Perhapi Urges Government to Clarify the Future of the Agincourt Mine

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Indonesian Mining Professionals Association (Perhapi) hopes the government will promptly clarify the continuation of operations by PT Agincourt Resources (PT AR) in the Garoga river watershed (DAS Garoga), Batang Toru, North Sumatra. ‘There have been several people stopped, particularly from the contractor side, and many of them are Perhapi members as well. So Perhapi has a concern that there should be a government decision on the operational continuity soon,’ said Sudirman Widhy Hartono, General Chairman of PERHAPI, in a statement received in Jakarta on Friday. He said a comprehensive evaluation must be completed soon so that PT AR’s operational status is clear, including any improvements that may be required. Sudirman highlighted that the three-month pause in PT AR’s operations has sparked economic concerns, notably regarding the fate of PT AR’s workers and its partner firms, who are professionals too. The company, operating in South Tapanuli, North Sumatra, employs around three thousand people, the majority of them local workers. By December 2025, the Ministry of Environment had temporarily halted PT AR’s operations at the Martabe Gold Mine, one of Indonesia’s largest gold mines, following floods and landslides in Batang Toru. PT AR is the only mining company out of 28 whose licences were revoked by the government for alleged violations of regulations and for causing floods in Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra in late November 2025. Chairman STJ Budi Santoso of the Indonesian Association of Geologists (IAGI) regards the application of Good Mining Practice as the central factor in analysing the controversy surrounding PT Agincourt Resources’ operations in the Garoga river watershed (DAS Garoga), Batang Toru, North Sumatra. He noted that assessments by experts on technical and environmental principles have been met, and the government is expected to provide certainty regarding the company’s continuity of operation. ‘For the Agincourt area, or more generally in the DAS Garoga, I think the material is more than sufficient to explain what happened and the factors influencing it,’ said Budi.