Timah questioned over appointment of contractors in sand mining

The state owned tin mining firm PT Tambang Timah is being questioned over the appointment of three contractors in the past to mine its sand mining concession in the Karimun Island of the Riau Province.

Muzani Syukur, a senior official at the Ministry of Mines and Energy, said that Timah had not conducted a tender process in the appointment of the three contractors.

Muzani told Media Indonesia daily that Timah should have conducted a tender process because many was interested to mine the sands and to market them to Singapore.

The three contractors were PT Intikarya Teknik Buananusa (ITB), PT Jamur Laut Nusantara, and PT Griya Prasaja Biru Nusa.

Muzani said that he became aware of the problem after Timah ended their contracts.

Separately, ITB president Wargono Soenarko said that the company decided to end the contract after exporting some 480,000 cubic meter of sands to Singapore, because it's no longer profitable due to the high royalty and tax to be paid to the government.

Meanwhile, Timah marketing director Unang Rusnandi said that the appointment of the contractors was not made through a tender process because there was a very limited interest at the time.

He admitted that there were many interest now to mine sands in the area, but only small numbers of contractors which really have access to the Singapore market.

Unang said that this was a pity because Singapore needed around 600 million cubic meter of sands until 2010.(*)