The Kinandam mine is a gold mine on the West Coast of Sumatra operated by the Mining Company “Kinandam, Sumatra” (M. Co. Kinandam, Sumatra), one of the European gold-mining operations of the West-Coast gold-mining district of Sumatra recorded in Van Bemmelen’s *Geology of Indonesia* (1949) Table 28 B (the West-Coast gold-mining district list). The Kinandam mine is included in this wiki because its corporate parent — the Kinandam-Sumatra Mijnbouw Mij. — was also the operator of the Bukit Durian, Bukit Pulai and Sarik coal concessions on the West coast of Atjeh immediately to the north, and the Kinandam mine is accordingly part of the same integrated coal-and-gold corporate enterprise that produced the only documented colonial-era coal-mining concessions on Atjeh-relevant territory.
Production figures
Van Bemmelen’s Table 28 B records the Kinandam mine (No. 8 in the West-Coast district list) with the following production figures:
- Period: 1917–1918
- Gold: 89 kg
- Silver: 60 kg
- Tonnage: 6,000 tons of ore
- Total value: ƒ150,500
- Approximate value recovered per ton of ore: ƒ25
- Au:Ag ratio: 1:2
The Kinandam mine was accordingly a small short-lived operation: two years of production, 89 kg of gold, and a total value of ƒ150,500 — modest figures compared with the great Lebong mines (Lebong Donok with 41,535 kg of gold over 42 years, or Simau with 37,874 kg of gold over 31 years), but respectable for the West-Coast district, where the total production of all listed mines (including Kinandam) was 10,789 kg of gold and 346,839 kg of silver over the period 1912–1940.
The Charlotte connection
Van Bemmelen’s Table 28 B lists the Kinandam mine with the company name “M. Co. Kinandam, Sumatra, Charlotte”, which suggests that the mine was operated under the corporate name “Charlotte” — possibly a reference to a separate mining company that worked the Kinandam concessions under the parent Kinandam-Sumatra Mijnbouw Mij. The “Charlotte” name is otherwise unexplained in Van Bemmelen’s text, and the relationship between the Kinandam mine, the Charlotte name, and the Kinandam-Sumatra Mijnbouw Mij. is accordingly best understood as a parent-subsidiary relationship of the kind common in the colonial East Indian mining industry.
Significance for Atjeh
The Kinandam mine is significant for the encyclopedia of Acheh history because its corporate parent — the Kinandam-Sumatra Mijnbouw Mij. — was also the operator of the Bukit Durian, Bukit Pulai and Sarik coal concessions on the West coast of Atjeh, and the Kinandam mine is accordingly part of the same integrated coal-and-gold corporate enterprise that produced the only documented colonial-era coal-mining concessions on Atjeh-relevant territory. The closure of the Kinandam mine in 1918 (or shortly thereafter) — combined with the closure of the related Salida gold mine in 1927 — accordingly entailed the closure of the company’s coal mines on the West-Atjeh/Painan border, and the 1934 and 1941 returns of the coal-mining rights to the Government mark the formal dissolution of the Kinandam-Sumatra corporate enterprise of which the Kinandam mine was the founding gold operation.
See Also
- Acheh
- Atjeh’s Westkust
- Bukit Durian
- Bukit Pulai
- Coal in Atjeh
- Gold and silver in Atjeh
- Kinandam-Sumatra Mijnbouw Mij.
- Salida
- Sarik
- Van Bemmelen’s The Geology of Indonesia (1949)
- Westkust van Sumatra
- 1917
- 1918
- 1927
- 1934
- 1941
Source
The Geology of Indonesia, by R. W. van Bemmelen, Vol. II: Economic Geology (The Hague: Government Printing Office; Martinus Nijhoff, 1949), pp. 108–109 (Table 28 B: West-Coast gold-mining district, with the Kinandam mine production figures).