Rivers of ink have been spilled on the environmental impact of extractive activities. Far less often, however, do we hear about the heavy consequences that abandoned mines — left idle for months or years — have on the surrounding territory and communities. This is a subject that Indonesia knows all too well. With dramatic results.

More than three thousand abandoned mines in Indonesia

In the space of just six years, between 2014 and 2020, 168 people lost their lives in Indonesia in incidents that were as senseless as they were avoidable. They fell into unmarked pits, or dived into what appeared to be natural swimming pools, unaware of the dangers. Many were children. Among them was Jamil, a thirteen-year-old with disabilities who drowned in 2015. Bayu Setiawan was twenty-one when he fell into the water while fishing with friends: his was one of the 24 accidents recorded in 2020. In the city of Samarinda alone, 39 people have died since 2014; a further 57 in the province of Bangka-Belitung, a key hub for the tin industry — the material used to solder electronic devices.

This is what emerges from a report written by the Mining advocacy network (Jatam) and covered by the environmental outlet Mongabay, which has been following the story for several years now. Across thirteen Indonesian provinces, 3,092 abandoned mines are scattered throughout the landscape. More than half are located in the province of East Kalimantan, a well-known coal-mining centre. In addition to the safety risks, there are environmental ones too, as acid and toxic waters end up contaminating the surrounding rice paddies.

Andreas Harsono ✓ @andreasharsono

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Mongabay: Who owns Indonesia’s deadly abandoned coal mines news.mongabay.com/2017/05/who-ow…

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The ups and downs of Indonesia's mining sector

In the early 2000s, when coal seemed like an "easy" and profitable business, the government handed out licences wholesale to a maze of small and very small companies. So much so that, as the Reuters agency explains, it is now often difficult to trace the actual owner of a mine. According to Asean briefing, the oil and coal sector accounts for 60 per cent of the Asian country's exports. Exports of refined tin, copper, gold, nickel and bauxite (the rock from which aluminium is extracted) are also substantial.

Over time, however, things changed. The first collapse in coal prices dates back to 2015, which led to the bankruptcy of no fewer than 125 companies in East Kalimantan alone. Prices subsequently recovered, reaching a new peak in the 2018–2019 period. In 2020, the pandemic once again drove down both prices and demand from the main buyers, India and China. The International Energy Agency forecasts a production decline of 14 per cent, more pronounced than the 6.5 per cent projected at the global level.

Why mines are left unguarded

And what do many companies do when they go bankrupt, or decide that a deposit has become uneconomical or has already been sufficiently exploited? They walk away, leaving the open-cast mine without so much as a fence or a warning sign. A few days of monsoon rain are all it takes to turn it into a dangerously deep pond.

By law, mining companies are required to fill in the excavations and replant vegetation. All of this within thirty days. An obligation that — environmental organisations point out — is systematically ignored, just as the ban on digging within 500 metres of agricultural and residential areas is.

Opaque and weak mining legislation

Last year another NGO, Auriga Nusantara, published a study with a telling title: Untouchables. The reference is to eight mining giants that have failed to rehabilitate a combined area of 873 square kilometres — the equivalent of the city of New York — by skilfully exploiting various legislative loopholes.

In theory, before obtaining a licence, companies should deposit with the state a bond covering the costs of closure and subsequent clean-up. This, however, is not a prerequisite for receiving the go-ahead for the project and budget. The result is that 72 per cent of companies operate undisturbed without having paid such funds — the amount of which is not, in any case, made public. In short, the report points the finger at the extremely poor transparency of the entire process of checks, inspections and penalties.

There are serious doubts as to whether the mining legislation reform, passed in 2020 amid public protests, can break the deadlock. Because, in a bid to attract investment, it liberalises the sector even further. First and foremost, it scraps the territorial limit for each individual concession, previously set at 15,000 hectares — a move that could pave the way for deforestation, environmentalists fear. It also introduces automatic renewal of expiring concessions for up to a maximum of twenty years. The very companies that have failed to fulfil their duty to clean up abandoned mines could be among those to benefit.