Marine police have stopped four cutter suctions dredges operating on PT Timah offshore mining leases under suspicion of having “inadequate licences” according local press and news agencies.
"Every foreign ship must obtain an operating permit issued by the transportation ministry. We suspected there are some suction dredge vessels that are using fake shipping permits," Hero Henrianto, head of the investigating team at the marine police unit, told Reuters.
Henrianto said his team found that the four vessels, one of which belongs to Timah and the other three to its partners, are not registered with the transportation ministry. Timah said the company has not received any information about the case, but said its vessels have all the appropriate documents. The four dredges are reported to be held at the port close to Timah’s Mentok smelter.
In all there are 23 cutter suction dredges operating on Timah’s leases, of which 20 are owned by contractors, with more on order or under construction. These are in addition to the 14 large bucket ladder dredges which accounted for most of Timah’s offshore output up to 2007. Offshore dredging accounted for about 30% of Timah’s total mine production last year and the company expects this proportion to rise to up to 50% in the next year or two.
