Arutmin loses 10,000 tons of coal per day

Coal mining company PT Arutmin Indonesia in South Kalimantan has to lose around 10,000 tons of coal per day due to rampant illegal mining activity in its mining site, according to a company official.

Arutmin planning manager Faisal Firdaus was quoted by the local Banjarmasin Post daily as saying that the illegal mining activity remained extensive despite the hundreds of policemen stationed in the mining site.

Arutmin, which is 80 percent owned by Australia?s mining group BHP, has mining sites in the Tanah Laut and Kotabaru regencies.

Faisal said that the illegal miners were equipped with heavy machinery. He added that they were mostly coming from outside the Tanah Laut and Kotabary areas.

He said that out of the company?s total 6,000 ha mining site, around 2,000 ha had been excavated by illegal miners.

?The illegal miners have been operating here for years. We have been unable to stop them. That?s why we need the help of the police,? he said.

But other Arutmin official regretted that the police had not been tactical in preventing the illegal mining activity. He pointed out that the police should have stopped the coal trucks owned by the illegal miners transporting coal to the local Sungan Danau river in the evening.(*)

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