Illegal Gold Mining Case in Gumelar Banyumas, Police Arrest 3 Suspects

Banyumas - The Banyumas City Police (Polresta) revealed illegal gold mining practices in the Gumelar area, Banyumas Regency, Central Java, and named three people as suspects in the case.

Head of the Banyumas Police, Police Commissioner General Petrus P Silalahi, said the disclosure began with a report from the community regarding mining activities and processing of gold material without a permit in Grumbul Igir Salak, Paningkaban Village, Gumelar District.

"Following up on the report, Unit IV of the Criminal Investigation Unit of the Banyumas Police conducted an investigation until finally a raid was carried out on Tuesday (March 31)," he said in a press conference at the Rekonfu Markas Hall of the Banyumas Police Headquarters, Purwokerto, Banyumas Regency, Monday, quoted by Antara.

In the raid, he said, the police secured three suspects with initials SRO alias BDI (51), NM alias AYG (50), and SBN alias UDN (56).

He said the three suspects played a role as financiers and owners of illegal gold mining and processing businesses.

According to him, the suspects carried out activities without having official permits such as mining business permits (IUP), IUPK, people's mining permits (IPR), and mining permits for rocks (SIPB) as regulated in laws and regulations.

From the results of the examination at the location, said Petrus, police officers found two mine points with a hole about 55 meters deep and a hole mouth size of about 80 centimeters by 80 centimeters operated by a number of workers.

"The material is taken from inside the hole and then processed independently to separate the gold content," he said.

Based on the results of the investigation, he said, one mine hole is estimated to be able to produce about 70 grams of gold every week with an economic value of around Rp. 10 million.

According to him, the system for sharing the results has been regulated with a composition of 30 percent for financiers, 30 percent for land owners, 20 percent for operational costs, and 20 percent for workers' wages.

Furthermore, he said that illegal mining activities had been going on for quite some time. One of the suspects is known to have been involved since 2012 as a worker, before later developing into a financier.

Meanwhile, the other two suspects have started to actively open new mining locations from 2017 to 2025.

"Although it stopped because the gold content at a certain point was exhausted, the perpetrators continued to look for new locations and resumed operations without going through the legal licensing procedures," he said.

For their actions, he said, the suspects were charged with Article 158 and/or Article 161 of Law Number 3 of 2020 concerning Amendments to Law Number 4 of 2009 concerning Mineral and Coal Mining, Juncto Article 20 letter C of the Criminal Code.

According to him, the suspects are threatened with a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum fine of Rp. 100 billion.

He said the three suspects and the evidence in the form of mining equipment and gold processing results were currently secured at the Banyumas Police Criminal Investigation Unit for further investigation.

"We are also continuing to explore the possibility of other parties being involved in illegal mining activities, as well as anticipating environmental damage due to unlicensed mining practices in the area," said the Police Chief.