Indonesia tells tin industry to be prepared for an export ban
JAKARTA - Indonesian authorities are preparing data and assessing current industry conditions to be ready in the event that the government decides to bring in a ban on tin exports, a senior mining ministry official said on Wednesday.
The Southeast Asian country, which is the world's top tin exporter, has already moved to halt shipments of a number of other metals in order to develop more processing at home.
Ridwan Djamaludin said authorities were trying to assess how much time Indonesia needed to develop industries that could absorb its tin ingot production, in case the government decided to stop exports.
"When the policy is issued, we should not be surprised," he told an industry conference, asking participants to seek partners and prepare for potential investments in the downstream industry.
"If we want to ban exports, it means we have to be able to process them domestically and that would require a certain amount of investment and time," he told reporters on the sideline of the event.
Indonesia only consumes 5% of its tin metal production and has been exporting ingots with over 90% purity.
Asked when Indonesia would stop exporting the metal, Ridwan said he did not know and any decision was in the hands of the top government officials.
Indonesia's nickel ore export ban has attracted massive investment into nickel metal plants and President Joko Widodo had repeatedly said he wanted to replicate that policy for bauxite and tin.
Meanwhile, the state auditor is currently conducting an audit into tin mining, Ridwan said, to make sure that tin ore is mined from proper sites and in line with regulations.
Illegal mining has been rampant over the years in Indonesia's Bangka Belitung province, the country's main tin producing area.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation