Sintang (W. Kalimantan) administration inaction against illegal goal miners

Illegal gold miners in Sintang district in West Kalimantan were spreading to more areas and becoming uncontrolled, while the Sintang administration do nothing to reduce or stop their activities.

Illegal mining activities have spread to cover not only river banks, but also land areas close to capital city of Sintang and even close to the preserved Baning eco-tourism forest.

Uncontrolled illegal gold mining activities, that uses quicksilver containing mercury to cleanse gold alluvial, have polluted rivers in Sintang, including Sepauk, Melawi, Kampung Ladang, Baning, Ana and Kapuas rivers.

Because of the mercury pollution in those rivers, people in Sintang could not anymore consume waters from those rivers. They would depend on waters from rain falls or local clean water company (PDAM) that uses waters from those polluted rivers as its main inputs.

Besides pollution, those massive gold mining activities had created a large area of barren lands resembling desserts.

The rampant gold mining activities in Sintang had been made possible with strong backing from local military officials and/or village heads, who imposed illegal levies of around Rp 30,000 per one machine the miners use per day.

Mining for gold in Sintang remains a prospective business for most illegal miners. They could get between 5 grams to 100 grams of gold per day. One gram of gold sells at Rp 65,000 to Rp 70,000.

The lucrative illegal gold mining activities in Sintang have attracted illegal miners from other areas, mostly from South Kalimantan province. Many of those new comers became big dealers in Sintang, while many Sintang people became laborers in their own lands. The laborers received between Rp 25,000 and Rp 30,000 a day. (*)