Sand miners in N. Sumatera show no activities

Sand miners in North Sumatera have showed no activities in the past several months despite the increase in the order for the local sand from Singapore and Malaysia, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Tuesday.

Atamam Harahap, the head of the province's mining office, said that none of 15 companies permitted this year to operate in the sand mining, had started their operations as most of them faced financial difficulties due to the crisis.

"They are all still sleeping due to the lack of financing to start their operation," he said.

He said as local sand miners were still very much dependent on banks to finance their operations, the current high lending rates as well as the lack of banks willing to provide their credits to mining operations made their businesses almost impossible. (*)