PT Koba’s smelter on Indonesia’s Bangka island, which was shut down from 29 January to 17 March, will continue to operate, despite a threat from the provincial police chief yesterday to close it down again. The threat came when Koba’s managing director Kamarddin failed to meet a 10 day deadline to return to the island to help the police in their enquiries into alleged illegal mining.
“We have received a letter from Koba Tin’s lawyer saying that Kamarddin is ill and still in Malaysia,” Imam Sudjarwo, Bangka Belitung provincial police chief told Bloomberg today. “They promise that Kamarddin will soon meet with us. We give Koba Tin the opportunity to resume operations for now. We haven’t decided for how long we’ll allow them to operate.”
Koba made its first export shipment since January, of 250 tonnes, on Tuesday this week. It is still not allowed to continue with sub-contracted mining activities, following allegations that one sub-contractor was involved in mining in a protected forest area. Its own mining operations produce some 500 tpm of tin-in-concentrate.
