Some lungs of the baya sits lean in a tree while staring a row of shades that are arranged in line. They are traditional Manganese miners who are removing tired while waiting for the collecters weighing the sweat.
Their face seems that the vegetable after a day rises down the hill is indeed the full of Manganese sacks at the Oepuah Village mining location, Monleu, North Central Timor, East Nusa Tenggara. Working from morning to night, the miners can collect 300-400 kilograms where each kilogram is valued by Rp700.
East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) includes one of the regions in Indonesia with the potency of Mangan is quite large. Manganese Mine is widely found in Kupang Regency, Belu, North Central Timor (TTU), South Central Timor (TTS) and Manggarai. Food Solving can sometimes be encountered once on the ground surface and is quite manually stirred using linggis, so it is not rare that valuable minerals are in the home page of the population.
Traditional food miner activity at night in Oepuah village, Moenleu, North Central Timor, East Nusa Tenggara.
The traditional food miner activity at night in Oepuah village, Moenleu, North Central Timor, East Nusa Tenggara.
In terms of quality, Manganese metals in this area are one of the best and including the world’s number quality. The Mangan reserves on the land of Timor at the time of exploration is estimated to meet the needs of metal industry raw materials in Indonesia and export markets for tens and hundreds of years forward.
Manganese is one of the largest 12 elements contained in earth crust. Manganese has iron gray color with metallic gloss to submetallic. In Indonesia, Manganese was found since 1854 in Karangnunggal, Tasikmalaya, West Java but was newly exploited in1930. The potency of the Mangan’s ore reserve in Indonesia is quite promising.
The spread is almost evenly from Sumatra, Riau Islands, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara to Papua. Data from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources in 2014 mentioned that the potential of Manganese in Indonesia reached 15.5 million tons in the form of ore and 5.78 million tons is metal. While the reserve is 4,4 million tons of ore and metal as much as 2.8 million tons.
Mark (42), A Mangan miner rests at the mine location in Oepuah village, Moenleu, North Timor, East Nusa Tenggara.
Fabio (25), a Mangan miner rests at the mine location in Oepuah village, Moenleu, North Timor, East Nusa Tenggara.
In addition to the steel industry, Manganese is used for the production of dry, ceramic, glass and chemical batteries. Unfortunately, the exploration of Mangan’s potential is traditionally carried out. Even Manganese is still exported in ore form and can not be done further processing into ingots and downstream products. That’s why Manganese mining is done still in small scales. And most currently still in the process of exploration, it is still slightly incoming in the production stage.
Photo and Text: Utomo Presetyo
Mangan’s miners carry shovels in the mine location in Oepuah village, Moenleu, North Central Timor, East Nusa Tenggara.
Mangan miners choose rocks in the mine location in Oepuah village, Moenleu, North Central Timor, East Nusa Tenggara.
The traditional food miner activity in the mine location in Oepuah village, Moenleu, North Central Timor, East Nusa Tenggara.
The miner lifts the sacks in the mine location in Oepuah village, Moenleu, North Central Timor, East Nusa Tenggara.
The miner lifts the sacks in the mine location in Oepuah village, Moenleu, North Central Timor, East Nusa Tenggara.
Miners are looking for Manganese rocks in mine locations in Oepuah village, Moenleu, North Timor, East Nusa Tenggara.
The village of Oepuah, Moenleu, North Timor, East Nusa Tenggara.
The miner lifts the sacks in the mine location in Oepuah village, Moenleu, North Central Timor, East Nusa Tenggara.
The traditional food miner activity at night in Oepuah village, Moenleu, North Central Timor, East Nusa Tenggara.
The traditional food miners at the mine location in Oepuah village, Moenleu, North Central Timor, East Nusa Tenggara.
