Mining area for farmland

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned tin mining company PT Timah Bangka is cooperating with the University of Sriwijaya to convert old mining pits into agricultural lands.

Company president director Erry Eriyana Hardjapamekas said Friday in Palembang that the company, along with the university, had conducted a pilot project in 1996 to convert the company's abandoned mining pit in Bangka island into fishponds.

They have also tried to plant hybrid corns on the abandoned mining pit. The results, he said, were satisfactory enough. (jsk)