House ready to help Timah resolve illegal mining problem: Legislator

Dadan Wijaksana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The House of Representatives is ready, if needed, to help state-owned tin mining giant PT Timah seek ways of resolving rampant illegal mining activities at its mining sites on Bangka and Belitung islands.

Legislator Ramson S. of House Commission VIII overseeing environmental, science, and technology affairs said that the commission would invite Timah to discuss the problem.

"We (the House) can then set up a coordination system with both central and local administrations to put an end to those illegal practices," Ramson told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

However, he did not provide details as to when the meeting could take place, saying it was for Timah to decide.

His comment followed a recent remark made by the company before an industrial meeting in London that appeals to the government to halt the illegal operations had fallen on deaf ears.

Timah, which is also a publicly listed company, said that rampant illegal tin mining had contributed to pressure on the price of the commodity, which has already been badly hit by the world's economic recession.

The international price of tin is currently hovering at US$3,800 per ton, which is far below the ideal price of $5,500 to $6,200 per ton.

According to Dadang Yogi Barata, Timah's chief of marketing offices for the U.S. and Europe, there are over 30,000 illegal tin miners in Bangka and Belitung.

As reported by Antara, Dadang said: "They could produce as much as 40,000 tons per year, which is around the same as PT Timah's yearly production."

That huge amount of production would weigh heavily against the international price, Dadang went on.

The price for tin posted a 30-year low in August when it reached $3,630 per ton.

"Illegal mining activities also occur in other places, but not as severely as in Indonesia. In Brazil and China, they have managed to keep the number of illegal operations low thanks to their strict measures against those responsible," Dadang said.

"That's what Indonesia is lacking at the moment."

Timah was in London to participate in an informal forum, the London Metals Exchange week, which was concluded on Oct. 25.

Apart from PT Timah, the world's largest tin producer, the forum was also attended by other top companies, including PT Koba (an Australian-Indonesian company), Murchison United of Australia and Minsur of Peru.

During the meeting, participants called on the Indonesian government to speed up efforts to put an end to rampant unlicensed operations in the islands.

Elsewhere, Ramson also said that concrete action needed to be taken to curb illegal mining activity in order to maintain foreign investor confidence in entering the country's mining sector.

"We need to find an immediate solution to this mess because it will damage our image even further," he said.

Last month, Timah president Erry Riyana Hardjapamekas predicted a serious nosedive in net profits for this year as well as possible big losses next year if the government failed to resolve the problem immediately.