Social economic feasibility of community’s gold mining in Kertajaya Village, Sukabumi Regency, West Java, Indonesia

Abstract Many studies have stated that Community Gold Mining (CGM) activities are considered as poor and unqualified as a profession. CGM is also believed unfeasible for business, and has less impact to state’s economic system. In general, the mainstream theories believed that CGM is unsustainable. But in fact, informal CGM activities still exist everywhere. Is CGM really unsustainable? Is CGM not proper enough to be officially supported by the state? This paper discusses and examines the practice of CGM. The research location was in Kertajaya Village, Sukabumi Regency, West Java, Indonesia. There are thousands of local people working informally as CGM miners, with gold processing units Glundung/Tubes: Trommel Mercury (TM) method. 6 components of the Gold Production System were being discussed along with its their production costs. The observation was implied for TM processing units, carried out during 2018 - 2019. The supporting data were taken from CGM site: Cijiwa Block, from 2013 to 2017. The results: CGM business in research location is feasible enough, also has high economic potency for state’s taxation. Community’s Miner is qualifying as a profession, since the miner’s income exceeds the local minimum wage. Apart from the fact that the miners still use mercury, those facts show local CGM activity can be sustained.