Authorities at Indonesia’s largest port seized hundreds of kilograms of the toxic heavy metal mercury in late April. The bust reflects the vast scale of illegal mining underway in forests across much of Southeast Asia amid record-high gold prices.
“This mercury was to be shipped to the Philippines using manipulated customs documents, so that the cargo appeared to be textiles, clothing and carpets,” Victor Dean Mackbon, special investigations lead with the Jakarta Police, told Mongabay Indonesia.
Police and customs officials said the 760 bottles of mercury were packed in cardboard and concealed within 145 rolls of carpet. Investigators allege the mercury was procured in Indonesia for a buyer in Davao, on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.
Mercury is widely used to separate gold from crushed ore by miners in the illegal sector. But the heavy metal is also a potent neurotoxin linked to developmental disorders in children, as well as severe cognitive, neurological and physical impairment in adults.
Authorities have questioned nine people over the Jakarta seizure, and charged two — the alleged supplier and alleged exporter — with violations of trade and mining laws, for which they could face up to four years in jail. Victor said the suspected trafficking route may have been used to ship mercury to the Philippines since 2021.
Davao, the alleged destination of the mercury consignment, is the political stronghold of the Duterte clan. Davao City’s former mayor, Rodrigo Duterte, appointed environmentalist Gina Lopez as the country’s environment secretary upon taking office as president in 2016. Lopez shuttered dozens of mines over environmental violations in what was one of the world’s most-aggressive crackdowns on the extractive industry. She died in 2019.
Tragedies continue to strike the Philippines’ mining sector. In February 2024, 98 people were killed in a landslide at a mining site in Davao de Oro, a gold-rich municipality to the east of Davao City.
“
This mercury was to be shipped to the Philippines using manipulated customs documents, so that the cargo appeared to be textiles, clothing and carpets.
Victor Dean Mackbon, special investigations lead, Jakarta Police
Challenges facing authorities
Dyah Paramita, an environmental lawyer at the Center for Regional Policy and Governance, a think tank, said investigators should also look into the role of the exporting company. If prosecutors can establish negligence, willful blindness or complicity, she said, the company could potentially face liability.
“[The shipping company] has shipped this kind of item to the Philippines many times,” Dyah said.
Dyah pointed to a regulation enacted 25 years ago requiring the registration of hazardous materials for export, including mercury. However, the system remains poorly integrated with export customs controls, creating opportunities for overseas shipments to evade monitoring, she said.
“Nationally, because we have ratified the Minamata Convention, through presidential decree and its implementing regulations, the use of mercury should have been phased out or eliminated,” Dyah said.
The Minamata Convention, named for the community in a port town in Japan contaminated by mercury pollution, entered into force in 2017 as the global framework to restrict the use of mercury.
Illegal gold mining remains Indonesia’s largest source of mercury emissions, despite long-standing scientific warnings and the country’s obligations under the Minamata Convention.
Mercury in Indonesia is itself mined, mostly from cinnabar deposits on the west of Seram Island, in the eastern Maluku region of Indonesia.
Yuyun Ismawati Drwiega, founder of the Nexus3 Foundation, an environmental advocacy group, said mercury demand is likely tied to the sustained surge in the international price of gold. Shifts in the global economy alongside new geopolitical risks pushed the price of gold above US$5,000 per ounce in May, more than three times the price before the coronavirus pandemic began in early 2020.
In April, authorities at Halim Airport in Jakarta recovered more than 190 kilos (419 pounds) of gold valued at approximately US$28 million, which investigators suspect originated from the illegal mining sector.
Nine people were killed on May 14 in western Sumatra after heavy rain triggered the collapse of a 30-meter (100-foot) cliff at an illegal gold mine in Sijunjung district, West Sumatra province.
Indonesia has pledged to eliminate mercury use in illegal mining by 2025 under a national action plan, but weak enforcement, fragmented oversight, and continued illegal extraction of cinnabar from Seram and elsewhere have restricted progress on the ground.
“There has been no serious action from the authorities against illegal gold mining practices or illegal cinnabar mining,” Yuyun said.
This story was published with permission from Mongabay.com.
