Pictures from Sumatra, Indonesia
 

These are some photos from a trip to Sumatra around the end of 2006.

Re: Pictures from Sumatra, Indonesia
 

Photo 1.

Malaysia Airlines planes at Kuala Lumpar (KL) International in Malaysia.

Photo 2.

Not sure what "SEMEN PADANG" is. I believe it's an Indonesian cement.
Waiting at an Indonesian airport before flying a short hop to Sibolga airport in Sumatra.

Photo 3.

Driving to the minesite.

Photo 4.

These young men seem distracted by something, not our nice new shiny Toyota though.

Photo 5.

Taxi cab waiting at rank.

Photo 6.

Pretty typical of the state of Sumatra's roads, these are the better ones.
Driver had to slow down in a number of areas or change lanes as the potholes are so bad.

Photo 7.

Photo of the minesite chopper and pad with mountains in the near distance.

Re: Pictures from Sumatra, Indonesia
 

More photos.

Re: Pictures from Sumatra, Indonesia
 

Photo 1.

Chopper with rain clouds forming. The rain here was pretty much a daily occurrence and was torrential at times, raining heavily for hours. Big lizards and strange jungle cats getting around.

Photo 2.

Typical of the jungle environment outside the fenced compound. The camp had guards, Indonesian security men dressed in blue with large knives on their hip, most looked ex-military.

Photo 3.

This is Charles. Charles owns the rubber trees, he has leased the land to the mine and comes out daily to work on the trees, keeps the grounds free of fallen leaves and collects the latex rubber sap from the trees in half-coconut shellls.

Photo 4.

Possibly his son working on a tree. A thin strip of bark is removed with this tool, which causes the sap to run.

Photo 5.

The mine chopper. I'm not a a chopper expert, so someone else can probably identify the type. It's used to lift equipment into the jungle and mountains for assembly. This equipment is used to construct a drill rig for core samples of the ore bodies.

Photo 6.

Side view of chopper on pad.


I have a few more photos somewhere. This mine is a silver mine under development, with some VERY large deposits in those mountains. I haven't been back there, so I assume they are working on it already.

About 3 or 4 times a day the whole place goes quiet, as all the Muslim Indonesian employees head off to the small on-site mosque to pray.

Sumatra is an interesting place. Very much the back-woods of Indonesia, there are a large number of mines in operation, usually these mines are part owned by an Indonesian company, with the foreign company owning a large shareholding.

The population are either Christian or Muslim, as you drive through the small villages there will usually be a mosque or a church present. People seem to vary between being very friendly to being almost a bit hostile towards Westerners, a lot of this seems to be due to Indonesian television, which of course concentrates on the bad parts of western culture. I managed to pick up some Bahasa (Indonesian) and we tried out phrases on the locals, which they were appreciative of, saying thank you etc. went down very well. The seafood was excellent, the water is unpolluted there.

Sumatra has some incredible mountains, that just rise out of the earth and keep going, there is a backbone of mountain range, and the place is geologically active with earthquakes being pretty common occurrences. There are apparently some good surf spots present.

Re: Pictures from Sumatra, Indonesia
 

is indonesia a nice place or what? I have a business partner who is indonesian,.... bali-nese really. such nice people. always a smile. integrity by the truck load.

hmmm am getting the travel bug but its a toss up between south america and asia again.

Re: Pictures from Sumatra, Indonesia
 

Some parts of Indonesia are very nice. I would go to the nice tourist areas like Bali first of all, you are bound to enjoy that, there will be lots of Australians in Bali. Some parts of Indonesia are very wild, and are for the more adventurous, you will likely need a guide and your wits about you, always have some cash (local currency) handy.

I'll be heading to Bali myself for the first time this year, just waiting to sell a car. It shouldn't cost me more than about $1800 USD all up. The airfare from here is $500 USD.

Re: Pictures from Sumatra, Indonesia
 

Re: Pictures from Sumatra, Indonesia
 

Yep, well most miners I know of, consider their projects to be confidential, and as they employ me from time to time, it's not up to me to give away their sensitive commercial information, or photographs of their mining operations. I'm pretty careful with that, as if I owned the mine, it is how I'd like to be treated by others, and I do like being employed. In fact I deliberately avoid taking photos of anything that may be regarded as sensitive such as processing or mine layout. That way I can't put myself in a bad situation. A number of mines have a no camera policy, and that includes cameras on cell phones etc. Taking pictures of the camp and people is usually cool though.

At the time this was a proposed mine, and an exploration camp that had changed hands (but a very advanced one in terms of mapping the ore bodies), I guess there may be a mine under construction there now. I have seen the figures of silver in the ground, and it's impressive, which is why I know supply can feed a lot of the demand out there, and I have some vague idea about when it's coming on stream. With the price of PMs, I'm guessing this mine is being built and rushed into production.

Actually I haven't travelled all that much, but I've been to interesting places, mainly on business, so unfortunately not holidays. On this particular trip, we were pulling 18 hour days sometimes, which was exhausting, for 12 days. (I do like my 8 hours sleep!)

I can talk about stuff that is public knowledge, and there is quite a lot actually that I can speak about, as miners like to talk about the scale of their operations to attract investors. To me, mining is a bit like glorified farming, but somewhat more technical. :)

Re: Pictures from Sumatra, Indonesia
 

Re: Pictures from Sumatra, Indonesia
 

Engineer? Often called one... but I'm in I.T. :)

Same in a lot of places in the world, Laos too. They pay the right hands and projects happen. The kickback is basically expected by government officials as the cost of doing business, a tax if you will.

Re: Pictures from Sumatra, Indonesia
 

I knew I shouldn't have clicked on this link. I spent a lot of time in Indonesia and I'd love to go back. (wife & kids now prevent it) Such an amazing place. As for negativity towards westerners, I think a lot can be prevented by understanding the local culture of where you're going. Speaking, or trying to speak their language helps gain their respect. I witnessed a lot of Euro Trash come and go. I never understood that term until I saw it first hand. Very rude and ignorant. The people will instantly realize you're not one of the bad ones if you're tuned into their culture and will treat you accordingly. (maybe not all...)

Re: Pictures from Sumatra, Indonesia
 

Its an interesting comment Blueice because I live in Australia and its well known if you want to get anything done you have to grease the right palms and ego's. Only we pretend it doesn't happen and that everything is legit.

happens everywhere I'm afraid.

I've been to Bali a couple times. The last time I was so embarrased, disgusted with the behaviour of australians and the poverty of the Balinese, given the tens of billions that go into that island from tourism and almost none of it was getting to the people. People seem to think when they are on holidays their morals and ethics are too. Anywho not a game I wish to play

Re: Pictures from Sumatra, Indonesia
 

Beautiful country...reminds me of Costa Rica.