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.