Association calls for regulatory amendments in Indonesian tin mining sector

By  Paul Ploumis 21 Sep 2015  Last updated at  03:46:43 GMT

JAKARTA (Scrap Monster): The Association of Indonesian Tin Exporters (AETI) has called upon the country’s government to implement necessary regulatory amendments to address concerns over exploration techniques and formalities pertaining to the country’s tin industry.

While addressing the ICDX Indonesia Tin Conference & Exhibition in Jakarta earlier this week, Jabin Sufianto, President of AETI stated that mining of tin resources at majority of the mines are unviable at current prices. Almost 50-70% of the country’s tin resources are not minable under current price scenario. Moreover, the sector lacks quality exploration techniques to support its operations. Lack of adequate geographical data also leads to several environmental issues. He called for implementation of state-of-the-art exploratory technologies.

The Association also demanded that auction prices of new tin mining licenses must be determined by the results of exploration and geographical data.

According to AETI, the country’s government must introduce necessary regulatory amendments to boost private investment in exploration projects. In addition, private tin producers in the country should utilize a portion of their income for conducting new exploration works. It further proposed increased co-operation between the country’s tin producers in developing and introducing new mining and smelting technologies.

Several private tin miners are currently seen exploring the possibilities of borehole mining. Although the technique may enable extraction of tin from deep sea resources, there lacks adequate technologies to make the process cost-effective for miners. Also, the country still lacks a comprehensive offshore exploration data.