PT Timah agrees to buy tin ores from "conventional" tin miners

State-owned tin mining company PT Timah has agreed to buy tin ores from conventional or traditional tin miners in Bangka and Belitung province following the closure of three privately run tin smelting plants last week, Kompas reported Wednesday.

PT Timah's president director Thobrani Alwi said that the company would in an initial stage allocate about Rp 150 billion for the purchase of 2,000 tons of tin ores from the so called conventional tin miners in the province, who previously sold their tin ores to the closed tin smelting factories.

Last week, the local government closed down the operation of three tin smelting factories in the province for not being backed up with a tin concession area. Under the existing regulation, a company is allowed to open a tin smelter only if it has a tin concession area.

On August 2006, Thobrani Alwi said that PT Timah would hand over a portion of its mining area to local people with an aim to reduce the illegal export of tin and the company waiting for readiness from the miners.

Meanwhile, governor of Bangka and Belitung province Hudarni Rani said that the smelting plants would be continued to be closed down until their owners obtained a tin concession area from the government.

"If they meet all the needed requirements, the license to operate a concession area can be issued within a month," he said. (*)