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Concerning the Toka Tindung project the assessment has not been finished yet. This means that we take all pieces of information surrounding the project very seriously and pursue them, including through site visits and intensive talks with all parties involved.

The project goes through the regular steps, assessments, expert analyses and investigations set by the Equator Principles. The financing commitment is contingent upon approval under certain conditions, including satisfaction with the environmental permit, environmental impact assessment and environmental action plan. For this purpose independent experts had to exclude endangerment of the environment (e.g. by the effects of earthquakes or by technical or human failure). Also a widespread support by the population in the mine’s region must be assured. At present there are letters of ten governing village mayors and three priests of the region surrounding the mine on hand which are addressed to the Indonesian Department of the Environment. Therein they affirm their backing for the project and refer to population’s approval.

Even if a lot of the information and the criticism, as well as many of the questions and suggestions that we received are not new for us, we would be very pleased to progress a valuable dialogue at an appropriate time. We ask for understanding at the same time that we cannot be responsive to details in most cases as this sort of information is quite sensitive for the bank and our business partners. Clearly WestLB is very interested in holding a detailed discussion about critical points internally as well as with business partners and in making sure that the “major facts” are publicly available.