PT Timah refuses to process tin ores owned by residents

State owned tin mining company PT Timah Tbk and PT Koba Tin have refused to refine hundreds of tons of tin ores owned traditional tin miners, according to the chairman of the association of the Bangka mineral association, Yusuf Faisal.

Yusuf said that the two companies refused to refine the tin ores produced by traditional miners in Bangka island due to "technical reason". "Maybe they are too busy with their own production," he was quoted as saying by Koran Tempo daily.

But PT Timah?s corporate secretary Prasetyo B. Saksono denied that the Bangka-based tin mining company had refused to help refine the tin ores owned by the local residents. He admitted that the company had received a written request from the association for the processing of their tin ores in PT Timah?s refinery plant. "We are still studying the request," he added.

Hundreds of tons of tin ores owned by about 3,000 traditional miners face uncertainty after the government banned the exports of tin ores early this month. The government only allows exports of refined tin.

According to the association, the production of traditional miners reaches about 1,900 tons a month. At present, the stock or unsold tin ores have reached about 400 tons.

Yusuf denied that the traditional farmers exported tin ores. "They actually send their tin ores to a tin refinery plant in Penang in Malaysia for processing because the refining fee charged by PT Timah is too expensive," he said, adding that the Malaysian refiner only charged them US$240 per ton, far lower than US$300 per ton charged by PT Timah.

He also criticized the tin export ban, saying the government should give a transitional period of at least a month so that the traditional miners could sell all of their stocks before the ban was effectively implemented. (*)