Another coal miner suspended by government

Samarinda City Administration has recently decided to suspend the operation of a coal mine located in Simpang Pasir, Palaran sub-district, East Kalimantan operated by PT Bara Energi Kaltim (BEK) due to environmental reason, as the company has kept ignoring an issued warning last month, sapos.co.id reported.

?The company has yet to conduct daily evaluation of standard quality parameter on its waste water, which sample should have been taken to laboratory for test at least once a month," said Deputy Regent of Samarinda, Nusyirwan Ismail, adding that air quality check, reclamation and re-vegetation are other issues the company ignored.

?As they have not conveyed the results of their environment management and evaluation, which is considered as breaking the Environmental law, we've decided to suspend their operation," Head of Environment Agency of Samarinda Endang Liansyah said.

BEK is the last of a number of coal miners that received warnings related to environment management this year, which includes PT Internasional Prima Coal (IPC) and PT Bukit Baiduri Energi (BBE) for first warnings, PT Graha Benua Etam (GBE) and CV Shaka for second warnings, while CV Baratama Makmur Blok 120 received third and final warning by the city administrative.

The administration suspended two coal miners last year, namely CV Bukit Pinang Bahari and CV Busur Abadi, currently put into supervision.

Another company PT Buana Riski Armia (BRA) is currently also about to be put under supervision after receiving warning last month. (*)