Antam sees rising illegal mining activity as temporary

The rising number of traditional miners excavating gold illegally at the mining site of the state-owned mining firm PT Aneka Tambang in Pongkor area is only a ?temporary problem,? according to company corporate secretary Dohar Siregar.

He said that the traditional miners were only poor people seeking income in the run up to the year festivities, and this would not become a permanent problem to the company.

Gold mining activities have increased significantly in Mount Pongkor in Bogor, West Java, over the past month as hundreds of villagers came to the area for excavating gold.

Using traditional methods, the people dig mines for gold in the villages of Cihiris, Malasari and Bantarkaret. They are part of the area reserved for state mining company PT Aneka Tambang (Antam).

Many of them came from the West Java districts of Lebak, Pandeglang and Nanggung. Even some of them came from Lampung in southern Sumatra, Suara Pembaruan daily reported.

They did not care that five people digging mines in the place had died recently after being buried under the sand and rocks.(Alex)