Coal, tin may become strategic commodities: Official

The government is considering to turn coal and tin to become strategic commodities in a bid to curb rampant illegal mining, according to a senior government official.

?The ministry of energy and mineral resources has sent a letter to the ministry of trade and industry to change the status of the two mineral products. They have agreed and it is currently being discussed by top officials of the two offices,? secretary general of the ministry of energy and mineral resources Djojo Darmono was quoted by the evening Suara Pembaruan daily.

He said that as a consequence of the change in the status of the two commodities, the trading of tin sands will be banned which means that traditional miners could no longer sell their products directly to speculators or traders without license.

Meanwhile, the trading of coal would only be conducted by traders with licenses or those who can prove the mining location of their coal products.

?The minister of trade and industry will have to revise the decree No. 294/2000,? Djoko said.

Djoko said that so far, the curbing of illegal miners had often been ineffective due the lack of supporting legal infrastructure.

The state-owned tin mining company has been badly hit by the illegal tin mining activities as they flooded the market with tin products, sending prices to down to historical lows. The production level of illegal tin miners in the Bangka Belitung province is around half of Timah?s. Top company officials have said that if the situation remained unresolved, Timah would go bankrupt. (*)