DEWA Gold Mine Project Stalled by Permits and Natural Disasters

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia — The gold and copper mining project in Aceh owned by a subsidiary of PT Darma Henwa Tbk (DEWA) remains at a standstill. Drilling at the project, operated by PT Gayo Mineral Resources (GMR), has been suspended for more than seven months because permits have not been issued, with operations also disrupted by natural disasters.

According to GMR’s exploration activity report for the period from 1 July to 30 September 2026, the company carried out no new drilling during the third quarter of 2026. Drilling has been postponed since 8 March 2026 while the Mining Business Licence (IUP) approval process remains incomplete.

Phase #2B drilling at the Upper Tengkereng (UT) Prospect had originally been scheduled to run from February 2026 to June 2027. The company described the delay, related to the permit process, as a force majeure event.

As a result, total drilling since the project began remained unchanged at 31,485.75 metres, the same as at the end of the second quarter of 2026. Drilling contractor PT Arfa Explorindo Nusantara also carried out no drilling during the third quarter.

Although drilling has stopped, costs continue to accrue. GMR recorded exploration expenses of Rp14.51 billion in the third quarter of 2026 for activities in the Upper Tengkereng and Southeast Tengkereng areas.

Flash Floods and Landslides

In addition to the permitting issues, the project has also been affected by natural disasters. GMR reported force majeure conditions caused by flash floods and landslides in Aceh and surrounding areas, which disrupted access and logistics to the site.

Heavy rain also damaged or washed away two river-flow monitoring weirs. The company plans to repair them, revise their design and relocate the monitoring points.

The weirs form part of a recently launched Water Supply Scoping Study, which is assessing whether local surface water could support future mining operations.

Land access remains another unresolved issue. Mapping land ownership in Southeast Tengkereng has begun using drone imagery, but access to two planned drill sites, numbers 9 and 10, has not yet been secured. The company said land access was essential before further drilling could take place.

There are also outstanding facility-readiness issues. Replacement of the historical core boxes has stalled at 561 of 918 boxes. The reject-sample storage room is nearly full, while the core-cutting room still requires soundproofing. Both issues must be addressed before the next drilling phase.

While drilling is suspended, GMR has shifted its focus to technical studies and preparations so fieldwork can resume as soon as permits are issued.

One key step is a JORC audit. GMR has appointed SRK Consulting (Australasia) Pty Ltd to independently audit and review the data. SRK will prepare a resource estimate based on completed Phase 2 drilling data covering up to 30,000 metres. SRK’s first site visit took place in September 2026.

The company is also reassessing resource parameters at the UT Prospect, including recalculating cut-off grades using copper equivalent (CuEq) and gold equivalent (AuEq), and comparing them with calculations based on either copper or gold alone.

The latest resource estimate will use assay results up to drill hole UTD087. The previous estimate, in the first half of 2026, used data only up to UTD081.

GMR is currently compiling data from 102 surveyed drill holes totalling 42,637.93 metres, including historical data. The dataset also includes 24,843 rock assay results and 1,533 specific-gravity samples.

Pursuing a Production Operation IUP

Amid these various obstacles, GMR is targeting an accelerated extension of its Exploration IUP as well as an upgrade to a Production Operation IUP.

The only new permit recorded in the report is the second Indicative Map of the Postponement of New Permit Issuance (PIPPIB) decree, obtained on 13 May 2026.

If the permits are issued, the company is ready to resume Phase #2B drilling. Its main programme is 13,172 metres of Ore Body Knowledge drilling at UT, comprising 5,875 metres for geotechnical and hydrological work, 3,827 metres for metallurgy and 3,470 metres for resource estimation.

Other plans include 3,620 metres of geotechnical and hydrological drilling for underground mine infrastructure, 1,000 metres of exploration at Southeast Tengkereng, 250 metres of horizontal drilling at the underground mine portal, and 680 metres to support surface mine infrastructure.

The project is designed around an underground block-cave mining concept.