A group of community leaders and villagers living around the Chatri gold mine in Phitsanuloke province on Wednesday petitioned the ombudsman to put on hold the government’s recent decision to close down the mine but to allow extracting operations of Akara Resources Company to continue for six months.
The petition was received by Mr Rakkecha Chaechai, secretary-general and spokesman of the Ombudsman’s Office.
Leader of the group of petitioners, Mr Fai Mahasak, president of Wang Prong Tambon Administration Organisation, said that the shutdown of the gold mining operations would affect mine workers who are mostly local people who will lose their jobs and the means to make a living.
He pointed out that about 29 villages located around the mine site would be deprived of the subsidies paid from mining royalties that they used to receive plus the funding provided by the mining company.
Mr Fai claimed that people living around the mine site had been co-existing peacefully with the mining company for the past 15 years. The conflict, he noted, was incited by a minority group of people who had wanted to sell their land at a profit or who had wanted higher compensation in exchange for their land.
