Listing of companies holding mining concessions for natural asphalts

Mining concession for asphalt ( Kuasa Pertambangan / KP) are issued by the head of districts ( Bupati) or city mayor ( walikota) and the technical implementation is done by the regional office of mining and mineral resources. Up to the end of 2009, Buton Utara (Butur) district has issued 17 mining concessions ( KPs), however of this total, 4 concessions were revoked. According to local mining and mineral offices , these KPs have to deposit a commitment guarantee of Rp 10,000 / hectare. These amount of guarantee will be returned by the mining office upon the implementation of exploitation activities. Because the licenses were issued by Bupati the records on these KPs are scatterred and there is no centralized data of these informations. Even, the provincial government has no good records on these mining licenses. In additions to the unorganized record of mining concessions, there are also issues that some of the concessions areas are overlapped with forest protection areas that creates critisism from some NGOs concerned with environmental protections. In the meantime, there are indications that the mining concessions areas are divided and issued by the local district offices without proper evaluations. The Ministry of Public Works (PU) that promotes the use of natural asphalt ( Asbuton) and has set up targets of utilizing Asbuton in road constructions concerns with the implementations of the mining activities and criticised the local district government of the slowdown in mining project implementations. Because of the slowing mining and production activities, PU targets to use Asbuton were not able to achieved over the last three years. The study found out that the following companies hold asphalt mining concessions in Buton. Table 1 Selected companies holding asphalt mining concessions
Concession holders PT Raodah Bumi Sultra PT Bumi Bintang Timur PT Karya Megah Buton Total area (ha) 1968 and 1974 1980 2000 , 3225 , 3319 Location North Buton North Buton North Buton

Concession holders PT Nusa Permata Kusuma PT Prosper Estu Mining PT Bintang Tambang Makmur PT Bumi Konawe Jaya PT Artindo Perfekta PT Tunggal Cipta Karya PT Putindo Bintech 1 PT Summitama Intinu PT Olah Bumi Elcipta PT Mega Utama Indah PT Yuman Jaya Tama PT Putindo Bintech 2 PT Sarana Karya KP Eksplorasi aspal PT Buton asphalt Indonesia PT Metrix Elcipta PT Karunia Alam Indonesia PT Asia Mineral Samudra PT Imperial Resources PT Timah Tbk PT Titrasantana Indah Permata PT Cendana Baja Bahari PT Metrix Elcipta PT Sino Prosper Indocarbon
Source: PU, local mining offices and others

Total area (ha) 1306.96 , 1661.06 and 1998 1501 and 1384 2000 and 2000 1950 1000 882.2 and 1000 1546 980 1136 494 1517 1383 1098 1585 20,000

Location North Buton North Buton North Buton North Buton North Buton North Buton

exploitation

Assestment of existing condition of asphalt concession holders As discussed earlier, the exploitation of the asphalt mining areas goes very slowly due to lacks of infrastructure facilities, lack of proper technology as well as lack of commitments for concession holders to materialize their mining projects. Most of the concessions are still in general study stage and exploration stage, some of them even have not any activities. Several companies which have exploited their mining concession areas in the past have suspended their operation due to various factors such as technical problems, marketing problems and also infrastructure problems.

The study identified that there are seven companies which have exploited their mining concessions . PT. Buton Asphalt Indonesia, PT. Putindo Bintech PT. Karya Megah Buton PT Yuman Jaya Tama PT Sarana Karya PT. Amerta Margasaya Aspal (PT. AMA) PT Olah Bumi Elcipta

Of the above companies, PT Buton Asphalt Indonesia, PT Putindo Bintech and PT Karya Megah Buton belongs to same group of companies known as Kapal Api group. The company produces granuled aspalt known as Buton Rock Asphalat ( BRA) with specification 5/20, 15/20 and 15/25 bitument penetrations. Their products are partly exported .