Prabowo’s Crackdown on Illegal Tin Mining Leaves Foreign Buyers Scrambling
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia — Efforts by President Prabowo Subianto’s administration to bring illegal mining and national tin-smuggling networks under control are having a broad impact, including on international markets. With access to illicit Indonesian tin supplies cut off, companies overseas are now finding it harder to obtain the raw material.
Fuad Bawazier, a former finance minister who served in 1998, said overseas industries had knowingly received and relied on smuggled illegal tin from Indonesia. The government’s current large-scale enforcement drive has directly halted the flow of this stolen raw material into global markets.
“First, it seems companies overseas are starting to run short of raw materials; the stolen goods are running out,” Fuad said on CNBC Indonesia’s Cuap Cuap Cuan podcast, as quoted on Friday (23 October 2026).
Fuad said foreign buyers had benefited from weak governance and law enforcement in Indonesia’s tin sector. Supplies from unauthorised domestic mining were readily absorbed by overseas industries to meet their production needs.
“Foreign countries prospered, didn’t they? Other countries accepted stolen goods too, and they knew they were stolen from Indonesia. Who says they didn’t know? They enforce the law in their own countries, but when smuggled goods come in… in they go, in they go, in they go! And then they break it all down,” he said.
The enforcement drive under Prabowo is seen as bringing change to the domestic tin industry. In addition to creating a shortage of illicit raw materials overseas, the closure of around 1,000 illegal mining sites in Bangka Belitung has helped restore the financial performance of state-owned tin company PT Timah.
The clean-up has lifted PT Timah Tbk’s sales and profits by as much as ninefold, and increased the market capitalisation of its assets by 280%. The assertion is that enforcing sovereignty over natural resources ensures the economic value of Indonesia’s tin now flows into state coffers rather than being captured by international black-market networks.
“After the crackdown, the results have been extraordinary. Do you think enforcement is easy? The value of its assets and market capitalisation have all risen, and sales have increased—everything may have risen nine or ten times,” he said.
Prabowo cracks down on illegal tin mining
President Prabowo Subianto previously said that the crackdown on illegal mining, particularly tin mining, had produced results.
According to figures he cited, PT Timah Tbk (TINS) recorded a significant improvement in its financial performance, with profit rising by 900%, or ninefold, in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025.
Prabowo made the remarks during a dialogue with senior journalists and experts at the Garuda Yaksa compound in Hambalang, Bogor Regency, West Java, on Sunday (6 September 2026). CNBC Indonesia broadcast the discussion on Wednesday (16 September 2026).
“Tin smuggling from Bangka went on for decades. But with our policy, we have shut down the smuggling and stopped hundreds of illegal mines in Bangka. PT Timah is now making a profit! You may not believe it, but PT Timah’s profit is up ninefold—900%!” Prabowo said, as quoted on Thursday (17 September 2026).
He said PT Timah’s recovery reflected firm law enforcement and the closure of channels through which state wealth had been leaking for decades. Improvements to governance had directly restored the state-owned company’s revenue potential.
“Right? Because we enforce the rules. How many decades has this been going on?” he added.
Prabowo said PT Timah’s improved financial performance showed that better governance and clean leadership could turn a state-owned company from loss-making to profitable in a short time.
He stressed that all government officials and state-owned enterprise directors were committed to ending every form of abuse or theft of state assets.
“Why? Because the directors and all of us don’t want to cheat; we don’t want to steal from the state! That’s the point. This is beyond even my expectations, you know. So I’m optimistic,” Prabowo said.
Alongside the crackdown on illegal tin mining, the government is continuing to tackle thousands of other illegal mines and restructure state-owned enterprises to prevent budget leakages and increase dividend revenue for the state.