Audit team: 11 tin smelters stop production

A government audit team has found out that about a third of tin smelters in the key producing province of Bangka Belitung are no longer in operation, a fact that seemingly contradicts the current oversupply situation in the international market.

Inspector General at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Mochtar Husein was quoted by Kontan as saying Tuesday that a field investigation carried out by the audit team during the past week has revealed that 11 out of the total 33 tin smelters in th province have halted operation.

He said, however, that the team has yet to conclude whether there has been illegal shipment of tin ores overseas as has been suspected by many.

Mochtar said that the team is currently still focus on collectig tin reserves data of the firms as many have not been reporting the reserves data to the government as required.

Afterwards, the team will make verification of the collected data with figures at the Ministry of Trade to determine whether there has been illegal shipment.

He added that the audit results will also be used as a basis by the ministry to evaluate the work and budget plan of the tin smelter companies. (*)