Would you sell your soul for a million bucks?

The world's largest gold mining company, Freeport-McMoRan, recently donated $1 million to NM Tech's department of minerals engineering. This is the same company which funneled millions of dollars (possibly in violation of both U.S. and Indonesian law) to the Indonesian military under its late dictator, Suharto, including payments of over $200,000 to the Mobile Brigade, a paramilitary police unit often cited by the U.S. State Department for its brutality. That's just the beginning; the company has also devastated the environment and made billions off the resources of the region, all the while more than 30 percent of the area's inhabitants remain in poverty.

Supporting dictators

Freeport-McMoRan, often known as simply Freeport, has a long and troubled history. They also have very, very deep pockets; last year they reported $16.9 billion of revenue. Those deep pockets were lined at a tremendous cost to people around the world, most notably the people of Indonesia's Papua province. Freeport-McMoRan runs, among other things, the world's largest gold mine, located in the remote Indonesian province of Papua. The mine is of a scale so huge it is almost unfathomable. Keeping the mine running "smoothly" has also required millions - possibly billions - of dollars worth of "assistance" and military support to Indonesian regimes both past and present, including that of Suharto - a ruthless dictator under whom the people of Indonesia suffered terribly: his invasion and repression in East Timor alone is estimated to have resulted in a minimum of 102,800 deaths. That didn't seem to bother Freeport-McMoRan, however, which funneled millions of dollars to Suharto's military to "protect" their mines and personnel.

Trashing the environment

As if funneling money to dictators wasn't enough, Freeport's operations in Indonesia have also resulted in some of the worst environmental catastrophes in the world. The company uses local rivers as the conduit for their mine tailings, largely untreated. Around 230 square kilometers of wetlands, once one of the richest freshwater habitats in the world, have been decimated by mine waste. Studies have indicated that excessively high levels of copper and sediment have killed almost all of the fish in the region, according to Indonesian Environment Ministry documents. The local population has seen its once pristine rivers and wetlands destroyed, with the vast majority of the profits leaving the country.

Laughing all the way to the bank

Despite the destruction of the Indonesian environment - or perhaps because of it - Freeport-McMoRan's CEO was the third highest paid executive of all publicly traded companies based in the US in 2007, making over $65 million in compensation according to a recent article in USA Today. For those of you that are paid by the hour, that works out to about $32,500 per hour, or a little over $9 per second. In other words - if you're working for minimum wage, it'll take you about an hour and a half to make what the CEO of Freeport-McMoRan makes in a single second. Put another way, if you're paid anything less than about $16 per hour, you'll make less in an entire year than Freeport's CEO makes in one hour. No wonder he isn't terribly concerned about the impact of his company's mines.

Company complains of lack of graduates

Freeport-McMoRan's donation to NM Tech is not really an act of philanthropy; instead, it's an act of self-interest. The company wants to do more mining to increase its bottom line and needs more graduates in the minerals engineering / mining fields. Unfortunately for the company, fewer and fewer students are enrolling in such programs. With companies like Freeport-McMoRan to look forward to after graduation, is it any wonder why?

Can't NM Tech do better?

New Mexico Tech University touts its reputation frequently. And, rightly so - it's a good university offering students a quality education at an affordable price. Sadly, however, the university seems to have sold out its principles lately in pursuit of turning a quick buck. Sure, $1 million is a lot of money; however, this is blood money acquired via unethical channels. The university can and should do better when soliciting donations.

For further reading

For an excellent, in-depth (and long) article on Freeport McMoRan's behavior in Indonesia, see this article in the International Herald Tribune. Note that the article was written a couple of years ago when Freeport was still based out of New Orleans; the company's headquarters are now located in Phoenix.