Unidentified gunmen fired at two vehicles in Indonesia's Papua province carrying employees of U.S. miner Freeport McMoran on Sunday, police said. Six people were wounded in the attack. The latest violence did not affect production at the Grasberg mine, which accounts for nearly 40 percent of Freeport's total copper reserves and boasts the world's largest reserves, said company spokesman Mindo Pangaribuan. The mine in insurgency-affected Papua has been a source of friction over its environmental impact and the share of revenues going to Papua.
Three employees of Freeport and three security guards employed by the firm were wounded in the firing on a highway leading to the mine, said Mochammad Sagi, the local police chief. One of the staff was an American who got hit by glass shrapnel near his eye. "The attack happened around 6.30 in the morning. The investigation is underway," Sagi said. A series of shootings by unidentified gunmen have taken place near the mine in recent months and at least two people have been killed. The resource-rich province of Papua has suffered a low-level separatist insurgency for decades.