Road to KEM reopened

Protesting villagers in the Kelian area, West Kutai regency, in East Kalimantan province finally reopened on Friday the only road to gold mining sites PT Kelian Equatorial Mining (KEM) after nearly two months of road blockade.

The Balikpapan-based Kaltim Post daily reported that the opening of the road followed an agreement between the villagers and the company to end their dispute.

The agreement was reached after successive meetings mediated by the local authorities.

KEM public relations officer Anang Noor was quoted by the Jakarta-based Neraca daily that the delivery of basic supplies to the mining sites had started on Friday, and the company expected to be able to resume production in three days after the delivery of the supplies had been completed.

Anang said that KEM was committed to settle the land compensation as demanded by the villagers.

The protesting villagers started to blockade the only road to KEM mining sites on April 18, and opened it on May 10. But a few days later the villagers closed the road again.

The road blockade had caused the company to be unable to send basic supplies including fuel and lime, prompting the gold mining operation to be temporarily shut down since April 29.

The Kaltim Post daily quoted another KEM public relations officer Nunik Maulana as saying that the losses suffered by the company due to the shut down of the operation equaled to around 1,400 kg of gold.

Another official Kasan Mulyono said that since the company would only start production over the next three days the losses would amount to around 1,500 kg.

Kaltim Post said that this equal to around Rp 127.5 billion in financial losses (US$1=Rp 8,600)

KEM is 90 percent owned by the Australia-based giant mining group Rio Tinto. (*)