INFORMAL GOLD MINING IN BAYAH BEACH, BANTEN, INDONESIA

A Report Prepared for

‘GOING FOR GOLD: SAFE LIVELIHOODS FOR INFORMAL GOLD MINERS IN SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA

ARC Linkage Project

led by Dr Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt and Dr Keith Barney

June 2015, Canberra: The Australian National University

by:

Dr Rini Soemarwoto

2

Contact Details Dr Rini Soemarwoto University, Bandung Indonesia Contact: rini soemarwoto <rinisoemarwoto@btinternet.com> Dr Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt Senior Fellow Resources, Environment and Development Group Crawford School of Public Policy The Australian National University ACTON, ACT 2602, Australia Telephone: +61409158145 Email: Kuntala.Lahiri-Dutt@anu.edu.au Website: www.asmasiapacific.org https://crawford.anu.edu.au/people/academic/kuntala-lahiri-dutt Dr Keith Barney Lecturer Resources, Environment & Development Group Crawford School of Public Policy The Australian National University ACTON, ACT 2602, Australia Telephone: +61 2 6125 4957 Email: keith.barney@anu.edu.au Website: www.asmasiapacific.org https://crawford.anu.edu.au/people/academic/keith-barney

3

CONTENTS

I. Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................ 4

II. Methods .......................................................................................................................................................................... 4

III. Bayah beach gold extraction ............................................................................................................................ 5

A. The place ................................................................................................................................................................... 5

b. The social context.................................................................................................................................................. 7

c. The technology ....................................................................................................................................................... 9

d. The organization of production ................................................................................................................... 11

e. Capturing value in gold production and the household economic cycle ................................... 13

III. Discussion ................................................................................................................................................................... 15

IV. Toward a better management of Bayah beach miners ........................................................................... 17

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................................................................. 18

REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................................................ 19

4

I. INTRODUCTION

Informal gold mines can be found in many places around the world, including in China (Gunson and

Yue 2001), India (Chakravorty 2001), Africa (de Koning 2009) and Latin America (Godoy 1990;

Roopnarine 2006). Informal gold mine workers are often very mobile (Grätz, 2009). The technology,

regulation and management of these practices have raised a number of concerns regarding

potentially significant and negative implications for local communities, the health of workers, and

environmental wellbeing of these areas (Veiga et al 2014; Dondeyne and Ndunguru 2014; Spiegel

2011; Zhang 2010; Shandro 2009; Grätz 2009; Hilson and Pardie 2006; Kuntala 2004; Ballard

2003). This case study presents a detailed and ethnographic account of such mining in the Bayah

beach in Java, Indonesia.

In Bayah, many miners seem to move continuously from one place to another following the latest

news and updates on gold sites. For example, some local Javanese miners and research informants

whom I have known for the past ten years have transitioned to mining out of farming. They have

been engaged in mining for the past five years, and within the last three years have searched for gold

in north Aceh, in the province of Sumatera, in central Sulawesi, and west of Sumbawa. It seems that

almost small-scale gold mines, at least miners in Bayah, have high mobility. The informal

conversations between miners within this area reveal their experiences of seeking gold in different

places including the eastern part of Indonesia, such as Papua and Maluku. Many miners in Bayah will

move in accordance to the spread of news regarding potential gold sites. However, some miners do

not accept the requirements for such forms of high mobility and therefore may decide to stay at one

place. This includes the group of miners located on the small-scale alluvial mining site in Bayah beach.

The objective of this case study is to analyze informal mining as it is conducted by several groups of

miners that chose to remain at the Bayah beach small-scale alluvial gold mining site. Located on the

west side of the southern region of Java, the sites have largely been abandoned by the majority due

to a fall in its resource competencies, although some miners at this location continue to search for

gold.

II. METHODS

Social analysis of the gold miners at Bayah beach was conducted based upon field interviews and

participant observation at Bayah beach. Data was gathered from four different groups, comprised of:

a wife and husband production group; three unmarried male individual miners; a single male

individual who were also farmer, and a last group of two male individual miners. Other important

actors in this locale, such as two local government officials, three fishermen, one farmer, and one

5

private and corporate representative were also interviewed. The social background and general

condition of miners within this region – mostly hard rock miners - were retrieved from their past

experiences and from qualitative interviews on the social histories of miners originating from this

region, whom I met at the stalls or referred to as “warungs” in Indonesian. These miners were

selected due to their familiarity with the local mining history in this region.

III. BAYAH BEACH GOLD EXTRACTION

A. THE PLACE

Bayah beach is located in Cibeber sub-district, Lebak regency, province Banten, approximately 145km

from the capital city of Jakarta (Figure 1). The alluvial mining site is at a distance of 1.6 km from the

regional city of Bayah, upon the beach face that can easily be seen and reached from the main road.

The beach itself is characterized by narrow face with flat to middle slopes.

The geological research in Bayah waters funded by the Research and Development Center for Marine

Geology (Pusat Penelitian dan Pengembangan Geologi Kelautan) reveals that the highest gold content

is at the beach face of Bayah (Kamiludin, 2009). By using amalgamation technique this place produces

gold (Au) bullion at the 6-71 parts per billion (ppb) in different sizes, forms and fineness of gold

placer. Placer deposit can be found in a form of fine specks, lumps and nuggets, either in rocks or

alluvial deposit (Jensen and Bateman, 1981).

Figure 1: Location of Bayah

6

Bayah beach sand is composed of resen sediment with lower resilience, whilst dominated by marin

process. The beach sand is composed of black and brown-yellow-whitish colored sands.The blackish

color is associated with magnetic volcanic klastika while the brown-yellow-whitish is correlated with

course sand and coral reef of which is rich in kuarsa and fractional shell biogenic.

Historically, since the late 1960s, alluvial gold were mined from riverbeds along the Cimadur and

Cidikit rivers, the estuaries and deltas and the beach. However since the beginning of the dry season

in 2013, none of the gold miners have been able to access these rivers, as conflicts between miners

and farmers became critical. Such conflicts were resolved through mediation by the head of neighbor

association. However in some cases, it has escalated until the point of police and higher-level

government officers’ involvement. Farmers who owned paddy fields along these rivers strongly

resisted against other locals undertaking mining activities. Mining practices have damaged the ridge

of rice field causing water from rivers to uncontrollably flow into nearby fields. Since drainage is an

important part of wet rice agriculture water management, the uncontrollable water volume spoils

paddy. In addition to wet rice complications, past reports indicated several incidences of fish

mortality in the river (Kabar Banten 2012; Polreslebak 2014).Informant farmers, who gather fish from

the river, said that the water at that time was very turbid. These conflicts are the reasons why miners

have recently moved to the beach face of Bayah. The miners argue that their practice is not

necessarily disrupting the rice field or killing fish in the rivers. They are hoping that in the future they

will be allowed to search gold from the rivers again.

The practice of alluvial gold mining in Bayah beach has its origin in Warung village. Several informant

miners claim Karsa, who lives in Warungas the one who pioneered gold mining. Karsa is now 70 years

old and many generations of his ancestors have lived in Bayah. He worked at PT Aneka Tambang, a

state-owned gold mining company as a security guard and retired in 1967 and now is currently

residing in Warung. The Warung village traversed stream Cimadur and Cidikit Rivers that have the

same watershed with gold mining site of the company. These two rivers until recently were the

location of an informal gold mine.

This is Karsa’s story. One day, in his days of retirement, Karsa walked on the riverbed of Cimadur and

wondered about the mud, which was blackish in color but much thicker than the other mud. He

suspected that there was gold in the midst of the mud as it was drifted by current from upstream

where the Antam gold company operates. Back then he lacked the knowledge to separate grits

contained gold from other materials, and therefore used anything lying around. He found that a bath

towel might do. Whilst the towel was laid at a steepness of 40 degrees, he placed the mud on the

towel surface and doused it with water. The pores of towel turned out caught grits containing gold

and released other materials. He collected gold grits and sifter them with mercury in a pan in the

same way as he learned from the gold mining company. During his first years searching for gold, he

7

was supported by Badan Usaha Unit Desa1, a government institution for assisting farmers - by giving

him financial assistance for purchasing mercury and even his gold. At that time gold was valued at

around $0.10 per gram.2 He said that until recently people often sought gold from the rivers, in the

same manner as Karsa does, and there were no restrictions on doing so.

The early1980s was the start of Bayah to thrive as a site of informal gold mining. The Bayah area,

including Cimadur and Cidikit rivers, its estuary, and along beaches, were filled with hundreds of

miners, coming from districts and towns across Banten and West Java provinces, such as Jampang,

Subang, Garut and Tasikmalaya. From 1997 onwards, the number of gold miners increased rapidly

throughout the Bayah region, including the hard rock. The soar of informal gold miningalso took place

nationally. A political transition into the reformation era in 1998brought the nation to a situation of

instability and uncertainty. Monetary crisis, which started earlier in 1997 led to fluctuation of basic

needs price, lasting for about 2 years. At that time the exchange rate of rupiah to USD jumped

approximately 8 times. During the crises, people were compelled to enter the state-owned lands,

including protected forests. Informal gold miners were amongst those who entered the protected

forests. In Bayah area, most informal miners focused on mining gold from hard rock by digging

tunnels to the forest, but many miners also remained in the beach.

During my three visits to Bayah, between June and September 2014, each for a period of one week,

the number of mining production group per day varied considerably. On an average, there were at

least 15 informal gold mining groups operating per day, out of which 9 were continuously present. Six

of those nine groups were from Warung and the 3 others from Kampung 1 and Kampung 2.

B. THE SOCIAL CONTEXT

The city of Bayah is quite small although relatively well developed. Hotels, banks and ATM’s are easily

found. Internet stalls, small shops, minimarts, and importantly, gold shops, are prominent commercial

features of the city.

Traditionally, ethnic Sundanese communities have inhabited the Bayah region. The area is closely

associated with the life of the Baduy and the Kasepuhan, both are references of traditional Sundanese

ethnic groups who live up in the mountain of Kendeng and Halimun, behind the city of Bayah. The

Baduy and the Kasepuhan are until now associated with upland swidden agricultural livelihoods, and

1 Now known as Village Unit Cooperatives (Koperasi Unit Desa).

2In between 1966 – 1970, the exchange rate of USD to Rupiah is 250

8

their various rituals accompanying the practice (Geise, 1952; Garna, 1988; Kusnaka, 1992;

Soemarwoto, 2004).

In spite of its predominant agriculture-dependent lives, the city of Bayah has a long history of

supporting gold mining activities. This includes the first gold mining activities in Indonesia formally

run by the state. The gold mine is located at a distance of approximately 30 km north of the city of

Bayah, called after the name of the area, Cikotok. The Cikotok was founded in 1839 and exploited in

1936 by a Dutch company and in 1942 by Japan. In 1954 the Indonesian government continued to

extract gold from the Cikotok site, which was managed by a firm called NV Cikotok Gold Mine

(Tambang Emas Cikotok), under the Management of NV Mining Development Company (Perusahaan

Pembangunan Pertambangan) – the forerunner of the only current state-owned metallic minerals

company PT. Aneka Tambang (Antam). The Antam closed down their production in Cikotok in 2011

and now is concentrated in Pongkor, which had started their production in 1994. The Pongkor is

located up within the mountains at a distance of approximately 40 km, 177 km by car. Antam is now

only guarding Cikotok, and cooperating with local government, to create a tourist destination. The

site still contains several gold veins and now is being extracted by informal miners. Almost all of the

Bayah area, including Cikotok, provides gold in the form of veins cemented to hard rock. These gold

veins are usually extracted from watershed headwaters. Some of the hard rock gold mine activity is

easily seen from the road, as they clear the trees and create temporary residency. The Cimadur and

Cidikit rivers and their estuaries are the only available alluvial gold mining in the area.

The long history of mining activity at Bayah does not mean that all its people have switched to gold

mining activities. The landscape reveals the livelihood of a population still linked to traditional

agricultural practices. The land on the north to the Bayah beach is characterized by a hilly and

mountainous landscape with rice agriculture, gardens, and agro-forestry of many kinds of plants and

woody trees. There are other sorts of livelihoods in Bayah as well, namely fishermen, traders,

laborers, and civil servants at the government offices, police and military. Since 2012 the life of the

people in Bayah town has gone through rapid changes due to the development of a large cement

factory including its corresponding seaport, which will also be exporting coal. Within the last 2 years,

coal has become a large income for the local people. The factory gives employment opportunities for

local people, but the minimum requirements of education can also limit access for Bayah townsfolk. It

seems that not many local people successfully work in the factory. The seaport is now at the stage of

dredging the beach. The factory and seaport are approximately 2 kilometers away from the location

of the Bayah beach, where the alluvial gold miners ply their trade.

Not many people in surrounding areas pay attention to the existence of Bayah beach alluvial gold

mining. Some people whom I crossed at shops and stalls have little knowledge about the Bayah beach

site or its miners. The local government officers are also not really interested to talk about it. The

9

miners’ relations with the government authorities are very limited. In order to acquire a permit the

miners only require building a relation with the head of neighbour association (Rukun Tetangga).

However, since the space taken by miners is at the same place as fishermen, the head of the

Fisherman’s Association for South West Java (Persatuan Nelayan Pantai Selatan) takes an interest in

the miners. They charge the miners a sum of money as a contribution for beach management.

C. THE TECHNOLOGY

Gold seeking in Bayah beach involves such activities referred to as working on small panning

(ngadeplang), working on bath towel or carpet (nganduk), and working on large panning (ngadulang).

All these processes are called together as working on bath towel (nganduk) by miners.

The initial step in order to obtain gold is to ask the deity who owns gold to release part of her gold to

human. In order to convey gold request, miners conduct a salametan ritual guided by shaman. This

ritual comprises of giving offerings to the deity including 100 skewers, bitter coffee, cigars, and

chicken or considered better, a cow. These offerings are considered to be equivalent to the amount of

gold (cf. Soemarwoto and Ellen 2010). The greater and better the offering, the more gold will be

released. However, two to three years ago, the offerings have been very limited and even to an

extent where in the past year there was none. Costs were considered too high and thus not

affordable by miners. Following the lack of capital, many miners moved from alluvial to hard rock gold

mining. The movements have increased significantly during the past three years. Some of them

moved to surrounding areas of Bayah, such as Cidikit, Cisiih, Gunung Buleud, and Cibaliung, but some

were as far as other islands of Indonesia, including Maluku dan Sumatera. The miners’ movement

mostly depended on how much money or capital they had earned themselves or had borrowed from

moneylenders.

The work of Bayah beach mining follows the steps as described below:

Figure 2: Dousing sand with water

10

Determine the location of gold sands (ngadeplang). By rocking sands in half watered small panning,

miners are able to see a glare of gold in order to determine the right location in beach.

1. Douse sands with water (Figure 2). By dousing water over the sands that are placed in a slope of

about 40 degrees using the appliance (parudan), with its surface covered by carpet, miners are

able to separate gold sands from other unwanted materials. The carpet catches gold sands due

to its higher density.

2. Wash the carpet (nganduk) (Figure 3). By lifting and drowning the carpet in water buckets,

miners are able to separate gold sands from other materials. The gold sands are immersed and

stay at the bottom of the bucket. The gold sands are then moved to a dry bucket.

3. Stir the gold sands with mercury. By mixing the gold sands in the bucket with mercury (hg) for

approximately half an hour, miners are able to spread mercury evenly over the gold sands.

4. Pan mixed mercury gold sands (ngadulang). By panning mixed mercury gold sands miners are

able to make gold amalgam.

5. Squeeze gold amalgamation. By squeezing gold amalgam inside porous fabric, miners are able to

release mercury and leave the pressed gold amalgam behind. The gold amalgam is collected and

is ready for trade, and the mercury is kept for subsequent gold extraction.

Figure 3: Nganduk

11

The gold amalgams are then sold to the shops. The miners do not burn the gold amalgam themselves;

it is the shop that does this.

D. THE ORGANIZATION OF PRODUCTION

At Bayah, a production group consists of 2 to 3 individuals. Nine groups continuously seek gold from

the Bayah beach. Out of these nine groups, six are from Warung village that consist of married family

members, whilst three are from Kampung 1 and Kampung 2 that comprise of a single individual, two

single males, and three single males respectively. Four out of six groups from Warung have the same

father, who is the original gold miner from the area, Karsa.

Figure 5: Gold amalgam

Figure 4: Squeezing gold amalgamation

12

In general, daily mining starts at 05.30 and finishes at 14.00, or approximately 8.5 hours/day minus

the time for lunch. In 8.5 hours, miners are able to complete 2 to 3 cycles of the six-step mining

process, as described above. However, at times, the duration of work depends on the production of

gold in a day. The goal is to obtain the ‘usual’ amount of amalgam gold, which is 0.5 grams in a day

per production team. Sometimes the miners may extract 0.5 grams all at once, and then take the

opportunity to stop work for the day. In other cases, when they don’t reach the targeted amount,

they work until sunset. During dry season, from June to September, gold production is very low, so

miners often work until 17.00.

Basically, there is little significance of gender division in mining work. Men and women are both able

to do the work – only gold inspection and selling seem confined to men. However, men’s and

women’s work in mining can be differentiated in terms of time and other labour inputs. In one of the

studied groups, comprised of a husband and wife, the husband arrives at the beach site first at 5.30

am, followed by his wife at 07.00. The husband would bring gasoline for the operation of the water

pump, and would prepare the unit at the site. It is the duty of the wife to do house chores such as

cleaning, cooking and taking care of the children, so the wife arrives later and bring food for lunch.

But such scenario is not prevalent across every group. A different arrangement exists amongst the 4

production groups of husband and wife from the Karsa family. As they belong to an extended family

from the same village, women from each household alternately do the house chores for their

extended family. This woman or wife, who stays at the village, pools the work of cooking and taking

care of children in her house. The miners reason that through this arrangement, women have more

time available for work at the gold site. This arrangement seems to efficiently share the risk of

households’ burden to larger families. However, as they leave the house without cooking food, these

men and women eat whatever food they find on site, for example very small fish landed by fishermen

not even worth selling in the market. Those fish are cleaned and cooked just by grilling them over fire.

However at the time of west monsoon with no fishermen at sea, food must be brought from home.

During this period, at the end of the day, women usually go home before the men. Women usually

carry home the pan, whilst men, the shovel, carpet, buckets, and importantly mercury. Mercury is

considered the most important asset than other materials and tools. Gasoline is very easy to obtain

compared to mercury that needs to be ordered at the gold shop, taking between two to three days to

process. Men keep the gold amalgam and go to the gold shops for selling before going home. The

men arrange materials which are financially important: gold amalgam and mercury.

Groups of individuals and youths are generally more flexible with regards to the routines and duration

of work. It is more convenient for them, as they are not married and able to work for longer hours. A

group of only single individual workers is able to do both farm work and mining. For example, one

13

group of 3 youths combines mine work with unskilled laborers such as building construction and

fishing by the river.

E. CAPTURING VALUE IN GOLD PRODUCTION AND THE HOUSEHOLD

ECONOMIC CYCLE

The calculations below are intended to provide an estimation of the Bayah Beach miners’ economic

cycle and should be interpreted as indicative only. There are a number of reasons why it is difficult to

estimate miner’s income. Firtly, it is difficult to determine the monthly economic cycle of gold miners

in Bayah beach, since they include their family supplies and needs per day instead of per month.

Secondly, practices of borrowing and lending amongst miners and their acquaintances can be of high

intensity and frequency. Borrowing of money may occur several times in a day, and money may be

returned within a day. Thirdly, debt payments can be repaid through rice, sugar, or cooking oil, or by

providing a service, such as cleaning a house or helping with cooking.

It should be noted that research was conducted between June and September when the seawaves

and winds were low. According to the miners, this particular time of year yields low amounts of gold.

The gold production per day was based on the category of ‘more than usual’, ‘usually’, and ‘less than

usual’ instead of average. The ‘usual’ category was about 0.5 grams of gold amalgam per day.

Here is the calculation based on information provided by miners. One group of miners produced a

‘usual’ gold amalgam of 0.5grams per day, which was valued at $12.27 per 0.5grams.3 In terms of

operational costs, mercury (hg) could have been purchased at a cost of $15.45 per 100 grams per 3

weeks, and gasoline at $1.81 per day. Thus the operational costs of mercury and gasoline per day

were estimated at $2.55.

Other materials needed for gold production were water pump, pipes, bucket, panning, hoe and

shovel. None of the nine studied miner groups were self-sufficient. Three family miner groups from

the Warung village pay $0.6 per day over three years, for the water pump installment. The payment

was accumulated to $648 for the original price of water pump $272.72. One of the head of the family

miner groups was a 39-year old, who graduated from the primary school (Sekolah Dasar, SD) and

started mining at the age of 10, following his father Karsa and therefore has no other work

experience. A water source for processing was also required and was rented out by other miners or

miner’s patrons. There were two small ponds at measuring approximately 300-400 m2 each at Bayah

beach that were used as source of water. One of the ponds was owned by a group of two individual

3Since the end of 2012 the exchange rate of rupiah to other currencies increased rapidly from 9,600

to 11,500 at the time of research.

14

miners, headed by a 30-year informant. This group rents out their water pump and pond to other

groups at a rate of $1.81 per day. One infomant of this group, who is now 25 years old and still

unmarried, receives capital from his patron in order to buy water pump and pipes and to pay the

labour for digging new group’s pond. The group had to pay back $1.81 per day over two years. Below

is a summary of groups’ income (Table 1):

Table 1. Cost of gold production for each group of miners per day

Cost ($) Gasoline

and mercury

Water pump

Pond Water pump

and pond Total cost ($)

Group

1 3 groups of families

2.55 0.6 1.35 4.50

2 3 groups of families 2.55 1.81 4.36

3 1 group with the possession of pond (two individual males)

2.55 1.81 (but they receive 2

x 1.81 from two other

groups)

0.73

4 2 groups consisting of single/three males

2.55 1.81 4.36

By calculation, the net income of groups per day will be as below (table 2):

Table 2. Net income of each group per day

Gold amalgam gross income

($)

Gold production cost ($)

Net income

($)

1 3 groups of families 12.27 4.50 7.77

2 3 groups of families 12.27 4.36 7.91

3 1 group with the possession of pond (two males)

12.27 0.73 11.54

4 2 groups consisted of single/three males

12.27 4.36 7.91

Table 2 shows that the overall value of the gold, captured by miners, is between 94% -63%. It is at

least more than 50% and therefore considered quite high.

A household with two or three children required money at approximately $4.55 per day for kerosene,

gasoline, cooking oil, rice, dishes, food for children at school, and transportation. Other needs,

including clothing and housing necessaries, were fullfilled only if there was extra. All 6 family miner

groups had the daily net income of above $4.55, and thus there were no significant financial

difficulties for families to meet their daily needs as long as gold was regularly available and there were

no household disruptions. ‘Leisure’ money was approximated at $3.22 – $6.99 per day.

15

In groups of two or three individuals coming from different families, the earnings were divided

amongst them. Thus each person received between $2.63 – $7.91 per day.

Miners claimed during times of limited gold availability, their lives might become more difficult

(tarahal). There were a few other jobs, which could provide alternative incomes. For example a man

could get a job as motorbike driver (tukang ojeg), a construction laborer, or try to find other odd jobs

(kerja serabutan). They might get $2.72 - $3.63 per day for this type of work. This amount of money

was lower than the income from seeking gold and would not be enough for household costs. During

these harder times, they often had to borrow money from informal moneylenders (bank keliling or

rentenir) of course with much higher interest rates compared to standard banks. They also had

borrowed some goods from small shops (warung) or from their neighbours. In a situation where there

was an inability to paydebts, it was sometimes necessary to re-release goods previously purchased by

installments. This was often the case even when significant amounts of money had been paid towards

the installments.

Informants believed that the availability of gold was strongly associated with the season. The west

moonson, that was between December to March,which was accompanied by high seawaves and

strong wind could provide miners a great amount of gold. The moonson would bring higher chances

of attaining gold ‘more than usual’, compared to the eastern monsoon. Since hard times came in a

continous cycle with the moonsons, so did the ownership of goods. At one time they might be able to

make payments on a loan for a motorcycle but at a different period they might need to re-release it

to secure capital. It was very rare that the process of acquiring ownership over significant assets could

be completed. There was one example of a family miner losing their motorcycle as they were unable

to pay back debts.

III. DISCUSSION

At the time of research, which was conducted during dry season, each household earned about $7.77

– $11.54 per day, which exceeded the daily expenses of $4.55. Thus,even though miners were in a

situation of hard times, their daily earnings were sufficient for meeting basic household needs.

However, this economic sufficiency, based upon paper calculationis, did not bear out in real life. It

seems that the cycle of money could not meet their needs. The miners generally did not open up to

outsiders regarding the amount of debts they had. The above economic calculations are only related

to the sufficiency of the most basic needs, and may not reflect other social costs (e.g. medical care,

house maintenance, weddings, funerals, emergencies, and importantly debts). People need more

than the basics of just food but require other consumer and necessary goods, such as motorbike for

16

transportation. Moneylenders and patrons can become an immediate resource of emergency funds,

but cause miners to be entangled in debt relations. Furthermore, within the means of psychology,

gold mine can be referred to as a type of “gambling” as miners always feel that large gold nuggets can

be discovered, although this is usually the opposite. This is similar to a person becoming addicted to

gambling. As soon as miners have extra money, they can make gambling bets, or take risks by putting

a first payment for consumer goods assuming that extra money would soon be available with the

discovery of large gold nuggets. Such perception exists in most miners. Five years ago, one of the

miner groups obtained a gold nugget priced at $909, although none have been discovered thus far.

This is the main reason miners go into debt.

This was the case for one wife informant group. The concept of ‘sufficiency’ needs to be further

examined as other factors may come into play. As described, wives seek gold depending upon her

extended family schedule. Wives conducting mining activities would be able to accumulate earnings

for up to three days, as her domestic burden is taken by another household. However, when it is her

turn to take care of the other households of her extended family, she would spend a similar amount

as she received from mining. Therefore, the money received actually would be the same. Beyond this,

she consistently believes that the accumulated money over three consecutive days of seeking gold

would give her opportunities to put installment payments towards purchasing goods. In her case, the

money earned from the last three days could pay for the 2nd out of 36 installments for a motorcycle.

The miners at Bayah beach were socially poor and have little presence in the mind of others. They

attracted very little attention from other parties and a few people were interested and liked to talk

about their lives and activities. Among the structure of general small-scale gold mine, the Bayah

beach miners considered themselves ‘lower’, compared to other miners in the same region of West

Java, who largely mined from hard rock by digging tunnels (see Soemarwoto and Ellen, 2010) and who

were recognized to be braver, richer and more fortunate. It is generally known that no financiers

were willing to lend some money to beach miners due to less gold was produced. They were also

considered to be miners whom did not think with their brains (teu mikir). There was a visible

hierarchy amongst miners, with hard rock miners being the most respected and best compensated.

Several individuals in Bayah whom we interviewed in small shops consider small-scale gold miners as

people with unapproved social behaviour (teu alus) due to their way of life in camps. Such camps

were commonly accompanied by the developments of stalls, providing a variety of ‘entertainment’ of

which were not agreed upon by the general public, such as drinking, and in many larger sites,

prostitution.

The allocation of permits for exploiting mineral resources is managed by the Ministry of Energy and

Mineral Resources, Directorate Generale of Mineral and Coal (Minerba), and referred toas the permit

for peoples mining (Izin Pertambangan Rakyat). Miners are regulated according to the Indonesian

17

Minerba legislation number 4 year 2009. The legislation states that mineral and coal are unrenewable

energies depicting country wealth and are controlled by the state and should be used for the welfare

of its people. Referring to this legislation, obtaining a permit requires assessment and eligibility and is

issued by the bupati (head of regency) or city major.

However, the work of small-scale miners had often been permissioned by agencies other than

Minerba. These permits could be allocated by the police, military, government employees, or

powerful patrons in the areas. Legally, these agencies did not have authority for managing the

exploitation of minerals, although at the local level they had roles as they were locally powerful actors

who could decide many things within the society. The miners at Bayah beach had said that they could

continue to work on seeking gold because of the acknowledgement of the head of neighbour

association. No actions were or are being taken by the government regarding this matter.

Consequently, the government’s lack of action was perceived by the miners as a sign of approval.

IV. TOWARD A BETTER MANAGEMENT OF BAYAH BEACH MINERS

The Bayah case shows that it is important to analyse informal gold miners in their social and historical

contexts. In this case, Bayah beach miners should not only be discussed in terms of income and

expenses but also in other types of hazards they may encounter. Firstly, mercury, a necessity to

produce almagamate gold, is considerably harmful to human health and environment and local

miners are subjeted to daily skin contact.

Secondly, miners are vulnerable to financial exploitation. The miners inability to be self sufficient are

used as an advantage by other parties seeking income, such as the moneylenders.

Thridly, beach miners have to deal with social solicitude from a wider social environment. In Bayah

social communities, beach miners are amongst the lowest class in communities. Unfortunately, the

lower social status is reinforced in two ways: by people who look down upon them and by themselves

who believe they are of lower status.

The practice of gold mining in Bayah beach can not be stopped, but it needs to be regulated. It might

be helpful to understand that:

1. To effectively manage Bayah beach informal mining, it is important to obtain and have good

and accurate information regarding the miners, and not to make assumptions or assign negative

labels before understanding them. This is what Goffman (1963) refers to as a stigma; an inaccurate

label that can bring about negative consequences for the vulnerable parties.

2. To efectively regulate Bayah beach miners, it is necessary to consider the limited choices

they have in terms of livelihood. Before prohibiting the practice of small-scale mining, the

18

government are encouraged to provide realistic alternatives. These alternatives should allow miners

to think not only about their immediate risk – such as how to get food and pay debt – but also to

strategically plan in the long run, which in the end may release them from mining.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This project has been made possible by the support of the Australian Research Council Linkage

Project. This report was written for the Australian National University represented by the Crawford

School of Public Policy for the ‘Going for Gold: Safe Livelihoods for Informal Miners in South and

Southeast Asia’ project. Special thanks to the people of Bayah who were willing to share their past

experiences and ideas, as without their help I would not be able to write this report. I would also like

to thank two of my research assistants Yudi Barkah and Deni Sambas, who were very patient in

accommodating to the research schedule. Last but not least, thanks to Bayu Soemarwoto for joining

at the research sites.

19

REFERENCES

Ballard, Chris; G. Banks. 2003. Resource wars: The anthropology of mining. Annual Review of

Anthropology (32): 287-313

Chakravorty, S.L. 2001. Artisanal and small-scale mining in India. Mining Minerals and Sustainable

Development Paper No. 78. London: International Institute for Environment and Development

De Koning. 2009. Artisanal mining and post-conflict reconstruction in the Democratic Republic of the

Congo. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Background Paper

Dondeyne, Stefaan; E. Ndunguru. 2014. Artisanal gold mining and rural development policies in

Mozambique: Perspectives for the future. Futures (in press).

Geise, Nicolaas Johannes Cornelis, 1952, Badujs en Moslims in Lebak Parahiang, Zuid-Banten, Leiden:

De Jong (Ph.D thesis, Leiden University)

Godoy, Ricardo, A. 1990. Mining and agriculture in Highland Bolivia: Ecology, History, and Commerce

among the Jukumanis. Tucson: University of Arizona Press

Goffman, E. 1963. Stigma. London: Penguin

Grätz, Tilo. 2009. Moralities, risk and rules in West African artisanal gold minig communities: A case

study of Northern Benin. Resources Policy 34:12-17

Gunson, A.J. and Yue Jian. 2001. Artisanal mining in the people’s Republic of China. Mining, Minerals

and Sustainable Development Paper No. 74. London: International Institute for Environment and

Development

Hilson, G; S. Pardie. 2006. Mercury: An agent of poverty in Ghana’s small-scale gold-mining sector?

Resources Policy 31: 106-116

Jensen, M.L and A.M. Bateman. 1981. Economic mineral deposits, Oxford: John Wiley & Sons Inc

Judistira Kartiwan Garna, 1988, Tangtu telu jaro tujuh: Kajian structural masyarakat Baduy di Banten

Selatan, Jawa Barat, Indonesia (Ph.D thesis, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi

Kabar Banten online 12 August 2012, Tragedi Buyat bisa terjadi di Lebak Selatan Bantenwww.kabar-

banten.com/news/detail/6077 ; accessed 6 December 2014

20

Kamiludin; U, Y. Darlan and M. Surachman. 2009. Kandungan konsentrat emas placer di perairan

Bayah Kabupaten Lebak, www.mgi.esdm.go.id/content/kandungan-konsentrat-emas-placer-di-

perairan-bayah-kabupaten-lebak, accessed 12 May 2014

Kuntala, L. 2004. Informality in mineral resource management in Asia: raising questions relating to

community economies and sustainable development. Natural Resources Forum 28:123-132

Kusnaka Adimihardja, 1992, Kasepuhan yang tumbuh di atas yang luruh: pengelolaan lingkungan

secara tradisional di kawasan Gunung Halimun Jawa Barat, Bandung: Tarsito

Polres Lebak online 14 April 2014. Pencemaran limbah tambang emas dikeluhkan

www.polreslebak.com ; accessed 6 December 2014

Roopnarine, Lomarsh. 2006. Small-scale gold mining and environmental policy challenges in Guyana:

protection or pollution. Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribberian Studies 31(61):115-129

Shandro, Janis A; Marcello M. Veiga; Rebecca Chouinard. 2009. Reducing mercury pollution from

artisanal gold mining in Munhena, Mozambique. Journal of Cleaner Production 17: 525-535

Spiegel, Samuel, J. 2012. Governance institutions, resource rights regimes, and the informal mining

sector: Regulatory complexities in Indonesia. World Development 40(1): 189-205

Soemarwoto, R. 2004. Changing perceptions of nature: The Kasepuhan case. Kent: Ph.D thesis,

University of Kent

Soemarwoto, R; R. Ellen. 2010. Gold mining and changing perception of risk in West Java. Human

Organization 69 (3): 233-241

Veiga, Marcello M.; Angeloci-Santos, Gustavo; Meech, John A. 2014. Review of barriers to reduce

mercury use in artisanal gold mining.The Extractive Industries and Society 1 (2) (Article in press).

Zhang, Hua;Feng, Xinbin;Larssen, Thorjørn;Qiu, Guangle;Vogt, Rolf D. 2010.

In inland China, rice, rather than fish, is the major pathway for methylmercury exposure.

Environmental Health Perspectives 118 (9):1183-1188.