Police Hand Down PT. BDL

Illustration (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The North Sulawesi Regional Police are said to have intervened in relation to the alleged illegal mining operation carried out by PT. Bulawan Daya Lestari (BDL). This is because, even though the business license has expired, PT BDL is still carrying out mining activities.

"If I'm not mistaken, yesterday there was a police line there," said Frangky Manumpil, Head of the Investment and One Stop Services (DPM-PTSP) of North Sulawesi Province (Sulut), quoted on Monday, July 27.

According to him, according to the regulations of mining inspectors from both the provincial and central levels, namely the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Jakarta, it should have stepped in to curb PETI activities in the BDL area.

"But I don't know, the mine inspector should know better," he said.

On this occasion he agreed to the mining operation business permit (IUP OP) and forest area lease-to-use permit (IPPKH) of PT. BDL has been used up since March 10, 2019.

"Yes, it's true that it has been used up since March 10, 2019, IUP OP and IPPKH on behalf of BDL have expired," said Frangky, quoted Monday, July 27.

Director of the Center for Indonesian Resources Strategic Studies (Cirrus) Budi Santoso said mining without permission from the government was confirmed to be illegal and threatened with criminal charges.

"It means they can be considered mining without a permit, that's a crime," Budi told the media, Thursday, July 23.

A similar sentiment was also conveyed by the Executive Director of the Center of Energy and Resources Indonesia (CERI), Yusri Usman. According to him, mining activities must be stopped. Apart from being stopped, gold miners in the BDL area are likely to face imprisonment and fines of billions of rupiah.

"It is clear that it violates the Minerba Law and the Forestry Law, it must be stopped," said Yusri.

Yusri explained, BDL violations were contained in Law No. 3 of 2020 as an amendment from Law No. 4 of 2009 concerning Minerba. Article 158 states, "Every person carrying out mining without a permit as referred to in Article 35 shall be punished with imprisonment of 5 (five) years and a maximum fine of Rp. 100,000,000,000.00 (one hundred billion rupiah)."

Meanwhile, Article 35 contains the role of the central government in issuing IUPs, one of which is the delegation of authority from the central government to regional governments.

Then, continued Yusri, BDL has also violated Forestry Law No. 41 of 1999. To be stricter, Article 50 paragraph (3) letter g jo. Article 38 paragraph (3) of the Forestry Law stipulates that every person is prohibited from carrying out general investigation activities or exploration or exploitation of mining materials in forest areas, without the provision of an IPPKH issued by the Minister of Forestry and the Environment, taking into account a certain area and time frame environmental sustainability.

Yusri explained, if he did not have an IPPKH, BDL would face criminal penalties and fines. Article 78 paragraph (6) of the Forestry Law states that violations of mining activities in forest areas without an IPPKH will result in the threat of imprisonment for a maximum of 10 (ten) years and a maximum fine of Rp. 5,000,000,000 (five billion rupiah).

"So it is very clear that BDL has violated two laws at once. The central government, in this case the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and the Ministry of Forestry and Environment, can act decisively, "said Yusri.

Previously, BDL, represented by BDL Director Hadi Pandunata, admitted that he was still working on the extension of the company's IUP-OP and IPPKH. "If currently there are still gold mining activities on BDL land, it can be confirmed illegal because they do not have any permits at all," said Hadi.

Meanwhile, PETI activities in the BDL area were previously seen clearly through a video that has been widely circulated on social media. The video with a duration of more than 1 minute was uploaded by Alex Subrata's account on Twitter social media on Sunday, July 12.

The video, entitled "VIRALLL ... There is a Illegal Gold Mine in Bolmong North Sulawesi" was recorded on Saturday (11/7/2020), at 16.45 WITA.

In the video, it is clearly seen that the dredging activity uses heavy equipment. The dredged land is then loaded into a truck.

The video, which is also equipped with location coordinates of 0 ° 42'26.31 "N 124 ° 12'42.858" E, when checked using Google Maps, is known to be in Lolayan District, Bolmong, North Sulawesi.

Based on Google's satellite imagery, at the location according to these coordinates, it is clear that there is extensive dredging.