Indonesian gold mining

Pelsart International of Australia, which holds a 42.5% share in the P.T. Ampalit Mas Perdana mine which began production in January, predicts an annual output of about 500 kilograms of gold for at least six years.

Don Zimmerman, chairman of Pelsart, which holds 13 other contracts for gold exploration in Indonesia, says the investment climate in that nation is good and the terms of its contracts for gold exploration and mining are among the best in the world.

“I don’t find other countries that offer long-term stability in their contract agreements,” he told a group of bankers meeting in Jakarta.

Ampalit is the first foreign contractor to produce gold in Kalimantan and the second among the 103 companies receiving contracts of work from the government for gold exploration and mining in Indonesia. P.T. Lusang Mining, another Australian joint venture, started mining at a former Dutch gold mine in Bengkulu Province, Sumatra, in late 1985, and is producing about 600 kilograms of gold annually.

An official of the ministry of mines and energy, says gold production is expected to begin soon at two other joint ventures — a British Petroleum Company mine in West Kalimantan and an Indo Pacific Resources of Australia mine in Aceh.

What has amounted to a modern day gold rush in Indonesia began in 1985 after geologists found evidence to support theories that linked the formation of gold deposits with volcanic activity. The Indonesian archipelago, which straddles the major volcanic belt stretching from Japan to Papua New Guinea in the area known as the “Ring of Fire,” has become the major focus of gold exploration.

Since February, 1985, 103 contracts for gold exploration and exploitation have been signed with foreign companies, with 59 of the contracts currently active.

Estimates of potential gold production in Indonesia range up to 100 tons a year, which would place the country in third place, after South Africa and the Soviet Union, in worldwide output. Official Indonesian gold production totaled 3.75 tons in 1987, jumping to over 15 tons in 1988.

At the Mount Moro contract area, another Central Kalimantan site in which Pelsart International is a shareholder, Zimmerman says preliminary explorations indicate some three million tons of ore containing an average of 7.7 grams of gold and 148 grams of silver per ton. From Indonesia News, a publication of the Indonesian government.

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