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'Gold money' helps Sumbawa recover from earthquakes, but now it battles mercury poisoning
Limited job opportunities and lower income from farming have caused residents to turn to illegal mining.
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Sahnip, a worker at a small-scale mining site in Lamunga Atas hamlet in West Sumbawa regency, West Nusa Tenggara, crushes gold-encrusted rocks with her son. Many residents in the hamlet work at unlicensed mining operations in the area. (JP/Panca Nugraha)
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mall-scale gold mining has caused concerns in West Sumbawa regency, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), due to the massive use of mercury and cyanide that can cause health and environmental problems.
Limited job opportunities and lower income from farming have caused residents to turn to illegal mining.
“I have been working like this since 2014, since the gold mine has been here,” said Sahnip, 42, a resident of Lamunga Atas hamlet in Kayu Putih village, as she crushed rocks into smaller pieces using a hammer of some 5 kilograms in weight.
She said she got Rp 10,000 for each sack of crushed rock. In a day she can fill between 15 and 20 sacks with crushed rock, with the help of her 10-year-old son Habibullah.
More than 50 women like Sahnip count on rock crushing as their livelihood because the village’s rain-fed rice fields are unyielding, especially during the dry season. As farmers they can only earn up to Rp 75,000 every day, about half of what they get from rock crushing.
The gold-encrusted rocks are taken from a mine located in Lamunga hills, several kilometers from Kayu Putih. After the crushing, the rocks are sent several kilometers away for refining, using machines locally known as gelondongan. Mercury is required to operate the machines and to produce the refined gold.
The owner of the refining machines in Lamunga Atas, Hamdi, operates six mines in the area. He said he started his business in 2014.
