South Kalimantan supports demands for redistribution of mining sites
Governor wants full authority in local mining
Thursday, June 8 2000 - 03:15 AM WIB
The South Kalimantan supports the demand for large mining companies to distribute part of its mining sites to cooperatives to develop the people's mining, according to a local senior government official.
Second secretary of the South Kalimantan administration Armain Janit was quoted by the Antara news agency as saying that the Governor supported the demand as it would help increase the welfare of the local people.
The association of the people's mining (Aspera) has made the demand to the Minister of Mines and Energy Susilo B. Yudhono during a recent meeting. Susilo had also been quoted by the press as saying that he agreed to such a demand.
The Aspera has complained that most of the mining sites in South Kalimantan had been controlled by foreign firms including PT Adaro (30,000 ha) and PT Arutmin (70,000 ha), but so far they've only managed to mine a small part of their concessions.
Meanwhile, Armain also said that South Kalimantan Governor Sjachriel Darham wanted full authority of the local mining sector once the new regional autonomy law and the inter government fiscal balance were implemented in January 2001.
Armain said that the Governor didn't want to share the authority with the regency administration or mayoralty.
He said that the Governor insisted that the license issuance for the mining sector should be in the hands of the provincial administration, not in the hands of the regencies or mayoralty.
He said that if the regency administrations were given the authority to issue mining license, the Governor feared that the growth in the mining industry would be uncontrollable which in turn would threat the local environment. (*)