Traditional miners produce 150 kg of gold a week

Traditional miners in the Dumoga district, North Sulawesi produce at least 150 kilos of gold a week from their illegal mining activities but most of the gold production ended at the hand of their bosses, Manado Pos reported on Wednesday.

Jasmin Potabuga, who has conducted researches on the traditional miners' activities in the area since early 1998, said that the gold production could have been higher if the miners could carry out their digging works in more favorable situation.

"At present, the traditional miners carry out their activities under a distressed situation because of fears of being caught by the authority," he said.

According to him, if their activities are legalized, the gold production could be much higher because the miners would be able to carry out their operations more efficiently, free from fears of being caught.

Jasmin said that the local government should, therefore, come with a wiser solution to end the illegal mining activities in the province so that the gold mining activities would not only benefit the big bosses but more importantly give benefits to the miners themselves and the local authority.

Supposing, that the gold mining in the area is operated under a 80% and 20% production sharing scheme, the local government will be able to receive at least Rp 10 billion a year, he said.

The newspaper also reported on Wednesday that hundreds of the so called illegal miners in Dumogo district expressed their support to the local government's plan to center their operations in particular mining areas.

In a meeting attended by the government's senior officials in the district, the miners said that focusing them in one particular area will enable them to work more peacefully, and free of terrors.

The miners also agreed with the government's proposal to center the traditional mining activities in gold rich mining areas of Teluk Aspal, Maleo, Karamba, Beringin, and Busa Lama. (*)