A team from the National Secretariat of PWYP Indonesia (Meliana, Maryati) together with the research team of the “Reversing the Resources Curse” initiative which also comes from Latin America, Africa, and America conducted a field trip to a traditional gold miner in the Sekotong area, the island of Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara on March 19, 2014. They take a look at the mining process by residents in their own home, small and medium scale groups. Starting with the dredging of rocks from the dug pits, rock destruction, grinding, panning until the process of separating the gold ore that was sought. Seemingly, The mining did not have a license from the local government.
Johan (not his real name), when asked about the reason for making a dug hole in the back of his house saying “I got this idea based on the ‘smart’ person idea from West Java, Miss. We dug until the tunnel had passed through the yard of the house”. “So the tunnel under the surface of this house is wider than our yard, Miss,” Johan added.
The average miners who also involved their female family members there were seen using mercury in the process of separating the material. Although he once received counseling from the local Health Service, Johan continued to use it, “because we always wash our hands with soap after work, Miss,” Johan added without feeling guilty. “If we are lucky, we can get tens of millions per person, but if not, we don’t get anything, and often we get small ones around 700 thousand per person,” Johan added. Along with this visit, there were also other teams from Indonesia such as Prakarsa, RCC UI Researchers, and Surya University and Ford Foundation Program Officers from various offices in Jakarta, Latin America, Africa, and America.