Illegal coal production in South Kalimantan reaches 31 million tons in three years

The coal production of illegal miners in South Kalimantan had reached more than 31 million tons during the past three years, most of which are illegally produced from PT Arutmin’s concession area, Kompas daily reported on Wednesday.

The head of the province’s mining office, Sukardhi, said in Banjarmasin on Tuesday that the production of the illegal miners in the province continued to increase from year to year despite the intensive operations taken by the local police to curb the illegal mining.

Meanwhile, the head of the external affairs of PT Arutmin, Sony Pangestu, said that the volume of coal produced by illegal miners within the company’s concession area were estimated to reach 28.2 million tons.

The company’s site manager in the Satui mining site, said that the production of the illegal miners in part of Arutmin’s areas was often higher than those produced by Arutmin.

He said that the production of the illegal miners in its Satui Bambu mining site had reached 40,000 tons a night, much higher than those produced by Arutmin, which was only about 9,000 tons a day.

The local police acknowledged that it was difficult to totally eliminate the activities of the illegal miners because it involved many people especially those living near licensed mining sites.

The police has intensified their operation against the illegal miners during the past several months but their operations were often protested by the association of the people’s miners, whose members mostly operate illegal mining activities.

The association said that its members supply at least 2,500 tons of coal to major electricity plants in Java a month. In addition, they also export their product without a difficulty. (*)