Special team resumes survey of Lanna Harita ?disputed? land

A special team of the Samarinda mayoralty in East Kalimantan resumes today (Tuesday) the survey of the 60-hectares land whose ownership is being disputed by coal mining company PT Lanna Harita Indonesia and several local cooperatives, a local daily reported on Tuesday.

The team will carry out the survey for ten days starting today, the team?s head Fadli Illa was quoted by Kaltim Post daily as saying on Monday

Lanna Harita has been involved in a row with several local cooperatives over the right to mine the land. The coal company claims it has obtained the necessary license from the central government and local government, but the cooperatives also claim they have the licenses to mine the area.

The row has several times caused physical conflicts involving employees of the coal company and cooperatives members.

According to Fadli, his team has completed the measuring of the 60 hectares land and found that Lanna Harita had documents supporting its ownership claim of the land.

During the new survey, Fadli said, his team will focus on the cooperatives.

?The previous survey was (focused on) Lanna Harita?s version (of the case). Starting tomorrow (Tuesday), we shall gather data from the 24 cooperatives and four farmer groups who claim ownership of the land,? Fadli said.

Fadli said 13 members of the team will carry out the new survey and the executives of the cooperatives which claim to own the 60-hectare land were expected to be on the location for talks with the team members.

Lanna Harita is 55 percent owned by Lanna Resources, which is Thailand?s biggest coal miner, in a partnership with Harita Group and Pan United which hold 35 percent and 10 percent stake respectively.

Lanna Harita has said it expected to start commercial production early next year with initial production of 1 million tons of coal. (*)