Government having dificulty dealing with illegal miners

Government having dificulty dealing with illegal miners

BANDUNG (JP): Minister of Mines and Energy Kuntoro
Mangkusubroto admitted on Friday that the government was having
difficulty in dealing with rampant illegal mining throughout the
country.

He said the government had been dealing with the problem by
organizing local miners into cooperatives and giving technical
training to small-scale miners.

"The ministry has run a pilot project for small mining
cooperatives, but we found the problem was very complex," Kuntoro
said in commenting on a mudslide which killed 26 illegal gold
miners in Cipongkor, West Java, on Wednesday.

He said poverty was one of the main causes of mushrooming
illegal gold and coal mining over the last two years when the
country first became mired in the economic crisis, and any
solution to the problem should be based on an integrated program.

"Besides, there were financial backers who took advantage of
poor people, financing their illegal mining operations. But it
was the financiers who took most of the benefits," Kuntoro said.

Kuntoro said that small-scale mining endangered not only the
miners themselves but also the environment and other people,
especially when mercury was used to assay gold.

"Metal waste dumped in the Kahayan and Barito rivers, Central
Kalimantan, reaches 100 metric tons per year. Although the real
damage would not become obvious until after 10 to 15 years, its
impact would be as devastating as the Minamata tragedy," Kuntoro
warned, referring to the Minamata Coast tragedy in Japan where
toxic contaminated fish caused death and physical defects.

"The problem has to be handled seriously. We don't want to
lose a generation," he said. (43)