KEM starts compensation payment to traditional miners

PT Kelian Equatorial Mining (KEM), a 90-percent subsidiary of Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto, has started the compensation payment to 5,206 traditional miners who previously occupied its mining area in East Kalimantan.

The compensation payment worth about Rp 11.48 billion will be paid in six months. Each ex-traditional miner will receive Rp 2.28 million, the company said in a press release on Monday.

PT KEM?s public relations officer Kasan Mulyono said that the 5,206 traditional miners were part of the residents who claimed to have carried out mining activities before the company started its operation. But most of the claims could not be verified.

Kasan said that PT KEM also planned to pay compensation to another 2,000 people who also claimed to have worked as traditional miners in the mining area which is now under the control of the company.

?For this group of people, the verification has been done. So that its settlement will face no problem,? he said, adding that PT KEM has allocated about Rp 60 billion for the compensation payment.

About Rp 7 billion of the total compensation had been paid during the early stage of its operation, Rp 11 billion to be paid within the next six months, Kasan said, adding that the remainders would be paid when the verification works had been done.(*)