Markus Makur, Timika – Papua Police apprehended 47 traditional gold miners Friday for their alleged involvement in a blockade against work at the Freeport gold mine in Timika. The miners obstructed the road leading to the mine.

Papua Police spokesman Kartono Wangsadisastra said that more than 200 people protested Thursday against Freeport's clampdown on illegal mining and demanded the company find the miners alternative employment.

"The management did not want to see them so they ran after security officers with machetes, knives and other traditional weapons. They also wanted to take ore so we drove them out and confiscated their weapons," he was quoted by Reuters as saying.

During the protest, the miners damaged the iron railing around a warehouse, using three barrels from inside to block off the gate.

Adj. Comr. H. Silalahi, the chief of Mimika Police's general crimes unit, said Friday that police had also confiscated three machetes, a banner, four hammers and a knife from the miners.

The police, he said, were questioning the miners, who had also burned tires in protest. "But we haven't named any suspects. We're only questioning them," he told The Jakarta Post.

Freeport has yet to issue a statement on the protest, which did not disrupt operations at the mine.

In February, a group of protesters blocked off the road to the gold mine for four days to protest the American mining giant's activities in the province. The incident escalated when scores of people attacked the Sheraton Timika Hotel, leaving two police officers suffering arrow wounds.

Freeport's mining operations have been a frequent source of controversy in the country, with issues ranging from its impact on the environment and the share of revenue going to native Papuans and the Papua government to the legality of payments to the Indonesian security forces who help guard the site.

Some protesters have demanded the closure of the lucrative mine, believed to have the world's third-largest copper reserves and one of the biggest gold deposits. One such protest left five security officers dead in March near the province's main university after protesters retaliated with force when police tried to break up the rally.

Freeport has been operating in Timika since 1972, under a working contract signed by the government in 1967 and extended in 1991. Under the latest agreement, the company has the right to extract minerals until 2041.

The company's operations cover two million hectares of land in Papua, with a concession area that stretches from an altitude of over 4,200 meters above sea level down to the Arafura coast.