Since the economic crisis of 1997 and the arrival of the post-Soeharto reform era, illegal mining has spun out of control. It not only is causing great harm to the environment and resulting in enormous losses of state revenue, but also has given rise to conflicts between local people and newcomers, between illegal miners and mining companies, and among local elites. My intention in choosing the coalmining business in the city of Sawahlunto and the district of Sawahlunto-Sijunjung, both in West Sumatra, as the subject of this case study is to analyse the causes and development of illegal coalmining as well as local bureaucrats' reactions to the development of this business.

ILLEGAL COALMINING IN WEST SUMATRA

Illegal mining is not a new phenomenon in Indonesia. Long before independence and afterwards, local people in the Bangka and Belitung islands carried out illegal tin mining and illegal trade in tin (Vous 1990; Andaya 1993; Erman 2004). Under the New Order regime, the first officially recognised case of illegal mining involved the Lusang Gold Mining Company, which was illegally extracting gold in Lebong Tandai in the province of Bengkulu in the early 1980s (Aspinall 2001). Today's illegal mining activities have spread to coal, tin, diamonds and even mixed minerals. Illegal mining mainly takes place on the periphery of legal mining operations in West Sumatra, West Java, Kalimantan and North Sulawesi, although in all 16 provinces are affected (Jakarta Post, 29 October 2001).

The term ‘illegal mining’ (penambangan liar) was used during the New Order period to refer to mining activities, typically small-scale operations using traditional equipment, undertaken without a licence from the government.