Nusantara, the ancient archipelago now known as Indonesia,
has long been a land of allure for explorers and traders from Europe. While
spices such as cloves and nutmeg were the main draw for European traders, it
wasn’t just these prized commodities that led them to these distant shores.
Gold was another treasure sought after, particularly in Maluku and Malaka, two
regions quickly dominated by the Portuguese in the early 16th century.
During this period, the gold traded to Europe originated
from local indigenous mines. Rather than waiting for trade opportunities to
come to them, European powers like the Portuguese were proactive, sending
envoys to inland kingdoms, such as the Sumatran royal courts, to secure
precious metals. By the time the Dutch took control of these regions from the
Portuguese, they became even more aggressive in exploiting Nusantara’s
strategic locations to find gold.
One notable effort came from the Dutch East India Company
(VOC), the largest publicly traded company in Dutch history. By the late 17th
century, the VOC decided to invest in gold mining operations in Salido, located
about 69 kilometers south of Padang, West Sumatra. This mining effort displaced
many indigenous mining operations that had been active for centuries. However,
the VOC’s initial ventures were less than profitable. From 1670 to 1687, they
produced only 403,133 gulden worth of gold and silver, a figure that, adjusted
to modern value, would be about 80 billion rupiah. Yet, the costs exceeded
their profits, resulting in substantial losses. This pattern continued until
1698 when the VOC ceased operations in Salido. Brief attempts to revive the
mine in 1720 were also unsuccessful, and the VOC finally shut down mining
activities in 1737.
Although the VOC only mined in Salido for 38 years, with
average annual returns of approximately 40,000 gulden (equivalent to 8 billion
rupiah or 8 kilograms of gold today), the total estimated gold extracted from
Salido amounted to roughly 304 kilograms. This modest figure pales compared to
other private Dutch gold mines in the early 20th century.
It wasn’t until the late 19th century that gold mining in
Nusantara saw significant developments. In 1878, Dutch engineer Reinier D.
Verbeek began investigating West Sumatra’s mineral potential for commercial
mining. Although earlier attempts, such as the Mijnbouw Maatschappij Sumatra
mining company, faltered due to lack of funding, the industry was revived 20
years later by Mijnbouw Maatschappij Soepajang. The company’s operations became
more productive, with records of production sporadically appearing in Dutch
newspapers.
One of the more successful mining ventures was the Mangani
mine in Limapuluh Kota, operated by the German company Aequator. From 1912 to
1931, this mine yielded an impressive 5.3 tons of gold and 237,139 kilograms of
silver. Unlike many other mining sites, Mangani had not been exploited by local
indigenous miners, making it one of the few untouched areas.
In the early 20th century, several Dutch companies resumed
mining in Salido. One of the most successful was NV Kinandan Sumatra Mijnbouw
Maatschappij, which in 1917 alone extracted 427.2 kilograms of gold and 8,632.8
kilograms of silver. The revival of Salido’s mines by modern companies in a
single year far outpaced the VOC’s 38 years of operations.
Elsewhere, however, not all mining efforts were as fruitful.
Other mines, like those managed by NV Sumatra’s Goudmijn in Boelangsi, West
Sumatra, faced enormous challenges due to their remote locations, which made it
difficult to transport heavy machinery and workers. A report from the Soerabaiasch
Handelsblad in 1929 described how gold deposits were embedded in hard
granite, making extraction with the technology of the time nearly impossible.
As a result, many mining concessions failed to live up to expectations.
Despite the ups and downs in the West Sumatra region, gold
mining ventures in Bengkulu emerged as the crown jewel of Dutch mining
operations in the archipelago. Between 1899 and 1949, the Dutch mines in Lebong
Donok produced a staggering 41.5 tons of gold, with the Simau mines adding
another 37.8 tons. Their silver production was even more lucrative, yielding
five to eight times more than their gold output. These mines were so profitable
that dividends of up to 100 percent were distributed to shareholders, as seen
in 1908.
In the 1920s, Sumatra produced approximately 83 percent of
all the gold mined in the entire archipelago. Outside of Sumatra, other regions
like Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Java also became sites of European mining
efforts. In Kalimantan, for example, the Chinese had been mining gold for
centuries, but only two foreign mining companies—Sambas Gold Mines and West
Borneo Gold Field—operated in the early 20th century. Both ventures, however,
failed to meet expectations.
Sulawesi also had its share of European gold mining, with
the Paleleh mine in Central Sulawesi producing 351 kilograms of gold in 1900.
Yet, by 1930, its output had dwindled to just 96 kilograms annually, though
operational costs remained the same. This further highlighted the difficult
balance between investment and profitability in mining ventures.
Java, by comparison, was seen as the least promising region
for gold mining. Only one European mine operated on the island during the Dutch
colonial era—the Tjikotok mine, which ran from 1939 until the Japanese
occupation in 1942. Despite its relatively short period of activity, Tjikotok
produced 1.5 million gulden worth of gold. Its operation was continued by the
Indonesian government after independence, eventually merging with other mining
operations to form the state-owned company Aneka Tambang (ANTAM) in 1968.
By the early 20th century, the total amount of gold
extracted by European miners in the Dutch East Indies was astounding. Between
1900 and 1940, the archipelago produced more than 122 tons of gold, primarily
from Dutch-owned mines. Chinese and indigenous mining operations, in contrast,
contributed only about 1 percent of this figure. When adjusted to modern-day
value, the total gold extracted from Nusantara would be worth around 170
trillion rupiah—an astronomical sum representing just a fraction of the mineral
wealth beneath the islands.
The history of gold mining in Nusantara serves as a reminder
of the immense wealth buried beneath its soil and the foreign powers who sought
to claim it. Though the extraction of these precious metals has slowed since
the colonial period, the legacy of Nusantara’s rich mineral resources remains
significant even today.
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