Release: Antam: Gold mine operating normally after accident

Jakarta, September 9th, 2005 ? PT Antam Tbk announces that operations have returned to normal at the Pongkor, West Java, gold mine run by its Strategic Business Unit (SBU) Gold. On the afternoon of Tuesday, September 6th,2005 a tunnel ceiling accidentally collapsed in an area of the Ciurug stope, which briefly shut down activities until midnight on Wednesday, September 7th, 2005. The accident caused the fatality of one miner and hospitalized two others. Meanwhile, activities at the other gold tunnels of Pongkor were not suspended.

An investigation by a government mining inspection officer and Pongkor staff during the temporary shutdown in the Ciurug tunnel revealed the ceiling of Block 2 Central Level 500 collapsed accidentally.

Witnesses confirmed the five miners of Shift I: Undan, Edi Zunaedi, Jaji Abdulroji, Yosep and Firmansyah, had finished drilling at the accident site and were preparing to load the Danfo (ammunition) into the Anfo Loader in order to blast a section of the wall and make way for continued ore extraction. The miners used standard operating procedures for these daily gold mining activities. As a standard safety precaution the miners had reinforced the soft walls and ceiling of the tunnel with the customary rock bolts, weld mesh, and gribbing. However, ceiling rocks began to fall unexpectedly and only Edi Zunaedi and Yosep managed to escape.

Edi Zunaedi and Yosep tried to free their coworkers and then rushed to seek help from Pongkor?s Emergency Response Group (ERG) Team. Jaji Abdulroji and Firmansyah were evacuated from the site and hospitalized in Bogor. Unfortunately Undan died from his injuries.

Antam?s President Director, Ir. Dedi Aditya Sumanagara, said:
?We are deeply saddened by the accident and would like to express our sincere condolences to all the victims? families. We will continue to maximize the implementation of work safety and health to minimize the possibilities of any work accident in the future and will conduct a re-implementation of the geotechnical analysis to measure the conditions of rocks surrounding the tunnel.? (end of release)