Indonesia is the world's second-largest producer of tin, behind only China. However, an unfortunately large portion of that tin may be produced illegally.
A recent investigation by the Indonesian attorney general's office found that state-owned mining company PT Timah TBK has allegedly been complicit in illegal mining activities on the islands of Bangka and Belitung from 2015 to 2022, the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime reported.
What's happening?
According to GIATOC, 90% of Indonesia's tin comes from Bangka and Belitung. More than half of the surface area of those islands is used for mining, and more than half of the population is involved in mining activities.
The area devoted to mining includes 170,363 hectares mined by PT Timah — which is almost double what the company has been allotted. These areas include nature preserves and national parks — places that should have been protected from habitat destruction.
In all, an expert from Indonesia's Bogor Agricultural University estimated that PT Timah had illegally done $16.8 billion worth of environmental damage, per GIATOC.
Why is this mining important?
Mining activities — especially open-pit mining — destroy natural habitats and pollute their surroundings. Runoff and silt from mines can pollute water sources that people rely on, while the mine itself tears up the landscape, killing and displacing plants and animals. Some amount of habitat destruction is unavoidable, but it's important to minimize it and choose appropriate locations as much as possible.
Permitted mining in Indonesia is also supposed to include efforts to restore mine sites afterward. However, GIATOC reported that less than 10% of the illegally mined area had been reclaimed by 2023.
What's being done about illegal mining in Indonesia?
Thanks to the Indonesian attorney general's investigation, 21 people are being treated as suspects and could be prosecuted, including three government officials and multiple senior executives from PT Timah.
However, it appears that the actual extent of the corruption is much larger, so the Indonesian government will need to crack down if it hopes to end illegal mining on Bangka and Belitung.
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One step that could make that easier is the implementation of a new system overseeing all processes in the tin mining sector. It is already being used for coal and should greatly increase transparency and make corrupt transactions more difficult to hide, GIATOC reported.
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