JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Vice President Jusuf Kalla has called on law enforcement to be firm in applying the ban on the use of mercury, including in small-scale gold mining. However, the people need assistance to ensure that they can carry out environmentally safe gold mining.
According to Kalla, artisanal and small-scale mines (ASM) may no longer use mercury, while the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry was encouraging artisanal miners to carry out environmentally friendly mining techniques, such as by a using a simple trommel to process the gold.
"The government has banned it, but the violations are still happening," Kalla said in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Mercury pollution, which endangers human life, has been discovered in many areas. A number of studies have shown that mercury levels in some areas, such as Jakarta Bay, Banten Bay, Lampung Bay and Teluk Bayur, have exceeded the maximum safe level.
Mercury pollution has also been found in other places such as the Saguling Reservoir, Cirata Reservoir and the Ciliwung River, as well as the coastal areas of Surabaya, Bali, Papua and Sumatera.
The People\'s Mining Association secretary-general, Syafei Kadarusman, said the small-scale miners had waited a long time for legal certainty from the government. Legality would make it easier for the miners to carry out their activities according to regulation, he said.
"They want to invest more in installing an environmentally friendly gold refinery," he said.
So far, he said, artisanal miners continued to use more mercury because their status remained illegal. "Mercury is the cheapest method. They have a ‘hit and run’ operation. They do not stand to lose much if their mining equipment is burned by officers,” he said.
According to Syafei, because they were illegal, ASMs did not contribute to the state. "The ASMs could benefit the country if they became legal. For example, if Bank Indonesia could buy [the mines], the benefit would be extraordinary because the state will gain foreign exchange. The potential is Rp 60 trillion per year,” he said.
Cheaper
Compared to purifying gold with gravity or with cyanide, using mercury is much cheaper and faster. The first two methods require large-scale and permanent installations.
It cost only Rp 500,000 to purify gold from 8 tons of mineral deposits using mercury, while using cyanide could cost nearly Rp 4 million.
The Environmental Damage and Pollution Control director general at the environment ministry, MR Karliansyah, said it was cooperating with the police and local governments to ensure that the ban on mercury was fully implemented.
Karliansyah said that the President was not prohibiting mining, but the use of mercury at mines and in mining processes because it endangers public health.
The draft presidential regulation on Indonesia\'s National Action Plan on Mercury will regulate mercury usage in gold mining. The regulation will be issued through Law No. 11/2017, following the government’s ratification of the Minamata Convention on Sept. 13.
The head of mining at the Jambi Energy and Mineral Resources Agency, Ipan Hadi, said the provincial government had encouraged the regency government to arrange mining areas according to the spatial policy, so that it would be easier for people to apply for mining business permits. Legal mining operations would be monitored more easily and could bring in more local revenue.
Sukamenang village head Jamel Abdul Yazer, whose village is located near gold mines that still use mercury in South Sumatra, said that mines provided economic benefits for the villagers.
The money circulated in seven villages whose residents were involved in small-scale gold mining reached Rp 4.3 billion a month in 2014. However, since operations against illegal mines were intensified over the last two years, the people’s income from gold mining dropped sharply. The circulation of money in the villages was now only Rp 100 million per month.
According to Jamel, if ASMs were banned, the government needed to prepare a solution so that the ban would not affect the people’s livelihood. "If there are no jobs, I am afraid the crime rate would increase," he said.
In some areas, research has found that gold can be processed without using mercury. There are several alternatives, such as the gravity-borax method (GBM), vibration tables, and electrowinning (electroextraction), which can all be used to extract the gold without using hazardous chemicals.
BaliFocus Program manager Krishna Zaki explained that electrowinning involved the use of electrochemicals to reduce metal cations. Broadly speaking, electrowinning is the deposition of metals from ore minerals.
The acting head of the North Sumatra Energy and Mineral Agency, Zubaidi Ahmad, said ASMs could actually be legalized. However, under some conditions, such as mining alluvial sediment deposits without the use of heavy equipment, artisanal gold mining had been carried out for a long period of time without damaging the environment.
(INA/ICH/BAY/RAM/ITA/ISW/NSA)