Indonesian Gold (29 page)

The following morning, before proceeding to the Indonesian
Ministry, he checked his account at the Standard Chartered branch, to confirm that Kremenchug had
transferred the funds as agreed. During the course of the next days, he submitted an application
on behalf of Dominion Mining to acquire the concession area known as Longdamai, including the
site that lay in the very heart of Jonathan Dau's treasured, ancestral spiritual surrounds. The
request was approved within a fortnight, subject to the formation of a legal Indonesian corporate
entity.

Three months later, P.T. Kalimantan Gold (Indonesia)
became a reality.

****

The hand-delivered letter started,

‘Dear Stewart,

As a fellow expatriate involved in the mining industry, I
feel that I must communicate my concerns with respect to many of the mining operations along the
Mahakam tributary system. I have attached copies of river sampling and soil testing which will
evidence…”

The extensive report cited companies by name, their
blatant disregard for the environment, and the obvious political umbrella under which they
operated. The author had underlined eight of the ten exploration mining companies, highlighting
the fact that these were all associated with the Palace, or those closely associated with the
government.

Stewart Campbell read the letter with a deepening sense of
foreboding, speculating that the Suharto clique was well on the way towards monopolizing the
country's natural resources. He had already witnessed the shift in ownership of downstream
investments in the oil and gas industry. The President's children had manipulated control over
pipelines, refineries, by-product production and distribution and Campbell questioned how much
time remained before further pressure was applied throughout the mining industry, enabling the
six children to improve the family's holdings over the nation's vast mineral
resources.

Stewart turned his attention back to the expatriate
geologist's letter reporting the growing incidence of mercury poisoning evident now amongst
ethnic, river-communities. The similarities between what he had evidenced in West Papua, and what
Mahakam villagers were reporting, was alarming.

He read on.

“…and, the majority of Dayak communities will be faced
with continuing human rights violations, and significant environmental destruction, including
air, water and land pollution, all of which adds to the overall devastation of their traditional
ways of life. Last month, the Galian gold mine was forced to shut down after negotiations with
local community representatives reached stalemate. Dayak villagers blockaded access to the Galian
mine, preventing supplies of lime (which, as you know, Stewart, is used for treating acid waste)
and diesel fuel oil from getting through to the site. The Dayaks are incensed with the
methodology used in disposing of waste, their calls for more stringent controls resulting in a
number of village heads being arrested, and interrogated. The Dayaks also have a legitimate case
with respect to their land claims. Compensation has either been too little, or not forthcoming at
all. Their claims cover land taken for mining operations, access roads and damage to crops.
Sadly, allegations of human rights abuse against two of the foreign mining companies include
sexual abuse and rape committed by senior company staff against Dayak women.”

Stewart put the letter down and rubbed tired eyes,
contemplating the enormity of the problems associated with the exploding mining industry in
Indonesia. With computer-aided mapping and advanced techniques in geochemistry and geophysics,
much of the guesswork had been removed from the geologist's trade. Ore bodies which had
previously been passed over as being uneconomically viable in terms of gold content, were now
being mined due to new, innovative extraction processes such as cyanide heap leaching, the modern
version of mercury separation. Stewart knew that this process offered extremely high pollution
risks and long-term toxic contamination, as the process required the spraying of a solution of
cyanide over crushed ore which had been heaped into open piles, permitting the miners to extract
gold from ore bearing as little as half a gram, per ton of rock. As a result of this technique, a
plethora of small, illegal mining operations had followed foreign mining companies into the
field, their activities resulting in extreme ecological damage.

With the growing demand for gold, the future for ethnic
groups such as the
Dayaks
in Kalimantan and the
Amungme
people of West Papua was
grim. He was deeply concerned that, with more than fifty percent of all worldwide mining
exploration being dedicated to gold, more than one out of five of the prospects were located on
indigenous lands, supporting the claim that this activity sets the stage for community
dislocation, cultural erosion and environmental degradation. And, he believed, as long as
powerful mining conglomerates remained aloof supported by corrupt government officials, public
debate regarding environmental issues would remain gagged in countries such as Indonesia,
preventing any significant change.

His thoughts returned to the letter. He was reminded of an
earlier incident involving a number of environmentalists who had taken their own soil and water
samples at a mining site, where extreme ecological damage was evident. All three of the men had
been arrested, and deported. Stewart suddenly frowned – it did not pay to be outspoken in this
country, particularly if comments were directed in any way, at those in power. With this in mind,
he rose to his feet, gathered the pages together, then went into the adjacent office and ran the
documents through the shredder.

‘Love letters?'
his
secretary, Laila teased, following him into the room. She had never seen her boss dispose of
correspondence in this manner, before.

‘How did you guess?'
he
managed to smile.

‘Who is it this time?'
she asked,
‘another of those young students from Jogya?'

Stewart turned to Laila, his face covered with surprise
wondering if nothing ever escaped this woman. He had dated a post-grad student in Jogyakarta a
number of times, but they had never communicated and she had not visited Jakarta.

‘Not this time.'
He
finished shredding the lengthy letter before picking up the banter again.
‘An irate father
from Madura.'

‘Madura?'
his secretary
pouted.
‘When are you going to start dating some Batak girls?'

‘Soon, Laila, soon!'
he
laughed,
‘but I'm still working my way through the other islands.'

‘By the time you reach Sumatra, you'll be worn
out,'
the middle-aged Batak woman scolded.
‘Or, too
old.'

Stewart took Laila by the arm and led her back to her
desk.
‘If that starts to happen, you'll be the first to know.'
The secretary was still
giggling when the phone rang, the caller asking for Stewart Campbell.

‘It's from Houston,'
she said, and Campbell pointed to his office, moving quickly to accept the
call.

‘Stewart?' Phil Samuels' deep, familiar voice boomed down
the line. ‘How the hell are you?'

‘Hi there, Phil.' Samuels continued to be one of
Campbell's staunchest allies, and friends. ‘Are you coming over?'

‘Nah, not for a couple of months.' Phil Samuels heavy,
southern accent fell comfortably on Campbell's ear. ‘Say, Stew,' he continued, ‘what do you know
about BGC?'

‘BGC?' Campbell's mind clicked into gear. ‘Oh yeah, Borneo
Gold Corporation.' He thought for a few moments. ‘They got stuck with some heavy acreage over in
East Kalimantan. Why?'

‘Just chasing up some rumors, Stew, that's
all.'

‘Have they made an announcement?'

‘No, nothing like that – there's been talk that they've
acquired a hot property over there. There's probably not much to it, just thought you might have
heard.'

‘They're Canadian based,' Campbell searched his memory,
unable to recall anything which was of real interest, ‘and from what I remember, not all that
financial.'

‘Precisely,' was all Samuels said.

And then it dawned. ‘Jesus, Phil, that's one of the deals
Kremenchug helped put together!'

‘Yep,' Samuels drawled, ‘I remember the name. You
introduced us a couple of years back.'

‘You're not seriously thinking of getting involved with
them?' Campbell had not seen or heard of Kremenchug for some time.

‘Well, something's going on. A friend of a friend claims
that he has reliable information suggesting that BGC's going to accommodate some party over your
way that definitely has the goods.'

‘Indonesian?'

‘Can't say but, by the sounds of it, yes. Do you think
it's someone from the President's family?'

Campbell
thought about this.
‘Could be, Phil. Do you want me to check it out?'

‘Sure, thanks, Stew – if nothing comes of it, what the
hell. But, if the boys over there are going to play then I wouldn't mind a piece of the action.
BGC shares aren't worth shit right now – if you can confirm who the players are and the stock
starts to move, do you want me to pick up a parcel for you?'

‘Wait ‘till I check it out, Phil. I'll get back to
you.'

‘Don't be too long, my friend,' Samuels warned, ‘in my
experience, when these things go off, they do so with a major bang.'

‘Okay. I'll get onto it right away and get back to you as
soon as I have something concrete.'

‘Great.'

‘Can you give me anything else?'

‘Nothing much,' Campbell could almost hear Samuels
thinking, ‘except that whoever's privately underwriting the deal is going to considerable pain to
keep their identity secret.'

‘And this leads you to speculate that the First Family is
involved?'

‘That's what I'd like you to establish, Stew.'

‘It will take a few days.'

‘Guess we'll just have to live with that.'

‘All right,' Campbell agreed, ‘I'll get onto it right
away.'

‘Thanks, Stew, I'll be waiting for your call.'

Stewart Campbell slowly replaced the receiver, considering
his friend's inquiry. He knew that BGC had been unsuccessful with its general exploration program
and had heard from Mines Department colleagues, that BGC was one of the foreign mining companies
currently under review with respect to their failure to meet work commitments on their block. He
instructed Laila to request an appointment with the Ministry, then started phoning around to see
if the local market had already picked up anything relative to Samuel's request.

The next day, during his meeting with the Director General
of Mines' personal assistant, Campbell was given a list of all recent applications for general
exploration in Kalimantan. Amongst these was a British Virgin Islands' registered company, called
Dominion Mining, and he was surprised to discover the speed at which approvals had been issued,
giving the offshore company rights over the area designated Longdamai. When he ran his eye down
the detailed information sheet and discovered Eric Baird's name listed as the consulting
geologist, Campbell immediately concluded that Dominion Mining was, in some way, associated with
Kremenchug – and therefore linked in some way to BGC.

****

When the summons came, Eric Baird had hurried to the
office where he found Subroto in one of his moods.
‘What is our involvement with this company,
Dominion Mining?'
Subroto shuffled papers officiously, in a loose file.
‘I was asked by
the Mines people today, and couldn't tell them anything.'

‘I was asked to submit an application on their behalf
for acreage along the Mahakam,'
Baird explained.

‘You, personally?'
the
tone was accusatory.

‘Yes, Pak,'
Baird
answered, realizing that he should have kept Subroto better informed.
‘At this time there's
nothing much in it – I'm hoping that we will get some of the consultancy work, that's
all.'

‘Who's behind Dominion Mining?'

Baird wished to avoid naming Kremenchug because there was
history between the parties.
‘It's a British Virgin Islands company,'
he said, hoping that
would suffice.

‘British what?'

‘A Caribbean company, Pak,'
Baird squirmed, expecting Subroto to push for more.

‘Dominion Mining is a British company?'

‘Not exactly, Pak,'
Baird cursed himself for not having laid the groundwork for his sponsor cum partner.
‘Obviously, the company has been set up by the principals, to avoid paying
taxes.'