Kuantan Singingi Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Fibri Karpiananto said his team spent three days shutting down the gold mines, which were located in Kuantan Tengah and Singingi districts.

“On the last day, our team managed to close down two illegal gold mines operating on the Piodang River in Kuantan Tengah,” Fibri said on Friday.

The police were unable to arrest the miners.

“The illegal miners detected the presence of our team when they arrived at the location, which is in the middle of the river. They escaped by swimming to the other side of the river,” he added.

The team also found two other illegal gold mines on the same river. According to local residents, the two mine usually operated at night.

“We destroyed and burned the mining equipment so that they can’t use it again,” Fibri said.

Previously, the team had conducted an operation to shut down illegal mines in Bukik Cokiak and Singingi districts on Wednesday. Although the police failed to capture any miners, they managed to seize mining equipment that they burned on the spot. (ebf)

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