The atmosphere inside the illegal gold mining hole in Waluran Mandiri Village, Waluran District, Sukabumi Regency, West Java, which is in the Ciletuh Earth Park area - Palabuhanratu, Thursday (3/9/2020). The miners work with high risk in the airless holes about 1 meter - 1.5 meter in diameter. These illegal gold mines are found in the Ciletuh Earth Park - Palabuhanratu.
To mine gold, smallholding miners in southern Sukabumi, West Java, have to risk their lives in a stuffy hole with a diameter of 1 to 2 meters. Some of them become sick because they struggle with the dust. Their income is also uncertain.
The gloomy life story of the gurandil, as smallholding miners are known, is far from the luster of the gold they hunt daily.
Sitting on a chair on the terrace of Ciemas Community Health Center (puskesmas), Sukabumi regency, Amat looked lethargic. His eyes were blank. Slowly, the 33-year-old man leaned his back and head against the wall. He tried to calm himself down.
"Suffocating. If I walk for even 10 meters, it is difficult to breathe,” said Amat, while catching his breath on Friday (4/9/2020).
That day was the second time Amat had visited the Ciemas puskesmas. Two weeks earlier, he was informed that he was suffering from lung disease based on X-rays.
The former gurandil was also asked to undergo a series of treatments for six months.
Suffocating. If I walk for even 10 meters, it is difficult to breathe
Amat has had difficulty breathing for a long time. Initially, he went to the village healer to be treated for his difficulty breathing. While occasionally taking medication, he continued to work as usual. However, the disease began to hamper Amat\'s daily life.
Amat earned a wage of Rp 5 million to Rp 10 million per month as a miner and for processing gold using gelundung, a traditional processing tool in the form of a rotating iron wheel using mercury. The cost of medical treatment with the healer – at Rp 70,000 per visit – did not initially burden him.
However, his financial situation took a 180-degree turn when his health deteriorated about six months ago. He had difficulty breathing in a number of situations, including walking long distances, carrying goods and inhaling cigarette smoke. Finally, he decided to take a complete break from mining and processing gold, thereby losing his income.
Kompas
Amat (33), a former illegal gold miner took a break after taking treatment at the Ciemas Health Center, Ciemas District, Sukabumi Regency, West Java, Friday (4/9/2020) afternoon. Amat suffered from lung disease as a result of having inhaled too much dust and smoke inside the gold mine pits over the years.
Savings running out
In addition, his deteriorating health has made him increasingly dependent on drugs. Every week, he needs to consult a healer to buy medicine. Because he no longer has income, Amat relies on his savings to continue to get treatment and meet his life needs.
His savings were depleted in the fifth month. Like the shortness of his breath, Amat\'s economic condition is very poor and he is no longer able to seek treatment from a healer who is close to his home. As a result, he chose to seek free treatment at the Ciemas Community Health Center, which is further away from home.
It has been 21 years since Amat became a smallholding gold miner. Since graduating from elementary school, he worked as a miner and would go to the bottom of the mine pit to scrape gold rocks.
There were a lot of people in the pit. That was why it was suffocating. People were smoking while using hammers to crush the rocks.
Almost every day, Amat had to spend 8 to 9 hours in the mine pit.
"There were a lot of people in the pit. That was why it was suffocating. People were smoking while using hammers to crush the rocks. Therefore, the smoke rose and there was a large amount of dust,” said Amat with a bitter smile.
Amat is not the only resident who suffers from difficulty breathing after decades as a gurandil. In his village, a number of the miners have had the same fate. One of them is Jaelani, 49, who has suffered from lung disease for three years.
As a result of the disease, Jaelani did not only lose his income because he had to quit the job he had been doing for 30 years. He was also left by his wife. Now, the man who is familiarly called Obet is living with his brother. He has difficulty living independently because of his weak condition.
KOMPAS/RIAN SEPTIANDI
The miners\' tents at the illegal gold mining in Waluran Mandiri Village, Waluran District, Sukabumi Regency, West Java, Thursday (3/9/2020).
It\'s risky
Not only are they at risk of contracting diseases like those suffered by Amat and Jaelani, gurandil who work in gold mining without a permit (PETI) are also risking their lives because they spend hours in a narrow hole with minimal security. The threat of mine collapses is ever-present.
A Kompas team discovered a smallholding gold mine in the Perhutani area of Waluran Mandiri village, Waluran district, on Thursday (3/9/2020). The illegal mine was quite hidden. Even though it was right on the side of the main road in the Ciletuh-Palabuhanratu Earth Park, the place was covered with cliffs and trees. To reach it, visitors must walk down a steep track of about 200 meters.
Mine holes are 1 meter to 1.5 meters in diameter. To go inside, the miners must squat or crawl. In an active mine, 30 people can be accommodated in the hole as deep as 100 meters.
Uloh, 55, the mining coordinator at the hole, said the miners worked eight hours per day in the hole. During working hours, miners have to struggle with mud and dust and refrain from urinating and defecating because they are prohibited from doing so in the hole.
From that stuffy chamber, they also carry sacks of stones and take them out by relay. The miners cannot help but breathe the dust from the crushed stones. They work without protective gear and carry little, including headlights, crushing kits and a small amount of food.
The water of the Ciletuh River turns gray due to carrying mud from gold processing waste, as seen in Waluran District, Sukabumi Regency, West Java, which is part of the Ciletuh - Palabuhanratu Earth Park area, as seen, Wednesday (2/9/2020).This tough life was not a choice for the miners. Their educational backgrounds are generally low and jobs in the area are limited. "If there are other job options, it is better to work in the other sectors because being a miner is hard. They are no longer young too, they get sick easily,” said Uloh, who has been a miner for nearly 40 years.
Ciemas district head AG Senjaya acknowledged that smallholding miners and residents who worked as gold processors were not recorded in the population data as belonging to an official trade in Ciemas district. He said residents who worked in the mines or processed gold were reluctant to acknowledge it as an occupation.
According to data from the Sukabumi regency branch leadership board of the Indonesian Smallholding Miners Association (APRI), about 10,000 smallholding miners are active. Most of them live in Ciemas, Simpenan and Waluran.
When contacted from Jakarta on Saturday (3/10), Sukabumi Regent Marwan Hamami did not deny that there were illegal gold miners in the Ciletuh-Palabuhanratu Geopark. However, the response to these activities he said, was the authority of the West Java provincial government. Sukabumi regency had a role to empower residents who were working in the mines, he said, by providing training. However, the intended training and its continuity were not explained.
/https%3A%2F%2Fkompas.id%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F10%2FTambang-Emas-Liar-Ciletuh-1_1602151967.jpeg){kind=logo}
/https%3A%2F%2Fkompas.id%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F10%2FDJI_0297_1602171891.jpg){kind=logo}
