Minister confirms of alarming level of mercury pollution near Antam's mining site

Minister of Environment Sonny Keraf confirmed on Friday that the mercury pollution in the waters of the Cisadane and Cikaniki rivers near the Pongkor gold mining site in West Java province had reached an alarming level.

Sonny said that if the mercury pollution was not immediately stop the problem could reach the dangerous level occurred in Minamata, Japan, which could damage human nerves system.

"If there's no immediate action, the danger in Pongkor could reach the level that happened in Minamata. It took a very long time to recover into the normal condition in Minamata," Sonny told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on illegal mining.

The mercury pollution is resulted by the illegal and traditional gold mining activities in the Pongkor gold mining site which is actually controlled by the state owned gold and copper mining firm PT Aneka Tambang (Antam).

The number of illegal gold miners have reached a large population making it very difficult for the local administration to send them away.

Sonny said that the government would immediately issue a ruling which prohibited the use of mercury in the mining sector.(*)