Provisional data released by Indonesia’s trade ministry today indicated that there has been a sharp rise in exports since February, despite reports earlier in the week that bad weather and police raids were hampering small-scale mining activity. The tonnage of tin checked prior to export by surveyors appointed by the ministry rose 37.6% year-on-year to 9,051 tonnes in March. This was the highest monthly total since May 2009. The rolling twelve month volume is 95,082 tonnes according to ITRI’s records.
However a spokesman for a consortium of private smelters told Reuters on Monday that they had been forced to reduce production. Small-scale traditional tin miners have slowed their mining activity because they are afraid of being raided by the police, who have been intensifying a crackdown on illegal miners for the past two weeks, said Johan Murod, director of PT Bangka-Belitung Timah Sejahtera, which groups five private tin smelters on the island. "Tin ore supply to our smelters has been halved to 1,000 tonnes a month because miners are afraid to sell ore to us," Murod told Reuters. He also said that rough seas had prevented the operation of small dredges operated by members of the group.
