Toxic Gas Blocks the Evacuation of Gold Miners Trapped in Antam Bogor

Officers try to evacuate miners in the gold area of PT Antam (Antara)

BOGOR - The process of evacuating miners in the PT Antam Pongkor area, Bogor Regency, West Java, took place with a high risk due to dangerous terrain and the presence of carbon monoxide gas, even causing an evacuation officer to be injured.

Head of Region Java, CSR, and Sub-Division of PT Antam Tbk Gold Mining Business Unit (UBPE) Pongkor Agustinus Toko Susetio said the evacuation was carried out with a high level of caution due to the dangerous location.

"The evacuation process takes place with high risk. The victim's location is in a difficult and dangerous area, so every step must be taken very carefully for the safety of officers," said Agustinus, quoted by Antara, Tuesday, January 20.

He said, on several occasions the evacuation team was hit by a rock avalanche because the geotechnical conditions at the location were unstable.

Agustinus emphasized that all evacuated victims were in the company's non-operational area which should be sterile from mining activities.

"Those who were successfully evacuated were residents, not Antam employees or contractors, and were in a non-operational area that should be sterile from mining activities," he said.

Meanwhile, Nanggung Police Chief AKP Ucup Supriatna said the evacuation process was also hampered by the still presence of dangerous gas in the mine hole. The level of carbon monoxide gas at a number of points is still above the safe threshold.

"The smoke has started to decrease but the level of harmful gas or carbon monoxide is still there," said AKP Ucup.

AKP Ucup explained that this condition made the evacuation team unable to penetrate all areas in order to maintain the safety of officers.

A joint team evacuated three miner bodies in the Pongkor area, Bogor Regency, West Java, a week after the smoke cloud incident, with all the victims found to be dead.