'Illegal miners will be tackled'

JAKARTA (JP): The South Kalimantan provincial administration has promised to tackle escalating illegal mining activities in the mining resource-rich province to provide security to investors.

Spokesman for the provincial administration Kamarul Hidayat said governor Gusti Hasan Aman ordered the province's environmental impact management agency to set up a task force on the problem.

It will include police and officials from the provincial office of the attorney general, he was quoted by Antara as saying on Tuesday.

He said the measure came in response to complaints filed by several coal investors that they suffered major losses due to illegal exploitation of coal reserves in their contract areas.

Among the complainants is PT Arutmin Satui, a subsidiary of Australian BHP, which mines in the Kintap area.

According to administrative data, illegal miners have exploited at least one million tons of coal in 14 locations in Arutmin's contract area.

Kamarul said the provincial administration was also concerned with the illegal miners' damage to the environment.

Head of the province's mining and energy office S.A Rasyid said he believed the illegal mining was backed by affluent parties because of the modern equipment used.

Illegal mining activities are on the rise across the country amid economic hardships.

Also affected are state mining companies, including coal mining company PT Bukit Asam and publicly listed general mining company PT Aneka Tambang.

Rampant illegal mining occurs at Aneka Tambang's gold mine in Pongkor, West Java, where thousands of people from Java and Sumatra have been mining for months.

The government has been unable to solve the problem. (jsk)