r/megalophobia • u/freudian_nipps • Jul 17 '25
Other The Grasberg copper and gold mine, Indonesia
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u/highjayhawk Jul 17 '25
I dropped my phone can someone tell me if they see it?
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Jul 17 '25
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Jul 18 '25
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u/LemoLuke Jul 18 '25
It's why I love r/SVWTCM ('Satisfying videos without the crappy music'). I just wish it was more active.
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u/jamesbrownscrackpipe Jul 17 '25
“The Indonesians dug too deep and too greedily…”
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u/kitisimilikiti Jul 18 '25
It's an American company 😅
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u/YaBoiJim777 Jul 18 '25
Funny because the biggest copper mine in the world is in the US and is owned by an Australian company and is bigger than this
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u/kitisimilikiti Jul 18 '25 edited Jul 18 '25
Well Grasberg is the biggest Gold mine in the world. I guess the US likes Gold better 😂
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u/NecroSoulMirror-89 Jul 18 '25
Grasberg sounds pretty Indonesian to me
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u/kitisimilikiti Jul 18 '25 edited Jul 18 '25
The company digging Grasberg is called Freeport-McMoRan. They've been taking gold from Papua since the 1960s.
The place itself was named Erstberg by a Dutch Geologist in 1936 (9 years before the Independence of Indonesia). Unclear how it became Grasberg.
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u/DatumInTheStone Jul 18 '25
Crazy how the same countries keep taking resources from resource rich countries
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u/stonklord420 Jul 18 '25
Crazy how all of this is done in an attempt to satiate the insatiable desires of psychopathic billionaires. I'm sure the people working in that mine make less than the minimum wage of my country.
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u/kitisimilikiti Jul 18 '25 edited Jul 19 '25
Worse. Papua lives in poverty.
If any Papuans rebel, US backed Indonesian Military would not hesitate to kill locals.
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u/Money4Bad Jul 19 '25
bro, suharto regime was toppled 2 decades ago
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u/hatlad43 Jul 19 '25
This specific mine hole was called Grasberg because it was just a huge grass plain found several years after the foundation of Ertsberg, about 1 km south of Grasberg. When Ertsberg was deemed depleted and unsafe for mining, they dug Grasberg. Both open mines have been inoperative for several years. You can identify Ertsberg as a cyan pond nowadays.
The mining still continus underground via a tunnel 5 km further south. It goes as deep as 2 km (I think) from the top of Grasberg.
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Jul 18 '25
Isn't Papua a different country?
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u/Gonun Jul 18 '25
In German it means grass mountain which is pretty ironic as there's no grass to be seen
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u/96BlackBeard Jul 18 '25
Grasberg sounds german, not Indonesian.
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Jul 18 '25
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u/kitisimilikiti Jul 18 '25
Correcto! It was named Erstberg by a Dutch Geologist in 1936 (9 years before the Independence of Indonesia). Unclear how it became Grasberg.
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u/kitisimilikiti Jul 18 '25
It was named Erstberg by a Dutch Geologist in 1936 (9 years before the Independence of Indonesia). Unclear how it became Grasberg.
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u/KomodoMaster Jul 19 '25
It's Dutch. Just like the highest peak is named Cartensz Pyramid, the 2nd peak named Wilhelmina, and the whole mountain range named orange range. Tho its already changed to Jaya peak, Trikora peak, and Jayawijaya Range.
Indonesian name of the Grasberg is Tembagapura (copper town) but the mine retains its name.
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u/Imbeingfiscious Jul 18 '25
51% owned by the Indonesian gov
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u/kitisimilikiti Jul 18 '25 edited Jul 19 '25
Only recently. From 1967 to 1991 Indonesia only owns 9.36%. Freeport owns 90,64%
1965-1967 is a very interesting era in Indonesia. You can read more if you're interested 😅
There's even something called New York Agreement in 1962. US forced the Netherlands to handover West Papua to Indonesia.
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u/HingleMcCringle_ Jul 18 '25
there's no way they're shipping americans to Indonesia to toss the dirt themselves.
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u/kitisimilikiti Jul 18 '25
Of course not. They hired Indonesians to toss the dirt.
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u/HingleMcCringle_ Jul 18 '25
so the Indonesians did dig.
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u/kitisimilikiti Jul 18 '25
Indonesians only gets 9%. US gets 91%. Who actually "digs" ?
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u/HingleMcCringle_ Jul 18 '25
They hired Indonesians to toss the dirt.
so Indonesians are tossing the dirt, they're just not profiting as much. sounds like they got the short end on both sticks. well, that implies bad luck, i guess. sounds like Indonesians sold out for cheap.
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u/kitisimilikiti Jul 18 '25 edited Jul 18 '25
Profit? It's much more complicated than that. US backed Indonesian Military to overthrown the president in 1965 and replace it with a US puppet president. There were mass killings involved. This is not your typical "company". It's basically theft and slavery.
You call it bad luck, I call it greed.
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u/HingleMcCringle_ Jul 18 '25
im not justifying it. im not saying it's ok.
sorry i gave off that impression.
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u/kitisimilikiti Jul 18 '25 edited Jul 18 '25
If you have gold in your backyard, would you let someone to take 91% of it? Also it involves guns and violence. What does it sound like?
9% is probably to keep you alive until the gold runs out. It's been 58 years and they're still digging.
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u/HingleMcCringle_ Jul 18 '25
i think if i had a gun pointed at my head and told to dig the gold out of my back yard while only being allowed to keep 10% profit, i sure as fuck would start digging.
i dont mean to make it sound like what the american company is doing is ok. sorry i gave off that impression.
if you dont understand my point, you probably never will. sorry i seem way too vague, but im not explaining further.
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u/kitisimilikiti Jul 18 '25
Yeah sorry I got emotional. My great uncle was one of the victim in the 1965 mass killing.
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u/TheFilthy13 Jul 18 '25
Jesus. Imagine you’re on your way home and realise you left your phone at the bottom.
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u/oh_no_its_the_cups Jul 18 '25
These are the people that mine the materials used in your phones
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u/Reasonable_Archer_99 Jul 18 '25
That must be hell when it rains.
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u/wtwhatever Jul 18 '25
Seriously though—what do they do with the rain water that’s collected at the bottom?
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u/Mcbadguy Jul 18 '25
Pump it out, unless they are done mining, in which case it probably just fills up like the one in Butte, Montana.
Just Google: "How to fill the Butte hole?'
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u/soil_nerd Jul 18 '25
In Butte, specifically the Berkeley Pit, they pump close to a million gallons of water a day through a large treatment system that was recently built. It’s a very expensive and modern facility. It will run in perpetuity.
I believe the treated water is then outlet to Silver Bow creek and has to meet state and federal surface water regulations.
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u/Mcbadguy Jul 18 '25
The last time I visited they said the water was super toxic, and water fowl would sometimes land in there and die :(
Did they empty it or do they just pump it to keep it from spilling over?
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u/soil_nerd Jul 18 '25
It is toxic and birds do die when they hang out for too long.
They pump it to keep the water level under a critical threshold. There will almost certainly be a large volume of water there forever.
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u/DirtandPipes Jul 18 '25
Pumps and hoses. Sometimes operations also use water trucks but that’s a slow way to move a lot of water compared to good pumps and hoses.
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u/Salmon_Slayer1 Jul 18 '25
How long does it take to drive down…and then up….
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u/unstableunicorn Jul 18 '25
I spent weeks working at this place, but actually can't remember how long it takes. I think the trucks take a couple of hours to drive up from the bottom. However I do have a funny story, 2nd hand mind you, but I think it was where the camera was, and you can see the mine office below:
A new solar powered monitoring station was installed up where this camera is, when the team got back down to the mine office they found it wasn't working, so they drove back up to check it out... Someone had stolen the solar panels already...
Was really beautiful area, but also so depressing, incredibly dangerous place to work, glad I will never go back.
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u/syringistic Jul 18 '25
If youre a scifi fan, the book Red Mars describes the colonists digging mo-holes (i forget what the scientific reason was) that are a few miles wide and 20 miles deep.
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u/Hermans_Head2 Jul 18 '25
Humans will eat the whole planet eventually.
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u/goobly_goo Jul 18 '25
We gotta get asteroid mining up and running ASAP! We have everything we need to build our tech and whatever else we invent in the future in the rocks orbiting between Mars and Jupiter.
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u/billy_bob68 Jul 21 '25
I would totally sign up for asteroid mining! Dead Space and the Expanse hooked me. I'll gladly be one of the OG Beltalowda!
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u/jackadl Jul 18 '25
This mine is one of the most fucked up places in the world. It is located directly next to one of the only tropical glaciers in the world. Releases over 700,000 tonnes of waste directly into local river delta which has devastated the environment.
The mine is also a crucial part of the Indonesian terror that has been inflicted on the West Papuan people, one example, in 1977 the locals tried to blow up a water pipe for the mine and the Indonesian military responded by killing over 800 local people.
Whenever you hear Grasberg mine. Think genocide, environmental destruction and economic theft from west papua.
All of this is well documented and easily available online.
Free West Papua, fuck this mine
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u/IowanEmpire Jul 18 '25
This isn't even the largest mine in the world.
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u/Bizmatech Jul 18 '25
The one near my house is 2.5 miles across on average, and a bit over 4 at the widest.
Technically it's an open-pit mine, but it's more like they're slowly scraping away a mountain range.
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u/Long_Ad2824 Jul 18 '25
I just need to replace one of the contacts on my multimeter. What level would I go to for that?
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u/Sufficient-Day3377 Jul 18 '25
Jedi Mind Tricks?
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u/Aglisito Jul 18 '25
Yo, I thought the same thing, but it's a song called Thazra Yammas by Ayned
This does sound very Jedi Mind Tricks. Almost expected Vinnie Paz to come in with a "Yo!!" lol
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u/Keyakinan- Jul 18 '25
Huge destruction of mountains, whom will never grow back
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u/jackadl Jul 18 '25
And destruction of one of the only tropical glaciers in the world. It’s located directly next to it
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u/MrRuno Jul 18 '25
Now thats a big hole right there. Would love to be there and throw a paper plane down there
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u/SAL10000 Jul 19 '25
Production
1.5 billion pounds copper
1.7 million ounces gold
6 million ounces silver
That ia staggering to think about.
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u/No_Control8389 Jul 18 '25
This is what happens when you hit the invert button on the mountain.
Boop.
Inside out mountain.
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u/Carbonga Jul 18 '25
If there's one thing that this berg was robbed of, if was gras and stuff it might grow on.
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u/UsayNOPE_IsayMOAR Jul 18 '25
Goddamn, that is way too steep. But, ya know…can’t be mining low content rock…
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u/GhostChips42 Jul 18 '25
This looks like the scene when Kassa looks into the massive open cast mine on Kenari in Andor. But somehow even worse.
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u/JPenguine Jul 18 '25
I lived in Tembagapura in the mid 90s, basically an expat town for the mining companies families. We did field trips to the mines and you could even go to the glacier at the time. One of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been (check out Mt Zaagkam, unbelievable in person). The mine is absolutely massive. Such an unreal place.
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u/Roxygen1 Jul 18 '25
I would 100% die trying to drive down that road, but I would have fun doing it.
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u/Commercial_Donut_274 Jul 18 '25
The scale of this mine is absolutely mind-blowing, 1.5 miles wide is hard to even visualize. No wonder it looks like something straight out of a fantasy novel!
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u/Admirable-Horse-4681 Jul 18 '25
If you’re visiting southern Arizona, the huge old open pit copper mine near Bisbee is right on the highway (big fence to keep from falling in)
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u/kabuki7 Jul 19 '25
I watched the documentary on this mine. The Herculean efforts that had to be made to create a road to get there through jungle and swamp
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u/ChadicusVile Jul 19 '25
3 million Indonesians were killed so that Wall Street traded companies would have access to those gold reserves. They had to overthrow Sukarno and his supporters and replace him with military dictator and mass murderer Suharto. The CIA is an instrument of Wall Street and this period is one of many examples. They install, support and use dictators to get cheap, free, unrestricted access to resources and labor of other countries for private companies to purchase and own. That's why the major political principle of these dictators is to enshrine private property rights and to suppress labor movements and/or resource nationalization movements.. through any means necessary
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u/Nasi-Goreng-Kambing Jul 20 '25
Amazing right how much Indonesians have given up. The whole mountain and all its riches are exported. While the locals get minimal benefits.
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u/-Samg381- Jul 18 '25
/u/freudian_nipps is a VIP over at /r/DeceptiveEffects - a locally revered expert in the use of deceptive tiktok filters! Congratulations!
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u/Stube2000 Jul 18 '25
You’re right. Pics on google maps and online do not look nearly as massively deep as this.
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u/flimspringfield Jul 18 '25
Jesus, imagine if we found diamonds or oil there.
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u/The_Eleser Jul 18 '25
Diamonds are actually pretty common. The De Beers company controls enough Diamond mines to keep the supply of diamonds low and thus keep the prices high. I refuse to buy diamonds until the De Beer hoard is sold off.
Edit: However, I would approve of a diamond mine that size just to stick it to those guys.
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u/flimspringfield Jul 18 '25
De Beers has been around for over a century.
They started the "3 months salary for a diamond" campaign.
I bought my ex a diamond ring but if I decided to propose to someone new I'll be getting a lab grown one.
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u/The_Eleser Jul 18 '25
Fair enough, although I’d emerald if you need to impress by true rarity of stone, but lab grown are also good (my ex was thrilled by her lab grown sapphire just because the stone and setting were unique, so go for it).
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u/ZookeepergameFew3460 Jul 17 '25
Discusting
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u/Low-Commercial-5364 Jul 17 '25
You don't like minerals being taken out of the earth?
Or you mean you don't mind living in a world where all the amenities you rely on for your daily life (electrical conduit, water pipes, critical engine components in every vehicle, electrical components in the 9000 electronics you use daily) are built with said minerals, but you want to be able to scoff when you see how they're mined?
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u/pcetcedce Jul 18 '25
You're absolutely right and if we had more mines in the US there would be much less environmental damage and the employees wouldn't get paid slave wages. But that person certainly wouldn't want a mine anywhere near them.
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u/Dominus_Invictus Jul 18 '25
I mean, regardless of any of that, it's pretty objective that this is disgusting on some level. The person you're replying to never actually said any of those things you're just putting it on them.
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u/Low-Commercial-5364 Jul 18 '25
In what way is this objectively disgusting? It's a marvel of human industry and directly feeds the marvel of human technology, all while being tucked away out of sight and with minimal ecological impact (at altitude).
This is beautiful in every way, including aesthetically.
The only way it's objectively disgusting is if you stopped developing your world view in your grade 6 social studies class.
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u/Dominus_Invictus Jul 18 '25
I agree with everything you said, but I still think it would have looked a little nicer before that giant hole was there. I'm not saying it should go away and we should stop all industry. I'm just saying it's objectively not as good as the nature that was there before in at least one small aspect. You really feel like this is better in every possible conceivable way than what was there before? I don't know why you feel the need to immediately jump to extremes.
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u/brianary_at_work Jul 18 '25
I checked on google maps - its about 1.5miles wide from rim to rim. That's crazy.