Indo Muro Kencana ready to leave North Barito

Gold mining firm PT Indo Muro Kencana is set to leave its operation in North Barito regency in Central Kalimantan province if the local authority fails to immediately resolve the occupation of part of its mining site by thousands of illegal miners.

Indo Muro operational manager David Moryson said if the authority could not solve the problem, the company had to leave the operation to cut losses.

He said that the only reason for Indo Muro not to immediately leave the mining site despite the long occupation by the illegal miners was in consideration of some 800 local people working as employees of the company.

David also said that the case would cause a negative impact to the country's mining industry if Indo Muro had to leave the area just because of a failure by the government in maintaining law and order.

He said that according to the mining contract of work, it's only Indo Muro as the holder of the contract has the rights to mine the area.

David declined to explicitly say that the authority had been slow in resolving the case.

Illegal miners had occupied part of Indo Muro's mining site and looted the area since last year. The government has formed a team to resolve the problem but has so far not performed well. (*)