Kutai regency halts KPC?s coal exploitation plan in Melawan
Thursday, February 27 2003 - 03:34 AM WIB
Regent of Kutai Regency Awang Faroek Ishak said in Balikpapan on Wednesday that KPC which has concession rights covering hectares of land 900 in Kutai Regency?s Sangatta district should first revise the document on analyses on environmental impacts (AMDAL) of the mining project before going ahead with the company?s expansion project.
Awang said that the existing AMDAL documents should be revised because it did not include the Melawan coal mining site which would be soon developed by KPC. The current AMDAL only covers the company?s expansion plan in Bengalon, not in Melawan which according to the company?s program will be developed in 2021. "However the company carries out expansion project in Melawan area instead of Bengalon," Awang added.
KPC is slated to start coal production on Melawan on March 11 as part of the company?s expansion program to meet the company?s target to increase coal production to 18 million tons of coal this year. The new mining site is projected to contribute some five million tons to the total production.
The uncertainty related to AMDAL documents will likely hamper exploration activities in the new mining site. If the problem could not be settled, the company may lose production of about five million tons from its expansion project in the Melawan area.
Separately KPC?s Manager for government and public relations Nunik Maulana acknowledged that the company had changed the site for the expansion project from Bengalon to Melawan due to efficiency reason. She also admitted that the existing AMDAL documents only covered expansion program to be carried out in Bengalon.
Nunik, however, said that the change in the site for the expansion project had been reported to related agencies and that the company was not only working on the revision of the AMDAL but also the environmental works plan and the environmental management plan to be carried out in the Melawan mining site.
According to Nunik, the change of the AMDAL document would take time because it should pass through three stages of assessment and evaluation process to be carried out by a technical team, a small team, and a bigger team which involves many parties such as the local environmental office, the Agency for Environmental Impact Management and academicians from Mulawarman University.
She said that the revision of the AMDAL had entered the final stage of the assessment process. "The final assessment that would be carried out on March 6 would be led by Kutai Regent himself," she added. With this scenario, she is optimistic that the Melawan mining project could be officially commenced on March 11 as initially scheduled. (*)