PT KEM to spend US$74 million for mining closure programs

PT Kelian Equatorial Mining (KEM) will spend at least US$74 million to finance mining closure programs at its gold mine in East Kutai regency, East Kalimantan, in addition to establishing a trust fund amounting to $11 million, Neraca reported on Wednesday.

"We have provided about $74 million to finance mining closure and about $11 million as trust fund," KEM's president director Arif Siregar.

According to the existing plan, PT KEM will carry out mining closure programs in three stages. The first stage that will be carried out between 2005 and 2008 will cover a number of activities including land rehabilitation and the establishment of a monitoring institution.

Siregar said that the second stage, which will be conducted between 2008 and 2003, would include environmental monitoring activities and the conversion of former mining areas into protected forests.

"In the third stage that will be carried out after 2013, the company, in cooperation with the local community, will establish a monitoring institution to handle environmental monitoring activities which will be financed by the trust fund," he said.

He said that the company had also prepared a number of activities including training activities and a package of compensation program to help employees enter their new life. (*)