Illegal miners destroy reclamation area

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