By Chris Dagg

Beni was a highly principled, dedicated and warm-hearted person. He will be remembered for his integrity, honesty, dignity and patience, and his unswerving loyalty to friends and colleagues. He was a teacher, a mentor and a friend, a person deserving of the very high respect with which he was held by Indonesians and Canadians alike.

Beni was a reserved person, but I recall his passion when he spoke on two subjects. First, he was rightfully proud of his and his colleagues’ role in laying the groundwork for the PTInco mining operation through his early exploration work in Soroako in the 1960s. He often spoke of the hardships they overcame, of the challenges they faced, and of the life-long lessons they learned. Beni saw this pioneering effort as a contribution to the development of his country, the first of many invaluable contributions he continued to make in many ways throughout his remarkable career.

Second, he possessed an abiding affection for the peoples of Malili-Nuha and championed their cause. His deep-felt concern for their and PTInco’s workers’ welfare was kindled during those early days of exploration. The relationship of openness and trust with the original inhabitants that Beni established then was instrumental in PTInco’s success in establishing a presence in the region, and the importance of such relationships became a central tenet in Beni’s professional life with PTINCO and thereafter. Beni sought to perpetuate the close sense of community among PTInco’s employees of all ranks and the local people that was developed during these pioneering years. Those of us who lived in Malili in the early 1970s will remember the ‘oneness’ of the community then. As the Company and surrounding towns grew in the years that followed, Beni stood firm in his insistence that the Company “”do right” by original inhabitants and company workers living in Malili, Soroako, Wasuponda, and Wowondula. He taught those of us who worked with surrounding communities that maintaining a relationship of trust, decency, shared purpose, and mutual respect must serve as our measure of success.

Personally, what I learned then informed all my future decades of work in development, and, as Beni proceeded in his career, he brought the same ethic to his contribution to the mining industry as a whole and to his country. He will be missed by those he served, guided, and befriended, Indonesians and Canadians, and remembered as a person who cared and – the ultimate measure of a life well spent – a man who made a difference.