Arizona mining company one of 10 most controversial in 2011

Arizona-based Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold was the 5th most "controversial" mining company in the world in 2011, based on analysis of news media and other public criticism of companies’ "environmental, social and governance performance." Swiss-based RepRisk "monitors the level of criticism to which a company is exposed" to create a RepRisk Index (RRI) which "measures the risk to a company’s reputation, not its actual reputation in general."



RepRisk summarized the criticisms saying "Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold faced allegations of human rights abuses, particularly in Papua New Guinea where its subsidiary was accused of perpetuating the abuse of workers by paying police to guard its Grasberg Mine. It was further accused of contaminating water bodies with heavy metals from mine tailings."

RepRisk also noted that Indonesian workers "have also been involved in a pay dispute with the company that resulted in a 3-month strike of 8,000 miners" which has been the source of much negative press.