Batu Hijau Bootcamp

Meskipun baru beberapa kali membacakan dongeng buat anak-anak, saya rindu mendongeng. Sudah beberapa bulan saya absen di kegiatan-kegiatan Buku Berkaki yang biasanya menjadi media untuk berinteraksi dengan anak kecil. Haha bukan saya suka anak kecil, cuma menikmati masuk dan ikut dalam pikiran-pikiran mereka.

Bulan lalu, setelah lama di rumah cuma liburan dan leyeh-leyeh, akhirnya ada lagi kesempatan main dengan anak-anak kecil lewat kegiatan yang benar-benar tidak terduga: Batu Hijau Bootcamp.

Saya tidak pernah terpikir kalau kami, alumni Newmont Bootcamp dari semua batch akan difasilitasi untuk saling bertemu, mengenal. Umm..bukan cuma bertemu dan mengenal, tapi juga melakukan hal yang lebih bermanfaat: berbagi. 

Batu Hijau Bootcamp adalah perjalanan dari Timur ke barat yang di setiap kota singgahnya para alumni Newmont Bootcamp kota itu akan melakukan aksi sosial bersama. Dimulai dari Sumbawa, Surabaya, Jogja, dan Jakarta. Makin barat, makin ramai. 

Saya mulai ikut dari Jogja. Kami singgah di Yayasan Rumah Belajar Kreatif Kaki Gunung Merapi (YRBK Kagem). Ada puluhan anak-anak usia SD sampai SMP yang aktif datang dan belajar di Kagem. Rata-rata orang tua mereka adalah buruh, referensi jenis pekerjaan yang mereka tahu pun terbatas. Makanya kami diajak kemari untuk berbagi tentang pekerjaan apa yang kami lakukan.

Saya sempat ngobrol dengan beberapa anak-anak di Kagem, katanya mereka suka Kagem karena di sana ada kakak-kakak yang membantu belajar apa saja, ada buku-buku bacaan juga buat mereka. Dari yang saya lihat saat pertama kali menjejak tempat itu ya memang benar, di sana ada kakak-kakak relawan yang rata-rata adalah mahasiswa. Kagem juga punya koleksi buku bacaan untuk walaupun belum banyak. Jalan Kaliurang kilometer 10, masih di kaki Gunung Merapi. Semoga semakin banyak buku yang mereka punya nanti sehingga mereka tak kalah saing dengan teman-temannya di kota besar. Kalau saya ke Jogja lagi, pasti akan mampir ke sana lagi. To drop some books, to read some stories maybe :)

Kalau ada kakak-kakak yang sedang di Jogja, kepo tentang Kagem, mereka punya instagram loh: @kagemjogja.

Hanya sehari di Jogja, perjalanan kami berlanjut menuju Jakarta Selatan. Yayasan Al-Hasyim. Belajar mengetik dan menggambar menggunakan laptop. Yang paling saya ingat di sini adalah seorang anak perempuan kelas 4 atau 5 SD begitu sedih karena pisah kelompok dengan teman sekelasnya. Di kelompok baru ia merasa tidak diterima. Teman-teman kelompok barunya pun memang agak 'susah menerima' anggota baru kelompok mereka ini. Si anak kecil yang sendirian ini awalnya gak mau bicara sama sekali. Saya kira dia bisu selektif *duh, lebay*. Tapi setelah beberapa waktu saya coba ajak bicara, akhirnya dia mau ngobrol sama saya! Seneng! Dia juga bersemangat sekali waktu belajar mengetik namanya. Dan seluruh anggota kelompok ini melakukannya bergiliran :)

***

Senang sekali bisa mengunjungi mereka. Senang sekali berkenalan dengan alumni batches sebelumnya. Senang sekali bisa menjadi bagian kecil dari keluarga Newmont Bootcamp. 

Beberapa momen bisa jadi begitu berpengaruh dalam hidup kita, buat saya momen Newmont Bootcamp adalah salah satunya. 

Berkenalan dan menjadi teman dari orang-orang hebat di bidangnya masing-masing. Melihat dan membaca perspektif mereka. Saya senang, walaupun cuma menjadi tim hore. Mereka menjadi motivasi tersendiri buat saya.

Bekasi, 12/09/2016 22:09

Kadek Dwika

Readmore → Batu Hijau Bootcamp

Copper Production 101

"Everything in life that is not grown must come from the ground" - The KIN Catalyst

The world needs mining. What would it be our world without mining? No copper for wire, no steel for construction, no cement for building houses, no gold for computer chips, and so many more things we wouldn't have without mining. Our daily life with mining industries is so close yet so far. We use its final product everyday but we never know its journey from ground to our house.

Today we use cellphone, laptop, watch TV, lamps everywhere and all of them are needing conductor to connect to electricity source. The problem is conductor are hid deep beneath the ground. It takes deep enough digging till you reach it. That's why we need mining. However, from mining we cannot obtain pure gold, copper, iron, etc as needed to be the conductor but we obtain ore instead. Mining is only a start for other processes to produce the cables we use everywhere till we become so used to it and barely notice it. 

This post will be about processes involved in producing our home electricity cables from the ground. I collected the information mostly from the explanation i got while participating in Newmont Sustainable Mining Bootcamp with addition of some googled information as cited.

Mining Process

Land with rich mineral content such as copper or gold or other minerals usually found in a remote area. Indonesia is one lucky country that has many minerals deposit beneath its land and sea. One of the deposit was found in west part of Sumbawa Island which later they called it Batu Hijau mine. Batu Hijau mine is a porphyry copper deposit with gold and silver as associated minerals. Every tonne of processed ores generates an average of 4.87 kilograms of copper and 0.37 grams of gold.

When they firstly found copper in Batu Hijau, that area was just a land covered by trees. In order to run the operation, they clear the land from its trees. Top soil, the fertile layer of land, is pared then placed in for some time and will be re-used for reclamation.

Mining Process (source: PTNNT)

After land clearing, they prepared for drilling and blasting which makes the rocks crumble. Rocks then carried based on its copper content (high, medium, low, or waste). High copper content ore will go directly through crusher. Medium and low copper content ore will be placed in stockpile and the rest without copper content will be placed in the waste dump. Ore in stockpile also will be processed later.

Ore Processing

This process aim to obtain concentrate from ore. Ore firstly crushed into smaller pieces and then enter the grinding process till it become a very small particles. Then the valuable minerals are separated from the rocks that have no economical value through flotation processes. Flotation produced side waste called Tailing which isn't harmful and placed in deep sea water.

Ore Processing (source: PTNNT)

The valuable mineral gained from flotation process then go through dewatering process which decrease the water level to 8-9% to what we called concentrate. Concentrate shipped to the smelter which then process it to be anothere semi finished materials.

Copper Concentrate Processing

Concentate from PTNNT shipped to PT Smelting in Gresik and other companies abroad. Here the concentrate go through several advance processes to become copper cathode as it's main product. Copper cathode is the main material to produce copper rod and wire.

Copper Concentrate Processing (source: PT Smelting)

Side product from smelting such as copper slag, anode slime, copper telluride, gypsum, and sulfuric acid will be sold to other companies to be used as a material for producing cement, fertilizer, etc.

Copper Rod and Copper Wire Processing

Copper cathode melted using a certain-process-i-will-not-explain-in-detail and then go through continuous casting and rolling processes to form the desirable specification.

Continuous casting and rolling (source: kaktur.ru)

Copper Rod Packed

Source: kaktur.ru

To produce a copper wire we use at home, the copper rod has to enter the drawing process till the diameter meets the specification. It will be covered using isolator such as pvc or else depends on the its function. After going through some testing steps, it will be delivered to warehouses and retailers. Some electronics company will buy it B2B to complete their product. Some other companies will buy it to install electricity in their construction project of building hospital or school or mall or airport or military base, or any construction. While we you usually buy it from the retailer or maybe online nowdays.

Tada! Your copper wire has arrived!

Now you know that you depend a huge part of your life in mining industries.

Readmore → Copper Production 101

Mosaic of Stories Collected Around PTNNT

It was on my early college life that Kak Bayu told me some stories about PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara. Nope, he didn't worked in that company but he knew many stories about life inside PTNNT and life around the mining ring. Some of them are "The company pay high for photographers to take a picture of a small village like Maluk!" or "They have school inside" or "Maluk is expensive, I remembered which place has the most reasonable price to eat" or "It's very hot there more over in Concentrator. When we decide who will be in Condentrator, duh..." or "I sleep inside a container!" or "They label the menu, healthy or unhealthy. You choose". Some other story are about beautiful beaches around there like Tropical Beach or Maluk Beach and the story about 'bule-bule' love to surf there. And his story was a trigger to my eager to visit PTNNT.

When I went there as a participant of Newmont Sustainable Mining Bootcamp, I am very excited to see what Kak Bayu has told me before. About the company, about living around, and about the beaches.

***

I met Pak Budi and Bli Gede. Photographer and Videographer of PTNNT. I didn't asked how high the company pay them but well, at least i found that it's true PTNNT really hire professional photographers! The first company that their core business isn't entertainment related and hire professional photographers i knew was PTNNT. 

On the 2nd or 3rd day of the Bootcamp, Melo, Afi, and I accidentally had breakfast in the same table with 2 teachers of Buin Batu school, a school for employees' kids who lived in the Town Site. This is also the first time I knew that teached can work for a mining company! (Under the school name of course). They told me a little about the school. It was elementary school and junior high with total of 700s students (if I wasn't mistaken). One of them also showed us how to smuggle bread out from the mess hall (since it's forbidden, there're sign written on the exit door but i didn't capture it) hahaha. 

Entrance of Tambora Mess Hall

***

When we (Group 2 of Newmont Bootcamp) stayed at Bapak Arifin's house in Maluk, I found that Maluk is expensive like Kak Bayu told me. Bapak Arifin owns 'kos-kosan' which priced 1.5 mio per room per month. Whoa! That room has a bathroom inside, no air conditioner. My room in Menteng Atas, South Jakarta priced as the same with bathroom and air cond inside. Can you imagine that? Maluk has same expensive 'kosan' price as Jakarta! Whereas in my hometown, Singaraja (Bali) which is technically a city, much more crowded than Maluk and even has KFC, one big university, some cute cafes, more concrete building, but without mining of course, 'kosan' like that is only 400-500 K. Well, as I learned in product development class, price can be also determined by purchasing power of the targeted customer. And targeted customers of 'kosan' in Maluk are those comers who work for PTNNT who got living allowance if they are not living in the townsite (another info from Kak Bayu :p). And the allowance is much higher compare to price of 'kosan'. So, ya, they will take it of course.

Maluk in The Morning From Pak Arifin's House

But it's not only the 'kosan', i found that price of a pair of sandals is nearly 2 times higher there. A pair of sandal I used to buy for 30 K is priced 65K there. After some bargaining, i pay for 50K.  I knew that because I bought one. Someone took mine when I was changing my clothes in a public toilet in Maluk Beach after swimming and then I bought the new one in a shop right under Pak Arifin's House. (I think that was his place too, rented to be used as a shop hmm Pak Arifin must be very rich hehehe).

Maluk in The Morning...(2)

***

We arrived in the Town Site when it's dark already so we just jump to our room because we're all very tired after those air-land-water-land long trip to reach this place. I did not notice how was the our building until the next morning. Our room was made from stacked container box. Pak Khun, a participant of Bootcamp describe it as "Sederhana, fungsional, gak kalah dengan hotel budget."

I remembered that every morning I left the room I always turned off the AC but in the evening I came back there the AC was always turned back. Then I realized that maybe it is because the rooms are made from container box which is made from metal. If the AC turned off, when we're back it will be as hot as hell and produce smell like an old sock. I came up with this thought after noticing an unused room left with the door closed but the window stayed opened...or maybe the window opened because the last person used it forget to close it? Nah, it's just my theory~ The point is that the room made of container. Offices building also made temporal with material that look alike the metal sheet used for container. No concrete as I noticed.

Our Rooms, T3

***

In this paragraph I should end this post beautifully so people will come again to read follow through. But unfortunately, I am just a bad-skilled-for-making-a-good-ending-amateur-blogger. So, ya, i left the post here. Next post will be about the sexy beaches. 

Have a nice day!

Menteng Atas, 08.03.16

Kadek Dwika

Readmore → Mosaic of Stories Collected Around PTNNT

Sustainable Mining Practice in Batu Hijau

I was wondering why does the program named "Newmont Sustainable Mining Bootcamp"? Why not just "Newmont Mining Bootcamp"? And then I ended up googling "sustainable mining" keyword. I found some interesting article about that topic, read some of them, related it to what I got during the program and came up with a conclusion: Newmont is promoting that their mining practice is sustainable. Is it? 

Let's start with the definition. Following a report named ‘Our Common Future’ published by 1983 World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED). "Sustainable Development" is defined as:

“Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’’

There are 3 fundamental components of sustainable development highlighted in the report: environmental protection, economic growth and social equity. 

I think during the program, Newmont tried to show us how far they got in achieving sustainable mining practice in that 3 fundamental things. Our 7-days program was broken down to some clusters: (1) mining experience, (2) process experience, (3) environmental experience, and (4) education, social and agriculture experience. We were given a chance to not only see, but also ask and reconfirm the issues we heard outside related to the 4 experiences they promised. I remembered in process experience session, a participant asked whether the issue that PTNNT mined minerals else than copper, gold, and silver (in the other words: is it true that PTNNT mined Uranium from Batu Hijau site as the issue out there). I also remembered other fellow participant asked about the effect of deep sea water tailing placement. Well, they answer it all clearly. Even for that question, they invited participants to join the survey upon tailing area so they can really see what really happen there. Here I learned that transparency is the key and explaining isn't enough, you better take them to see it directly :D

Back to the sustainable mining thing. 

1. Environmental protection

To be honest, i am amazed on how this mining company maintain the environment. They take a good care not only to the land they opened for operation but also to land around mining areas. From nearly 3000 hectares of land disturbed, they have done reclamation in over 800 hectares (about 27%). Fyi, PTNNT was firstly operated in 2000 and planned to be closed around 2038. As I read on a regulation paper issued by Kementrian ESDM (Permen ESDM 07 2014), the reclamation is divided into 3 phase: exploration phase, operation phase, and after-operation phase. That regulation also stated that the standard for reclamation is 80% in the after-operation phase. In the middle of their operation phase, PTNNT already done reclamation of 27% and still counting. I think it's a good stats.

Re-planting in reclamation land

In the environmental experience session, i just knew that reclamation is a big deal. It involves many processes and much dollars. Money is invested not only for filling the hole with soil, but also for re-vegetation and monitor of reclamation land. If i wasn't mistaken, it cost $1.5 million per hectare for reclamation, excluding the monitoring budget. This year they targeted 35 hectare areas of reclamation. Big money.

Reclamation form year to year

Anyway, it's not just about the money. There is a wisdom they put while doing reclamation. Trees re-planted there are the tree that once grown there. The reclamation land hopefully can be recovered as much as possible, re-creating ecosystem to be as similar as it used to be before mining. They also re-planted trees that are saved from land clearing. When they open the land, they not just cut down it all. Young trees are saved to be re-planted on reclamation. Touchy, no? On that day, Bunda Intan got a chance to symbolically plant the tree. It was one that saved from land clearing they said. One more fun fact: eagles that were lived in that area before mining have returned after land successfully recovered thru reclamation. Who's happy to be home again? (as a little girl, i always happy to hear that such fact).

Local plantation's seed

Environmental protection in the other side is including water protection and preservation. That day, we visited Santong 3, a cavity where acid water produced from mining (called acid mining drainage) activities accommodated. The Environmental Department maintain it regularly to make sure that it won't jumbled with fresh water form the virgin forests so water for local society around the mining site does not affected. Ground water from reclamation land also separated and monitored first in a small canal. If it matched the standard applied, the water will be released to the fresh water body. If not, the it will be released to Santong 3. They maintain the water system in such a way so that bad quality and harmful water does not flow out from the mining area.

Santong 3

Moving to sea environment protection.

As they placed tailing under deep sea water, this company also preserve life of the ecosystem down there. Environmental Department does regular monitoring to tailing placement area to see the effect of the placement to the ecosystem. So far so good as they reported. They found macro benthos on the tip of the tailing pipe. Living macro benthos. 

Other action they do for protecting sea environment is planting reef balls and turtle conservation. I got a chance to release a baby turtle. I named it Franklin ehehe. Oh i wish Franklin could struggle in the wild world out there. I hope he's still alive and didn't preyed by hawk or big fish to be honest.

The ready to release turtles

Little Franklin aginst the world

2. Economic Growth

On the 5th and 6th day of the program, we were sleep over at a local's house. We can see how life goes outside the mining ring. Our group were placed in Maluk, a small town that was only an isolated village with 60s families before PTNNT operated. Mining opertion gives a very significant impact to local's economic growth. But somehow, if the economic growth is completely dependent to mine operation, it won't sustain. I think that truth was well identified by the company. Therefore they established many community development program to support and maintain local's economy.

For example, in the early phase of re-vegetation, they need coconet to protect soil from erosion. Coconet is produced by PT. Ridho Bersama, a local community development located in Sekongkang, Kabupaten Sumbawa Barat. PT Ridho Bersama employed dozens of mostly housewifes around Sekongkang so they can help their family's financial. There are demands for coconet out there from Korea and China, not only demand from PTNNT. I think if this micro business managed well, they will surely sustain.

Coconet making

In Kertasari, the company supports a coast village to be a centre of seaweed cultivation. 
In Jereweh, the company supports Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) production by locals.

The company encourages locals to plant productive plants, they provide the seedlings for free!

The company also support tourism development for example in Mantar for Paragliding.

Seeweed Farmer in Kertasari

The company hope one day when they leave Batu Hijau, local communities can be independently take care of their economy. Another touchy wisdom.

3. Social equity

Fact that maybe most people doesn't know (i've wrote this on prev post too): from around 7.000 employees including contractors hired, only less than 1% of them is foreigner. The rest of them came from local Sumbawa and Indonesia. However, some locals who didn't know that number still complaining the company to hire them.

The company in the other side have also tried to enhance local's community life standard by helping the fulfilling their basic needs: water. By building 7 bendung, it helped locals access to clean water. PTNNT CSR program are very well defined and have a certain time bound till 2038. So bad that i didn't captured it from the presentation.

Back in days, I remembered that the first day we arrived here, a company officer remind that all of us there (including PTNNT) are comers and we should respect locals. Either it local community, local culture, local environment. And I think, social equity as a component of sustainable development has already applied here. And they already got the acceptance from locals.

***

As stated in the white paper, the company license to operate is also depending on how locals accept the company. I think PTNNT already get the acceptance and moreover hearts of many locals from the way they treat people around mining site.

"The industry supports roughly 45% of the world’s economic activities, according to the white paper. Yet it’s impossible to carry out large-scale mining without leaving social and environmental scars." - The Guardian

That's true. It's impossible to carry out large-scale mining without leaving social and environmental scars. But a company which adopt the sustainable value in their practice should be able to minimize and at least medicate those hurtful scars.  And somehow, after visiting the site, I put a little hope on this company: i hope they can implement more and more sustainable values in their practice. And even if they leave scars, i hope it will be a beautiful scar. A beautiful one to remember.

I have no capacity to judge if the mining practice in Batu Hijau is Sustainable or not since I do not have any certain key parameters and indicators. I just compare what I see during the program to what i read about how it should be in a very qualitative way. 

Menteng Atas, 27/02/2016

Kadek Dwika

References: 

http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/jan/05/sustainable-mining-business-poverty-environment-new-framework

"Reinventing Mining: Creating Sustainable Value". KIN Catalyst.

"Presentasi Pengelolaan Lingkungan PTNNT". PTNNT Environmental Department Presentation. 

Readmore → Sustainable Mining Practice in Batu Hijau

Sebongkah Cerita dari Batu Hijau

Apa rasanya 8 hari mengikuti Newmont Bootcamp? 

Senang sekali! dan...lelah~ kegiatan kami di tambang padat sekali kakak.. Bangun pagi pulang malam :p tapi percayalah, semuanya terbayar bahkan melampaui ekspektasi saya. Kegiatan kami selalu dimulai sebelum pukul 6 pagi dan biasanya baru benar-benar bisa istirahat pukul 10 malam (bahkan ada hari-hari yang baru bisa tidurnya pukul 1 pagi).

Jadi bagian senangnya di mana?

Jelas banyak. Pertama, saya sangat senang bisa melihat langsung bagaimana operasi tambang dijalankan, melihat truk monster, dan terkagum-kagum dengan besarnya industri ini. Kedua, banyak fakta baru tentang pertambangan yang bahkan tidak pernah saya bayangkan sebelumnya (misal: reklamasi bukanlah satu hal kecil, ada waktu, tenaga, dan yang tidak sedikit diinvestasikan untuk mewujudkannya; ada driver haul truck perempuan; etc). Ketiga, bisa melihat sendiri apakah yang mereka (PTNNT) sampaikan di media sosialnya tentang kesungguhan terhadap lingkungan dan sosial sekitar tambang hanya pencitraan atau tidak. Keempat, bertemu dengan orang-orang hebat dari berbagai latar belakang, saya banyak sekali belajar dari mereka. Kelima, bisa menikmati indahnya alam Sumbawa (yang walaupun panas sekali ternyata, hehe).

***

What did You See in Batu Hijau Mining Site?

1. Mulai dari bagaimana teraturnya hidup di dalam lingkungan tambang.

Semua orang yang berada di area tambang punya ID Card yang harus digunakan ke mana pun. Kalau mau makan, harus scan ID Card, mau keluar atau masuk area tambang pun harus scan ID Card. Jadi kalau ID Card-nya hilang, ya gak bisa makan, gak bisa kemana-mana. (Sayang sekali gak ada foto ID Card, habis nama saya salah sih ._.)

Wajib Sabuk Pengaman

Selain itu, tidak sembarang orang boleh mengendarai mobil di area ini (motor gak boleh masuk, ya). Mereka harus punya SIM yang di keluarkan oleh PTNNT sendiri. Bagian yang membuat saya kagum adalah setiap orang yang berkendara di sini sangat taat pada rambu lalu lintas. Mereka berhenti di setiap tanda stop, membunyikan klakson 2 kali saat akan maju, membunyikan klakson 3 kali saat akan mundur, memastikan penumpang bus memakai seatbelt, berkendara dengan kecepatan sesuai batas yang ditentukan (walaupun jalannya sepi, mereka tetap ada di dalam batas). Bahkan, ketika kami keluar area tambang, driver bus yang kami tumpangi tetap melakukan kebiasaan mereka dalam hal mengklakson. 

Wondering how did they do it? Well, kalau driver melanggar peraturan berkendara, SIM (issued by PTNNT) mereka akan dilubangi. Kalau lubangnya sudah 3, berarti mereka gak boleh bawa kendaraan lagi di sana yang juga berarti...they will lose their job (kalau pekerjaannya adalah sebagai driver). Mengingat operasi pertambangan memang penuh risiko dan harus dijalankan dengan menjunjung tinggi keselamatan kerja, keteraturan dalam berkendara memang sudah seharusnya menjadi suatu hal yang wajib. (Tapi tetap saja menurut saya ini keren sekali, apalagi dibandingkan dengan kelakuan pengendara di jalanan ibu kota...)

Jejer-jejer lucu

2. Huge haul truck and the big great hole.

Meskipun sudah jadi mahasiswa tahun terakhir (yang telat yudisium karena lebih memilih ikut Newmont Bootcamp), ada jiwa anak anak yang selalu senang melihat hal-hal imajinatif dari masa kecilnya di depan mata. Salah satunya adalah haul truck, truk berkapasitas 240 ton yang digunakan untuk mengangkut batuan yang mengandung mineral (tembaga, emas, perak) dari lubang tambang menuju mesin penghancur (crusher). When I saw it, i feel like "OMG! It's real! I see the monster!". Belum bisa membayangkan haul truck sebesar apa? Take a look at the pic. Bahkan kita bisa duduk duduk manis ngadem di kolong truk ini (jangan diikuti, kemarin kami kena marah :p haha). Tebak berapa harga ban truk monster ini! Clue: seharga city car yang bagus atau mungkin lebih. Satu haul truck punya 6 ban yang dipakainya cuma tahan sampai 6 bulan. Oya, melihat Ford Ranger putih diparkir berjejer rapih juga salah satu hal yang bikin saya senang. 

The Monster Truck

Monster Truck and Me

Monster Truck and Me (2)

Menuju Pit

Hal lain yang juga menakjubkan menurut saya adalah lubang tambang. Guede! Dalamnya sampai -240m, diameternya sampai 2,7 km. Dan kalau diintip dalamnya ada genangan air berwarna turquoise. Cantik. Fyi, genangan air itu ada akibat hujan haha. Kalau dilihat-lihat sih, lubang tambang ini mirip stadion bola. Ya kan?

Mine Pit

3. Long way to produce concentrate.

Sebelum datang ke Batu Hijau, pernah sih saya baca tentang bagaimana proses penambangan yang dilakukan PTNNT di websitenya. Tapi karena belum pernah melihat tambang secara langsung, pemahaman saya masih parsial. Terbayang sih, tapi setelah dilihat langsung, ternyata prosesnya lebih menarik daripada penjelasan booklet yang saya download. Dari yang saya baca, saya tahu PTNNT menghasilkan konsentrat, bukan emas batangan, tapi sejujurnya saya tidak pernah terbayang bentuk konsentrat seperti apa, bagaimana disimpannya, dan sebanyak apa yang disimpan.

Untuk menghasilkan konsentrat, proses awalnya adalah proses penambangan yang dimulai dengan kegiatan pengeboran dan peledakan. Kegiatan itu menyebabkan terlepasnya batu-batuan berukuran relatif besar (diameter sekitar 25 cm). Batuan tersebut kemudian diangkut oleh haul truck menuju mesin penghancur sehingga batuannya jadi makin kecil (diameter kurang dari 15 cm). Bijih batuan ini selanjutnya diangkut ke pabrik pengolahan dengan bantuan ban berjalan (conveyor). Di sini, bijih digerus menjadi partikel halus. Untuk memisahkan mineral berharga dari pengotornya, dilakukanlah proses flotasi secara fisika yang tidak menggunakan zat kimia berbahaya dan hanya dalam jumlah terbatas. Pada proses ini akan terbentuk gelembung-gelembung udara yang mengambang ke atas wadah flotasi. Gelembung tadi adalah tempat menempelnya mineral berharga. Nah, mineral berharga yang menempel pada permukaan gelembung inilah yang disebut konsentrat. Tapi sebelum siap dikirim ke berbagai tempat untuk menjalani proses pemisahan dan pengambilan logam berharga, konsentrat ini harus dikeringkan terlebih dahulu sehinga bentuknya menjadi seperti pasir yang sangat halus dengan kilau-kilau jika terkena cahaya.

Batuan (diameter < 15 cm) sampai di Concentrator Plant

Mill untuk menggerus batuan menjadi partikel halus

Walking around Concentrator plant

Proses Flotasi, Gelembung Berselimut Konsentrat

Konsentrat mengandung sekitar 25-30% tembaga, 10-15 ppm emas. Atau sederhananya dalam 1 ton konsentrat ada 250-300 kg tembaga, 10-15 gram emas.

Eh tapi belum selesai di sana. Ada hal lain yang tak kalah penting untuk diurus selain tembaga, emas, dan perak yang tadi didapat: tailing. Tailing adalah lumpur yang tersisa dari proses flotasi. Tailing ditempatkan di bawah wilayah laut yang produktif secara biologis melalui pipa sepanjang 6 km di darat dan 3.4 km dari garis pantai hingga tepi palung laut di Teluk Senunu. Tailing akan turun dengan sendirinya ke palung laut karena kepadatan dan berat jenisnya. Tailing tidak dibiarkan begitu saja. Penempatannya di dasar laut selalu dipantau secara berkala untuk memastikan dampak potensial yang minimal bagi lingkungan (terumbu karang, biota laut, mutu air).

Tailing, wujudnya seperti lumpur

Sistem Pipa Tailing

Jadi, terbayang kan sekarang, kenapa harga logam-logam itu mahal? Harga jualnya harus menutup selain biaya proses penambangan dan pengolahan, tetapi juga biaya untuk penempatan dan pemantauan tailing, serta biaya yang harus mereka keluarkan untuk mereklamasi area tambang. Belum lagi biaya untuk CSR...

Gunung Konsentrat di Benete, Ready to Ship

4. Reklamasi bukan perkara ringan

Reklamasi adalah salah satu topik yang menurut saya sangat menarik untuk dibahas. Intinya sih, reklamasi merupakan upaya untuk mengembalikan lahan yang dibuka untuk pertambangan sehingga risiko rusaknya lingkungan bisa diminimalkan. Hinggal tahun 2013, PTNNT telah mereklamasi 725 hektar lahan dari total 2,532 hektar lahan yang dibuka. 

Karena saya sangat excited menceritakan apa yang saya lihat tentang reklamasi di Batu Hijau, selengkapnya akan dibahas dalam satu artikel tersendiri (which will be posted soon!).

Lahan yang baru direklamasi akhir 2015

5. Transparansi

Selama di Batu Hijau, peserta Newmont Bootcamp bisa bertanya apa saja tentang seluk beluk tambang. Semua pertanyaan tersebut dijawab oleh pakarnya dengan sejelas mungkin. Kami pun diberikan kesempatan berkunjung ke kantor-kantor mereka, melihat langsung apa yang mereka kerjakan. 

Ruang kontrol concentrator

Peserta selalu sangat bersemangat untuk bertanya di setiap bagian yang kami datangi. Bagaimana tidak? Tambang bukanlah hal yang umum dijamah. Kesempatan ini dimanfaatkan sebaik-baiknya untuk benar-benar mengenal tambang. Banyak diantaranya membawa buku catatan kecil, ada juga yang ketik-ketik di note smartphone-nya, bahkan ada yang lebih niat lagi, Ibu Evi (mungkin karena sudah begitu berpengalaman urusan menggali informasi) sampai punya semacam voice recorder kecil yang beliau gantungkan di leher. I wish I had one, hehe. 

Tulisan ini hanya sebongkah dari apa yang saya temukan di Batu Hijau. Akan ada lebih banyak banyak lagi hal yang akan saya ceritakan tentang Newmont Sustainable Mining Bootcamp kemarin.  I labelled it #NewmontBootcamp.

See you on the next post!

Menteng Atas, 24/02/2016

Kadek Dwika

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