A resumption of operations by private smelters in Indonesia continues to be held back by bad weather and police activity, despite original plans to re-start production and ore buying last week.
Johan Murod, a director at the Bangka-Belitung Timah Sejahtera consortium of seven smelters, told Bloomberg today: “Many of us are still having problems in getting ore supply as only a few miners resumed mining because of weather problems and the police crackdown.” Only one smelter in the consortium, PT Bangka Putra Karya, is believed to be operating. Most private smelters in Indonesia have been closed since late August, when police arrested a number of people alleged to be involved in illegal mining. Heavy rains in the last two weeks have prevented a resumption of activity.
Meanwhile Reuters reported that PT Timah executives may also be questioned about ore purchases from small mines. "There are some facts that we need to check with them. We will question the board of directors at PT Timah, starting this week," Suhardi Alius, director of the special crimes unit at the National Police told reporters on Monday. Timah spokesman Abrun Abubakar declined to comment since he said the company had not yet received information on the police plan to summon directors over the case.
