PT Timah denies plan to relocate operation to Riau

The president of the state owned tin mining company PT Tambang Timah, Erry Riayana Hardjapamekas has categorically denied a press report that the company would soon relocate its operation to Riau due to a depletion of tin deposits in Bangka island.

Erry acknowledged that the tin deposit in Bangka had started to decline. But he ruled out the possibility of relocating all the activities to its new tin mine site in Kondur island in Riau province within the next few yeas.

According to him although a study is now being carried out to calculate the amount of remaining tin deposits in Bangka island, he believed it will take another 12 years to operate on the island.

Erry said in the future, the company's focus of operation would be determined by the number of tin deposits found in Kondur island. "If the tin deposits in Kondur far outnumber those in Bangka, the control of the mining activities will be directed from Kondur. But if the tin deposit in Kondur turns smaller than in Bangka, the control will certainly be made from the island," he told Sriwijaya Pos. (*)