Indonesia’s South Bangka government will allow small miners to resume mining after a protest over a recent police crackdown on illegal mining, a local legislator told Reuters on Thursday. The move could help increase supplies of tin ore to independent smelters. Indonesian tin miners and merchants staged a rally on Thursday at the local government’s offices on the island of Bangka to protest against a crackdown by police on illegal mining.
The protesting tin miners had reached an agreement with the South Bangka government and police so that they could resume mining, Haji Anshori, the speaker of the South Bangka legislative council, said. "Miners can resume mining after fulfilling all permits," Anshori told reporters after a meeting with the protestors.
About 2,000 independent tin miners took to the streets to protest a recent spate of arrests from tighter enforcement, according to Metal Bulletin. Many had been arrested for mining in disallowed areas as police step up enforcement of mining laws, causing confusion among the artisan miners, who had previously been free to mine wherever they liked.
"The miners are unhappy that the new laws rule some areas off-limit for tin mining," confirmed Johan Murod, director at Bangka Belitung Timah Sejahtera, a private tin consortium of seven smelters. They have also asked the local provincial government to halt the crackdown and arrests. "The officials who draft the rules do not understand the situation on the ground," said Murod. People in Bangka have been mining for decades in the forests, hills and even offshore, said Murod: "It’s impossible to concentrate all miners only in such small areas."
