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

To: LoneClone who wrote (44698)	10/7/2009 9:49:37 PM
From: LoneClone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 197011

Small Indonesia tin smelters remain idle Posted by Reuters News on 07 October 2009, 11:12 AM communities.thomsonreuters.com By Fitri Wulandari JAKARTA, Oct 7 (Reuters) - A group of small Indonesian tin smelters remain shut after a police crackdown in late August on illegal mining had cut tin ore supplies, industry officials said on Wednesday. The crack down forced at least seven small smelters in Bangka-Belitung islands, Indonesia's main source of tin, to temporarily shut after they ran out of ore. Miners had stopped supplying ore because of concerns about the police crack down. The seven affected smelters are members of tin consortium PT Bangka-Belitung Timah Sejahtera and have a combined capacity of around 2,800 tonnes a month. "It's difficult to tell when we will start operations because the situation is still uncertain," Johan Murod, director of the consortium told Reuters on the sidelines of a mining conference. The consortium only has between 20-30 percent of its monthly requirement of 2,000 tonnes of tin ore mined from the consortium's mines, Murod said. In October 2006, dozens of small tin smelters closed after police launched a massive crackdown on illegal tin mining and smelting, introducing stricter rules for smelters including the requirement to obtain export permits and source tin ore from legal mines. Another official at the consortium said it could take some time for smelters to resume normal operations due to security and supply issues. "We may only be able to operate at 30 percent of our full capacity when we resume operation," Ismiyardi, the consortium's commissioner, said. "If we can secure enough tin ore, we may operate above that," he said. Meanwhile, mining activities had not yet fully recovered since some small miners were still wary of the crackdown. "We haven't bought any tin ore up to now because prices of tin ore are still low and we are afraid of being caught by the police," said Rudi, a tin ore collector in West Bangka regency, who only uses one name. Analysts have said the current crackdown might not affect global tin prices since weak demand was still weighing on the market. In addition, the bigger tin smelters such as state-owned PT Timah Tbk <TINS.JK> and PT Koba Tin, a unit of Malaysian Smelting Corp.<MSCB.KL>, were not affected by the crackdown. The price of tin <MSN3> on the LME stood at was at $14,375 a tonne on Wednesday. The price has jumped more than a third year despite weak physical demand, but remains 44 percent below an all-time high of $25,500 hit in May last year due to weak physical demand. (Additional reporting by Dwi Sadmoko in Pangkalpinang; Editing by Ed Davies)