Local residents protest Adaro?s new mine acquisition

The ingenious Dayak tribe in Belangan, South Kalimantan have strongly protested the acquisition of three mining companies conducted by coal mining giant PT Adaro Indonesia?s subsidiary PT Alam Tri Abadi (ATA) because the three miners operate on the land areas owned by the tribe, Kontan reported on Friday.

The chairman of the ingenious Dayak tribe in Kalimantan, Hermani Begman, said on Thursday that the mining areas, which are operated by the three companies recently acquired by Adaro?s subsidiary, are owned by the local Dayak residents.

?We sent a letter to the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry for three times and once to Adaro to protest the acquisition. But no response has been received,? he said, adding that the tribe would file a class action to the state administration court in order to take back the mining area.

Adaro?s Corporate Secretary Devindra Ratzarwin said that the land dispute had been settled before the acquisition was concluded. He said that the three companies have all secured mining permits from the local government to conduct mining activities in the areas.

As reported earlier, in April, this year Alam Tri Abadi acquired three mining companies, namely, PT Paramitha Cipta Sarana (PCS), PT Semesta Centramas (SCM) and PT Laskar Semesta Alam (LSA), which operate 2,500 hectares of mining areas, respectively.

Adaro spent Rp 3.9 billion to acquire the three companies which hold about 172.3 million tons of coal resource. (*)