Impoverished villagers risks lives for gold

Impoverished villagers risks lives for gold

By Agus Maryono and Ngudi Utomo

PURWOKERTO, Central Java (JP): The hardship caused by the
economic crisis is driving thousands of poor villagers near here
to risk their lives in deep shafts in a hilly pine forest digging
for gold.

Over the past few months, the people from Gumelar subdistrict
have flocked to the isolated Kedung Buek forest where, with
traditional tools and without safety equipment, they dig shafts
up to 15 meters deep in their quest for grains of gold.

They leave home at about 5 a.m. and walk for several hours to
the isolated state forest where they spend 12 hours a day digging
and panning for gold. So enthusiastic are they that they only
emerge for lunch.

For all of the panners, the job is a total gamble in the sense
that they do not have any means to know whether they will strike
gold at all. The gold is sold to traders in Purwokerto for about
Rp 80,000 (US$7.20) per gram.

The miners usually dig in groups of six and share the profits.
It is often the case that husbands and wives belong to the same
group.

In the worst-affected spot in the pine forest, about 60 gold-
panning groups have badly damaged a 10,000-square-meter plot
without the authorities being able to stop them.

"On a lucky day, we get 10 grams of gold a day but there were
times when we get nothing for several days," says Suryat, a 33-
year-old panner, who claims he has no other alternative job and
has to spend a lot of money to hire equipment such as water pumps
and fans.

The traditional panners keep digging down until the oxygen
level is low, made evident by candles refusing to burn or when
breathing becomes difficult. This usually happens when they reach
a depth of about 15 meters.

Then they turn sideward. The tunnelers only stop when they
accidentally run into shafts that other groups are digging in the
same area.

"When this happens, the two groups will joke with each other
and laugh out loud," Suryat says.

To avoid conflict among fellow panners, there is an unwritten
rule on the direction of the tunnels. If a group starts digging a
tunnel, other groups should not go in the same direction.

Another panner, Suratno, whose wife digs in the same shaft,
attributes the fact that they are allowed to pan to the vigorous
political reforms.

"If the reforms had not taken place, the authorities would
have chased us out of this area," he says with a grin on his
face.

His wife, Sarti, adds, "We do this job for the sake of our
family and the result is not bad at all. From this black earth we
can find high-grade gold."

She recalled a day when she and her husband got almost 20
grams of gold and netted Rp 1.5 million.

The traditional panners have closed their ears to government
officials' warnings about the dangers of digging in the hilly
area, such as cave ins and lethal toxic gases. So far there have
been no incidents.

Panner Kamsito says that people will continue working despite
signs of danger, such as breathing difficulties, if they believe
they are sitting on a gold deposit.

"If that is the case, they will lower fans to supply oxygen,"
he says. "Thank God, no one has died from a lack of oxygen or
crumbling earth."

The panning site was discovered a year ago by a professional
gold miner named Aceng, 47, who hails from the West Java town of
Tasikmalaya.

Aceng, nicknamed "gold detector", found a gold deposit along
the Tajum and Arus rivers near Gumelar. He proved his finding by
demonstrating how to pan for gold in a traditional way.

He told villagers that every inch of the area contained gold.
The rush began after a resident eager to prove Aceng's claim
found grains of gold in the pine forest.

As the gold mines grow larger and involved more and more
people, the illegal activities began to pose serious
environmental hazards. The felling of pine tress and excavation
of earth are causing erosion and threatening the whole forest.

Adi Pramono, chief of the Banyumas mines and energy office,
says that the activities are illegal but that he had no authority
to crack down on them.

He says the government has issued permits for traditional
mining activities, but only to people along the Gancang river and
none for mining on land.

But the traditional panners in the pine forest claim their
activities have been endorsed by local officials.

"Some forestry officials from Banyumas and Semarang have come
here and told us we may go on as long as we take care of the
trees," says panner Suparno.

Haryono Kusumo, chief of the Western Banyumas forestry office,
said that the prospects of the area in dispute was precarious,
especially if dug to more than 13 meters.

Haryono says the traditional mining area is contained and the
digging will not be banned because the people have no other way
to survive the crisis.