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Gold/Mining/Energy : Mining News of Note -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LoneClone who wrote (41895)	8/20/2009 6:48:59 PM
From: LoneClone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 193893

Indonesia's Bangka eyes tin zone to cut exports by Reuters News on 19 August 2009, 07:05 AM communities.thomsonreuters.com By Dwi Sadmoko PANGKALPINANG, Indonesia, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Indonesia's tin- producing Bangka-Belitung islands want to be made into a special industrial zone that would promote shipments of high-value tin products and limit refined tin exports, a local official said. Indonesia, the world's biggest tin exporter and second-biggest producer after China, has already seen tin shipments slow in recent years following a clampdown on illegal mining in the islands off Sumatra in late 2006. The local industry has also been hit by weaker tin prices and a depletion of easily mined on-shore reserves in an area where about 40 percent of the workforce is involved in tin mining. The head of the Bangka-Belitung mines' office said late on Tuesday the provincial government was proposing a special regulation to set up an advanced tin industry focusing on higher value products such as tin solder and tin alloy. "We want to increase exports of more high-value tin products, not only refined tin. Since Bangka-Belitung is the main producer, the industry should be here," Noornedi, who goes by one name like many Indonesians, told Reuters. "In the future, exports of tin may be limited so that the some of the metal can be used in the downstream tin industry to create more jobs and revenue," he said, without elaborating. The proposal was still being discussed by the governor and the provincial parliament, the official said. Eko Maulana Ali, governor of Bangka-Belitung, told Reuters in an interview last year that the province planned to offer incentives for investors to develop higher-value downstream tin operations. Many small Indonesian tin smelters have slowed operations since last year due to low tin prices and depleting tin reserves. Indonesia, which produces nearly 30 percent of the world's refined tin, may produce around 90,000 tonnes of refined tin this year by using some of their tin slag stocks, steady from last year, UK-based tin consultant ITRI has forecast. But actual mine production may fall to below 85,000 tonnes this year from a 2005 peak of nearly 140,000 tonnes due to depleting onshore reserves, ITRI said. Prices of tin -- widely used in food packaging and to solder electronic products have gained about 29 percent so far this year to $13,775 a tonne but are still about 46 percent below their record high of $25,500 a tonne hit in May 2008. But so far only market leader PT Timah Tbk that has started to move into producing higher value tin products such as tin solder and tin chemical. Timah, the world's largest integrated tin miner, has set up a tin solder factory in Kundur island off Sumatra. It was also developing tin chemical factory in Cilegon in West Java with capacity of 10,000 tonnes a year which is part of its plan to build tin chemical plants with total capacity of 30,000 tonnes. (Writing by Fitri Wulandari; Editing by Ed Davies)