Kr. Geuenteuet (also written Kr. Geuenteuer, modern Krueng Geuenteuet) is a river of the Atjeh interior, 32 km South of Kota Radja, at whose contact-metamorphic boundary the largest documented colonial-era iron-ore reserve of the Atjeh residency was recorded by Jansen, Lindberg and Wolvekamp in 1922. The Kr. Geuenteuet locality is No. 1 in Van Bemmelen’s *Geology of Indonesia* (1949) Fig. 41 key, and the 1920 reserve estimate of 2,600,000 tons of ore with an average of 58–64 % Fe makes it the most substantial iron-ore occurrence recorded in the colonial geological literature on Atjeh.
The 1922 Jansen-Lindberg-Wolvekamp observation
The 1922 report of Jansen, Lindberg and Wolvekamp, as reproduced by Van Bemmelen, records:
“Locality: 32 km South of Kota Radja. In the Al. Besu or A. Pantom Raba, a tributary of the Kr. Geuenteuet, much pyrite and large boulders of magnetite containing a core of pyrite were found. An analysis showed 10 gr Au and 33 gr Ag per ton.”
The analysis is significant because it records, in addition to the iron content, a gold-and-silver byproduct content (10 gr Au/ton and 33 gr Ag/ton) that would, in other circumstances, have made the Kr. Geuenteuet occurrence a candidate for combined iron-and-precious-metal mining. The geological context — large boulders of magnetite with pyrite cores — is diagnostic of a contact-metamorphic origin, and the surrounding geological setting (limestone and amphibole-andesite, with garnet and silicified limestone) confirms this interpretation.
The 1920 reserve estimate
The 1920 reserve estimate for the Kr. Geuenteuet occurrence — 2,600,000 tons of ore with an average of 58–64 % Fe — is the largest documented colonial-era iron-ore reserve on Atjeh territory. The estimate is recorded by Van Bemmelen with the additional note that “Investigation was suspended on account of low market-prices.” This is the standard colonial explanation for the non-development of the Atjeh iron-ore occurrences: the reserves were substantial and the iron content was good (58–64 % Fe is in the range of medium-grade iron ore, suitable for blast-furnace smelting), but the combination of transport costs, market prices, and the absence of a local metallurgical industry made exploitation unprofitable at the date of the estimate.
Significance
Kr. Geuenteuet is significant for the encyclopedia of Acheh history because it is the site of the largest documented colonial-era iron-ore reserve on Atjeh territory. The 1920 estimate of 2,600,000 tons of 58–64 % Fe ore — together with the gold-and-silver byproduct content (10 gr Au/ton, 33 gr Ag/ton) recorded in the 1922 Jansen-Lindberg-Wolvekamp report — makes the Kr. Geuenteuet occurrence the most substantial single mineral deposit recorded in the colonial geological literature on Atjeh. The fact that the investigation was “suspended on account of low market-prices” is itself historically significant: it is the documentary evidence that the colonial state, despite its substantial investment in the geological survey of Atjeh, was unwilling or unable to develop the residency’s mineral resources beyond the level of exploration.
See Also
- Acheh
- B. B. Lindberg
- Gle Mon Ampeuet
- H. Wolvekamp
- Iron ores in Atjeh
- Kota Radja
- P. Hövig
- P. J. J. Jansen
- Van Bemmelen’s The Geology of Indonesia (1949)
- 1920
- 1922
Source
The Geology of Indonesia, by R. W. van Bemmelen, Vol. II: Economic Geology (The Hague: Government Printing Office; Martinus Nijhoff, 1949), p. 207 (key to Fig. 41, No. 1, with locality description and reserve estimate).