Govt demands huge mining firms to relinquish land for people
Tuesday, June 6 2000 - 04:15 AM WIB
The government has demanded huge mining companies to relinquish part of their mining sites to be developed into the people's mining operation by selected cooperatives, according to director general of mining Surna T. Djajadiningrat.
Surna said that the measure would help curb the rampant illegal mining in the country.
He was quoted by Republika daily as saying that mining firms like coal operations PT Adaro and PT Kaltim Prima Coal, and gold mining firm PT Indo Muro Kencana had surrendered part of their land to local cooperatives.
He said that in the case of Adaro, the cooperatives develop the mining sites and the coal products were being sold back to the company.
But Surna admitted that the new measure would not immediately eradicate illegal mining activities in the country.
He said that illegal mining problem could not be solved overnight.
Surna said that his office had warned companies which had been buying coal from illegal miners. He said that the government might take legal action against the buyers if they didn't heed the warning.
He declined to name the companies, but said that one was a cement maker and the other is a power generation company in East Java.
Surna said that the state had suffer a huge financial losses due to the rampant illegal mining activities because no royalty was received by the state.(*)