Illegal miners destroy reclamation area

PANGKAL PINANG, Bangka Belitung: State-owned nickel mining company PT Timah said on Wednesday that about 65 percent of its reclamation area in Bangka Belitung province had been destroyed by illegal miners, forcing a halt to the environmental program.

As of 2000, the company had rehabilitated 4,662 hectares of closed mining sites under its reclamation program in the province's two islands of Bangka and Belitung, said Timah spokesman Abrun Abubakar in the Bangka regency capital of Pangkal Pinang on Wednesday. He said total reclamation costs up to 2002 amounted to Rp 13.8 billion (US$155,000).

He added that because thousands of illegal miners had descended upon Timah's reclamation area in hopes of extracting leftover nickel deposits, Timah had to stop the program in 2001.

"If people there don't realize (the problem), the damages (to the reclamation area) will only increase. After all, the reclamation is meant for the future generation of Bangka- Belitung," Abrun said.

Illegal mining activities are a persistent problem in the mining industry amid weak law enforcement following the 1998 political reforms.

Most miners use simple tools, but many investors from Jakarta equip them with excavators and chemicals to tap deposits. They operate without licenses, often threatening existing mining operations, and have little regard for environmental protection. -- Antara