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View all search resultsGold boom, policy missteps fuel rise in deadly illegal mines
Indonesia faces a major dilemma between regulating illegal mining to protect the environment and safeguarding the livelihoods of people who depend on this activity.
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Rescue workers insert a hose to extract water from an illegal gold mining pit on July 26, 2023, at Pancurendang village in Banyumas, Central Java, in an effort to rescue eight miners trapped underground. (AFP/Dida Nuswantara)
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oaring global gold prices have fueled a significant expansion in illegal mining operations across Indonesia, turning gold-rich landscapes into contested zones of profit and peril.
At the heart of this boom lies a deepening socioeconomic divide: while financiers and power brokers reap windfall gains, local communities remain trapped in poverty, bearing the brunt of environmental degradation and health hazards.
The estimated area of illegal gold mining surged from just 366 hectares in 2021 to 7,232 hectares in 2023, a nearly 20-fold increase, according to environmental group Auriga Nusantara. While figures for last year and this year are still being processed, field investigations in North Sulawesi, West Sumatra and Aceh confirmed the emergence of new illegal mining sites in all surveyed areas.
“We are witnessing a largely uncontrolled gold rush,” Auriga director Timer Manurung told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Environmental health organization Nexus3 Foundation has identified small-scale gold mining activities in 190 regencies across 33 of the country’s 38 provinces.
The surge in illegal activity coincides with rising global gold prices, which have made informal mining increasingly attractive.
Bullion prices jumped approximately 41 percent over the past year and are up around 27 percent year-to-date, hovering near US$3,350 per ounce as of July 2025.
