W

ith a month to go before gold mine company PT Agincourt Resources starts production on a 1,639 square-kilometer plot of land in South Tapanuli regency, North Sumatra, mass protests have emerged.

On Tuesday, thousands of people from six subdistricts in Batangtoru district, South Tapanuli, burned down a car and 17 High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) pipes belonging to the company in protest against alleged waste disposal into the Batangtoru River.

No fatalities were reported during the incident but the company, which started construction activities in 2008, claimed to have suffered from losses of up to hundreds of millions of rupiah due to the incident.

“This is the first time that the masses have committed such acts against our company. Previously we could always settle disputes. Now it’s difficult to settle because allegedly, there were provocateurs,” PT Agincourt Resources communication manager Katarina Hardono told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Katarina expressed regret over the incident and asked the police to thoroughly investigate the case and find the perpetrators.

According to Katarina, the incident was triggered by people’s suspicions that the company had disposed of the waste into the river.

The people, she said, were suspicious that water that the company was pumping into the river was dirty, while in fact it was remnant water that had been processed to meet with standards as stipulated in Environment Ministerial Decree No 202/2004 on Waste Water for Gold and Copper Mining Activities.

Asked whether the mass protest might have a business interest behind it, Katarina said that she would not speculate on the matter. She questioned that the incident occurred at a time when the company was about to start production.

“This will be the first gold mining production activity ever in North Sumatra,” said Katarina, adding that the foreign investment company was based in Hong Kong.

Muara Hutaraja subdistrict head Ramli Pardede said that there was once a meeting between locals and the company about the waste. However, he said, the company failed to convince the locals that the water it disposed into the river did not contain toxic agents that damaged the river’s ecosystem.

“Presently the company has not yet given an answer regarding waste water in terms of whether it is toxic or not. This is what has incited the mass protests,” Pardede said.

Separately, the head of the North Sumatra Police public relation division, Sr. Comr. Heru Prakoso, said that the condition of the mining site had been under control but a number of police personnel were still deployed at the location as an anticipatory measure.

Heru also said that police were still investigating the case and had also identified the perpetrators of the burning.

“It’s just a matter of time in terms of making an arrest,” Heru said, declining to name the suspected perpetrators.