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Tag Archives: Mining

Nickel Mine Visit 2010

This was my 2nd trip to the same mine. See earlier post for the first trip.

After flying into Ternete from Gosowong where I was visiting a gold mine, I met with my colleague Dr Areswari, who was visiting local hospitals. Ternete is a town and island and was once the world’s single major producer of cloves. In the precolonial era, Ternate was the dominant political and economic power over most of the “Spice Islands” of Maluku.

As we had time before our chopper ride to WedaBay, we went for lunch at a great restaurant overlooking the sea and the cone shaped islands which are featured on the 1,000 rupiah note.

Lunch at Florida restaurant – A great view!

Our ride to Halmahera

Medical Team


Sunset at WedaBay

 
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Posted by on January 22, 2010 in Out in the Jungles

 

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Kalimantan (First site visit for 2010)

Here we go! My first site visit for 2010. This time its to Kalimantan (the island of Borneo) to see a mining construction contractor in Sangatta  and a number of other clients based in Balikpapan. Sangatta is on the east of the island and is the base for a large coal mining operation.

We get there by a Twin Otter plane from Balikpapan’s airport. The flight takes approx an hour and on this flight there happened to be a few too many ‘large’ passengers. This forced the airline to send our luggage on a separate flight as the plane was overweight.

Accommodation

The Clinic

Mine Pit Operations


The Moon Surface

 

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Gold Mine Visit (North Sulawesi July 2009)

Another site visit to a gold mining client in North Lanut (North Sulawesi), to audit the small medical clinic we operate. The capital and largest city in North Sulawesi is Manado (a famous diving destination – see Bunaken National Marine Park).

The site was approx a 6 hour rough terrain road trip from Manado. Despite the remoteness of the site, the camp itself was very comfortable and the expats who run the mine from the UK and Australia were a friendly group of guys.

Dr Fanie & I outside the clinic

Joe & Dr Fanie

Full Personal Protective Gear

Posing in PPE

Overlooking the mine site

Avocet Gold Mine

 

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Coal Mine Visits (Kalimantan June 2009)

Another trip to a client’s coal mining operations in Kalimantan for an audit of their medical facilities and an assessment of their new site that relies on sub contractors for medical services. As usual, I attend with either a doctor or a specialised auditor and meet with the client’s on site management team.

The first site is Sebuku which is in South Kalimantan (capital is Banjarmasin). The main natural resources in South Kalimantan are forest and coal. Coal deposits are found over almost the whole province, and in some places they are exploited commercially. Other minor resources are oil, gold, gem stones, quartz sand, phosphate and granite.

Airstrip near Sebuku

Charter Plane on Air Strip

The second site is Jembayan which is in East Kalimantan is the second largest Indonesian province, located on the Kalimantan region on the east of Borneo island. The resource-rich province has two major cities, Samarinda (the capital and a center for timber product) and Balikpapan (a petroleum center with oil refinery). Ever since Indonesia opened its mineral and natural resources for foreign investment in 1970s, East Kalimantan province has experienced major boost of timber, petroleum and other exotic forest products. The state-owned petroleum company Pertamina has been operating in the area since it took control oil refinery from the Royal Dutch Shell company in 1965.

Coal mine

 

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Gold Mine Visit (Halmahera Feb 2009)

My first remote site visit was to a gold mine on Halmahera Island, North Maluku.

chopper2

chopperview

clinicteam3

clinicteam2

 

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Nickel Mine Visit (Halmahera)

Wedabay is on Halmahera the largest island in the Maluku Islands. Halmahera is the site of several mining projects where my employer operates medical facilities.

It is part of the North Maluku province of Indonesia.  Halmahera’s fortunes have long been closely tied to those of the smaller islands of Ternate and Tidore, both off its west coast. These islands were both the sites of major kingdoms in the era before Dutch East India Company colonized the entire archipelago. During World War II, Halmahera was the site of a Japanese military base at Kao Bay.

Aerial view from incoming helicopter to site

wedabay

Dr Fanie & I checking out the beach

DrFannie and Joe

Dr. Willemese, Dr. Fanie & Government Doctor, nurse & Myself

DrYuni

Coaching our Medic Team

Running Drills

 

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