The charges are related to a gold mine the firm had operated in Phichit’s Thab Khlo district and Phetchabun’s Wang Pong district.

The mine is now closed.

Cherdsak Utha-aroon, the firm’s general manager, acknowledged the charges at the DSI headquarters yesterday. They include illegitimately acquiring land-rights documents for forestland, of encroaching on a highway and of encroaching on forestland.

Pichet Thongsrinun, director of DSI Marine and Coastal Resources Centre, is heading the investigation into the company’s alleged wrongdoing. – The Nation