Illegal gold mining in W. Kalimantan getting uncontrolled
Tuesday, August 22 2000 - 03:00 AM WIB
Illegal gold mining activities in West Kalimantan are getting more rampant and uncontrolled. Those activities cause not only forest destruction, but also pollution especially in nearby rivers because the miners use quicksilver to cleanse their gold ore.
The head of the West Kalimantan's mining and energy office, Nanang Sunarya, said on Monday that so far 15,565 illegal miners had swarmed 6,385 hectares of forest areas, spreading in all districts in West Kalimantan. They used at least 3,113 units of machinery with an average power per unit of between 20 to 100 horse power.
The largest number of illegal mining sites was found in Sintang district, with 174 locations, covering 2,241.5 areas, then followed by Ketapang district, with 21 locations or 2,034 hectares, Pontianak district with 23 locations or 1,091 hectares, Sambas with 16 locations or 505 hectares, Sanggau 63 locations or 212.45 hectares, and Kapuas Hulu district with 57 locations or 70.5 hectares.
Those illegal mining activities destroy not only production forests but also preservation forests. In Mandor village in Pontianak district, for instance, at least 3 hectares of preserved forests had been destroyed, with large mining pits of between 200 meters to 5,000 square meters and 10 to 20 meters deep.
Worse still, the illegal miners use quicksilver to cleanse their gold ore and then dispose the polluted waste to rivers that eventually flow to Kapuas river, that has become the hub of West Kalimantan's economic activities.
According to Nanang, the illegal mining activities in West Kalimantan started tens years ago, but it was then small things, and they use only small machinery. Because of lacking in law enforcement, those with capital then joined the fray, and they supplied with large machinery and employed many people. Then, they involved government officials and security personnel to protect their operation. The involvement of state apparatus has complicated the problems and make it more difficult to solve. (*)