Illegal gold prospectors risk life and limb on Pongkor

Text and photos by Mulkan Samona

BOGOR, West Java (JP): Wearing boots and carrying simple excavating implements such as chisels, hammers and crowbars, Akhyar, Dedi, Maman and Khairul, unlicensed gold prospectors hailing from Tasikmalaya, left Jangkar village for Pongkor hill in search of gold. Slowly and carefully they found their way along the slippery, winding trail leading to the hill.

Ignoring their fatigue, they walked with great care along the trail, which in some parts was very steep, descending in some spots and ascending in others. The going got tougher, with the trail becoming all the more slippery and muddier the further they trudged along. Without great care, they could have easily slipped and fallen. The trail leading to Pongkor hill was muddy from hundreds of people making their way to the hill.

After about one hour's walk, they were soaked with perspiration and their faces clearly reflected fatigue. They decided to take a brief rest at one of the many stalls in the area. In the meantime, from the opposite direction, scores of laborers were coming down the hill. Carrying slabs of rock containing gold, they hurriedly found their way along the slippery trail, stepping with great agility right and left, never once missing a step, as if their soles had glue on them. Many of them were barefoot.

People going up and down Pongkor hill has become an everyday sight. From morning through night, people traverse the trail leading to the hill.

After a few minutes' rest, Akhyar and his mates resumed their journey to the hill. They continued to picked their way along it slowly. In some parts they had to stop because their boots sank deep into mud.

They made their way along the trail for three hours, struggling through slippery mud, before finally reaching the foot of Pongkor hill. Many pits have been excavated on this sloping area by unlicensed gold diggers searching for gold.

Akhyar, his mates and many others gathered around the edges of the pits. Some were waiting for rock slabs, dug up by their mates in the pits, to be sent to the surface for collection. Others were negotiating with people controlling the pits for further excavation. A few others sat idly waiting for capital owners in need of their services to contact them.

Indeed, many people earn a living in this illegal gold mining area. Some get paid for descending into the pits to ascertain which have worthwhile gold deposits. A person doing this job must be able to determine whether there is gold in the rock and be skillful at chiseling away rock. Besides, he must also be able to breathe at a depth of scores of meters without an oxygen tank. This person determines whether the gold prospecting will be successful or not.

There are also laborers used for hauling. They are always ready with their bamboo bag-clamping tools, which are very helpful when lifting bags containing gold. They patiently wait for capital owners to call them to conduct these illegal gold mining activities.

Another group depending on this illegal gold prospecting area for a source of income are vendors. They set up tents on the slopes of the hill, which is quite dangerous due to the risk of landslides and cave-ins, in which case the tents would tumble down in a matter of seconds. One vendor was killed in a landslide a while back, and despite this the vendors returned to the site and set up shop again.

In view of the risk entailed and because of the difficulty in carrying wares along the trail to the hill, the vendors usually sell there merchandise at up to 200 percent more than the normal rate. Generally they hire laborers to haul their wares to the stalls on the hill slopes. The prices may be even higher if the stalls are attended by young, pretty ladies.

When I first saw people flocking to Pongkor hill to earn a living, I thought they were locals. However, after talking with some of them, I learned they came from various regions, such as Bogor, Sukabumi, Tasikmalaya, Garut, Banten, Cianjur, Jakarta and Lampung.

I was told that illegal gold prospecting on Pongkor hill did not begin until late 1998 when state mining company PT Aneka Tambang, which began exploration work in the area in 1992, began hiring local people to do the work. It was around this time that the people around Pongkor, mostly farmers, learned that Pongkor hill held gold deposits. Hence, illegal gold prospecting began.

Over time more and more people, including those from outside the Pongkor area, have joined the ranks of illegal gold prospectors. Now that the country is in a deep recession, resulting in a lot of layoffs, more and more people have understandably been lured to Pongkor hill to illegally excavate for gold.

As a result of this illegal activity, PT Aneka Tambang has been hampered in its exploration activities in the area. Illegal gold prospectors have dug deep holes in the work sites of PT Aneka Tambang, and its facilities and infrastructure such as pipelines, pumps, water pools, electricity cables, have frequently been damaged.

The worst incident to have happened to the state mining company occurred a few months ago when illegal prospectors, having been incited by a rumor that an illegal gold prospector had been shot dead by the firm's security guards, ran amok and destroyed the company's office. As a result, the employees of PT Aneka Tambang now feel uneasy working in the area because they fear that PT Aneka Tambang is no longer respected as the legal owner of the prospecting and mining rights in the area.

In fact, rife illegal gold prospecting in Pongkor is having a more alarming consequence, namely environmental damage. Illegal gold prospectors usually use mercury to extract gold ore. It is known that mercury, the waste of which is simply dumped into the Cikaniki and Cisadane river basins, is difficult to recycle.

Besides, the area where the illegal gold prospecting takes place is located within Mount Halimun National Park, an area where people are not allowed to enter freely and where gold prospecting and similar activities are prohibited. So, if illegal gold prospecting is allowed to go on, there will be serious damage done to the environment -- particularly to the Cikaniki and Cisadane river basins -- and to the health of the community living in this area.

It seems, therefore, that the government must, in a manner that reflects great wisdom and which is acceptable to the local community, immediately bring an end to these illegal gold prospecting activities to ensure that the area's environment is preserved.