Jambi proposes people?s mining area

The Jambi provincial administration has proposed to the central government to be allowed to set up people?s mining area (or WPR) in regencies where illegal gold mining activities are rampant to help resolve the problem, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Saturday.

The paper quoted administration senior official Ridham Priskap as saying that illegal gold mining activity is a serious problem in the province due to its massive negative environmental and social impact.

He said that developing WPRs will provide various benefits including legitimizing the traditional gold miners, providing jobs, and additional income for the local regency administrations in the province. (*)