus will not reveal. Could one of them be Jim Bob?
Careful AMD, you’re only a couple of steps from the Devil.