Raub regaining lustre as gold mine under RM60m investment

By Gan Yen Kuan fd@bizedge.com

Raub, once a thriving gold mine in Pahang, is set to regain its lustre under London-listed Peninsular Gold Ltd’s RM60 million investment to build a hi-tech gold processing plant.

The Malaysian-controlled company, via its unit Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn Bhd, has mining rights on a 202ha of land in Raub, with proven tailings reserves of 180,000 ounces.

Peninsular Gold chairman and chief executive Datuk Seri Andrew Kam said on March 2 the company’s target was to extract 100,000 ounces of gold a year. There are also plans for further RM150-million investment.

He was speaking to reporters at the groundbreaking ceremony for the plant. The RM60-million plant will be financed from borrowings and equity and it can process 1.1 million tonnes of tailings to produce 25,000 ounces of gold a year.

The plant, scheduled to be completed in 12 months, will use the carbon-in-leach (CIL) technology to extract gold from tailings – residues left behind by earlier miners who used traditional gravity methods of gold extraction.

Kam said the CIL technology, which had been used worldwide over 30 years, enable miners to recover up to 85% of gold from the tailings compared with 15% under the traditional gravity method.

According to World Gold Council, the world produced 2,467 tonnes of gold in 2006, while total demand stood at 3,362 tonnes. Gold prices are now hovering around US$660 (RM2315) per ounce.

Peninsular Gold posted a net loss of 1.44 million sterling pounds (RM9.88 million) for the 14-month financial period ended June 30, 2006. Kam said he hoped the company would start making profits in two-and-a-half years once the plant starts operations.

He said Peninsular Gold had been working with the Pahang State Development Corporation over the past 10 years to unearth for more gold mines in the state, including the Bentong-Raub area.

“We are very confident there is a lot of gold. We just need to continue our exploration. Proven reserves are 180,000 ounces, which we are going to mine immediately,” he said.

Meanwhile, Pahang Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob said the investments by Peninsular Gold would create a spin-off effect for the district’s economy.

Raub produced over one million ounces of gold in the past 100 years. Royalties collected by the state government from gold mining companies totalled RM6.15 million in 2005 and RM11.62 million in 2006. There are 44 mining certificate holders in the state, 31 of which are for gold mining.

BERNAMA:Bukit Koman Residents Apply For Judicial Review

KUALA LUMPUR, March 22 (Bernama) -- Residents of Kampung Bukit Koman, Raub, Pahang yesterday filed an application for a judicial review at the High Court here on the decision by the Director-General of Environment which approved the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report for the proposal for gold mining activity at Bukit Koman.

The EIA report was submitted by the Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn Bhd (RAGMSB) on Aug 27 1996 and approved by the Director-General of Environment on Jan 13 1997, but according to the Action Committee Against the Use of Cyanide in the mining operations at Bukit Koman, the residents of Kampung Bukit Koman were not assured that the use of the cyanide would not affect their health and pollute their environment.

The application for the judicial review was filed by four representatives of the residents comprising Wong Kin Hoong, Chong Sow Pin, Hue Fui How and Mustapha Hussin at the High Court Registrar's Office (Appeals and Special Powers Division) through the legal firm Messrs Meena Raman & Partners and the applicants named the Director-General of Environment and RAGMSB as the first and second respondents respectively.

They are seeking for a declaration that the EIA report for the proposed mining and extraction of gold from the old mine at Bukit Koman which was submitted by RAGMSB to the Director-General of Environment did not meet the requirement and regulations outlined in Section 34A of the Environment Quality Act 1974 (AKAS).

Among other things, they are also seeking for a certiorary order to revoke the decision of the first defendant dated Jan 13 1997 which approved the EIA report, besides seeking for a declaration that the decision of the first respondent on Feb 21 which rejected the application by the action committee so that RAGMSB was required to prepare and provide a new and detailed EIA report was unfair and unreasonable.

-- BERNAMA

Call for probe into gold mine

▲Choong Siew Onn claims the company had gone against government requirements

PUTRAJAYA: About 50 villagers living in and around Bukit Koman village in Pahang yesterday complained to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission about possible abuses in connection with the operation of a gold mine.

They wanted the MACC to investigate why the authorities did not take action against a gold mining company in Raub for allegedly using dangerous chemicals.

The residents turned up at the MACC office at 10am, carrying a banner protesting the use of cyanide in the gold mining process.

Among the 50 was Tras assemblyman Choong Siew Onn who claimed the company had gone against government requirements by using chemicals that could jeopardise the health of villagers.

"Despite numerous objections and appeals to the 'bigwigs', nothing has been done, which leads us to believe there is some foul play involved," said Choong.
Teratai assemblyman Janice Lee was also present.

One of the villagers, Raja Puji Raja Abd Hamid, claimed: "Although it has only been two months since the company has been operational, we have noticed that the small fish and shellfish have disappeared."

Raja Puji, who is Pas Raub division head, said many residents had complained of a pungent stench and itchiness of the skin.

Mining is safe, Bukit Koman residents told

By SIMON KHOO
http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2009/5/25/southneast/3952210&sec=southneast

RAUB: Bukit Koman residents can rest assured that mining activities near their homes will not affect their health.

State Local Government, Environ­ment and Health Committee chairman Datuk Hoh Khai Mun said the relevant authorities had been directed to monitor the area closely and furnish the state with reports from time to time.

Hoh said the task had been given to the Environment, Health, Minerals and Geoscience departments.

“Geologists will check the mining site every week. Every three months, a medical team will carry out health inspections on residents living in the vicinity.

“The team will take water samples from the area to ensure it is pollution-free,” he said after chairing a meeting with representatives of the three departments here recently.

Hoh said the reports would be discussed during the weekly exco meetings and that precautionary measures had been put in place to safeguard the health of residents.

He said the latest report showed that 60 houses with 246 occupants had been inspected and declared safe.

Water samples taken in April showed no signs of contamination, while early this month, health authorities detected 0.03mg/l of cyanide, which was within the permissible level, he said.

Teras assemblyman Choong Siew Onn said a group of residents had filed a suit against the Environment Department and the mining firm.

The issue had put the authorities in a fix as the residents had staged numerous protests against the firm for using cyanide in the mining activities.

On April 28, a vocal protester was found dead in his durian orchard and this raised suspicions, leading to the lodging of a police report.

A post-mortem by Raub Hospital revealed that Chong Sow Peng, 63, had died of a heart attack, allaying fears that he had succumbed to cyanide poisoning.

THIRD EYE: Poisonous gold, ungrateful bloggers and pundits

Malay Mail

GOLD it is and it will surely glitter but the risk is too much for one small community. According to media reports, "the residents of Kampung Bukit Koman in Raub, who claimed to have suffered health problems from the use of cyanide in the Bukit Koman gold mine project, today failed to get leave for a judicial review to stop the project".

Counsel for the residents explained that the judgement was based on the failure of the residents to fIle their complaint within 40 days after the Environmental Impact Assessment report was issued. The residents feel that the report does not comply with environmental laws.

Can this small community beat the big company? Stayed tuned.

Explanation Needs To Be Given To Bukit Koman Residents

Raub,Pahang was once the largest gold-mine site in the country.

The gold-mine site in Raub is situated at a new village known as Bukit Koman. During the 1900's era, Bukit Koman experienced an era of remarkable progress due to the gold-mine development in the area. At the end of the gold mine era during the 1960's, Bukit Koman faced obstacles in its local development. This place is a new village which exudes customs and traditions, and native culture, and emphasized a common social communication of local residents since the past decade.

In the year 2007, an international invester and, once again resumed gold mining activities without giving notice and informing the local residents. The problem now is not mining but the use of toxic materials especially cyanide in the mining process.

The relevant authorities did not take the necessary precautions to explain to the residents about the ill effects of cyanide which is harmful to human beings and the natural environment. The local residents discovered the problem of cyanide by searching for and collecting information on their own effort.

At the same time time, the local residents became aware that this problem could become a serious threat, which may poison the whole village. After which they formed a committee which protested against the use of cyanide in local mining and searched for various solutions and used proper channels to voice their grievances which needed help from outside.

The local residents are not against development as such, and progress brought about by mining but, several questions that follow frighten them.

1. Every kind of industry should be situated at least more than 5 km away from residential areas. However, the site of Bukit Koman gold mining is situated about one main road away from the residences of local people and not 10 km from their homes. How could certification be issued when the gold mining location does not have a clear buffer zone from the residential quarters, shops and schools. The mining location uses 1.5 tons of toxic chemical materials every day.

2. There are clear examples concerning incidents of toxic material leakage from mining locations in foreign countries. In Indonesia , a case of mercury leakage happened in Buyat, which caused 1,000 local residents who lived in 6 different villages to suffer the dangerous effects of poison caused by toxic materials. The Indonesian Government in the end ordered all local residents to evacuate from the affected areas. In the USA, an incident of cyanide leakage also accurred in Colorado. This particular incident caused the death of all marine creatures within a radius of 27 km. A case of cyanide leakage and environmental pollution could also occur in USA, which is a developed nation; what more in Malaysia, a country that is not yet designated as a developed nation, where there are doubts whether it can be assured that cyanide will be used in a safe manner?

3.The local residents had contacted the relevant authorities and, the latter replied that the use of cyanide in mining is safe if the management, production and manufacturing process is well run and supervised. But the relevant authority cannot guarantee the safety of the residents by giving a reply like that. The safety policy and monitoring systems that are applied has never been set out by the relevant authorities. If the safety of the residents is guaranteed, why don’t the authorities allow the local residents to visit the gold mine location to further understand the safety precautions it employs so as have an assurance of their safety.

For the last 2 years, the authorities still have neither supplied information nor given any explanation regarding questions forwarded by the concerned residents of Bukit Koman.

Submissions of memorandums, face to face discussions, holding rallies and open vocal opposition at public places, including whatever ways that are used by the local residents have all been exhausted.

Last year,the local residents decided to challenge the approval of the authority regarding the use of cyanide in gold mining in Bukit Koman and, filed an application for leave for judicial review of the EIA (Enviromental Impact Assessment) that was approved in 1997. However, the High Court did not allow the application after conducting a hearing which took more than one year. The reason given by the High Court was that the application made by the local residents of Bukit Koman was late because the Department of Environment (DOE) had approved the EIA in 1997. The court did not accept the arguments of the residents that they were unaware of the approval of the EIA until only recently, and that they could not file the application earlier as they required expert reports on the contents of the EIA. The High Court’s rejection of the residents’ application has crashed their hopes. However, they refuse to give up and have filed an appeal to the Court of Appeal.

The residents are now faced with many obstacles that concern environmental pollution which will seriously affect their lives and the health of their immediate families.

This case is seen and is connected to not only an issue that involves the daily livelihood of local residents but also involves the issue of the natural environment and basic human rights of each individual. Every strata of society cannot brush aside this case and , most important of all, the government should take proper steps to enrich and protect the livelihood of its citizens.

The final hope of the local residents is receiving help from the government. As a government that places the interest of its citizens first, it must carry out its responsibility to ensure the well-being of the people, besides emphasizing progress and national economic development and, safe-guarding the priorities and safety of its citizens.

Under the "people first" policy which was brought forward by the new Prime Minister, it is hoped that the government will treatthe utmost seriousness and take appropriate actions at the same time to resolve this issue, as explanations to the 3 questions brought forward by the local citizens of Bukit Koman.

A safe place to live in, a lasting peace and good health for a family and the next generation after it, are all that are hoped for and yearned by each citizen.