The Association of Indonesian Tin Exporters (AETI) has stressed the importance of making changes to the Indonesian tin industry to promote geological exploration and technical development.
The President of AETI, Jabin Sufianto, raised the point whilst speaking at the ICDX Indonesia Tin Conference & Exhibition in Jakarta earlier this week. He commented that between 50% and 70% of Indonesian tin resources are not minable at current prices of some US $ 15,000 per tonne and that much is not minable at all using current technology. Mr Sufianto also commented that a lack of quality exploratory and geological data exacerbated environmental issues as artisanal miners dig indiscriminately in search of tin. The auction price of new mining licenses (IUPs) should also be determined by the results of exploration and geological data, which is currently basic or non-existent.
To address these problems, Mr Sufianto proposed regulatory amendments to encourage private investment in exploration. He also suggested that private tin producers should set aside a portion of their income for exploration and called for collaboration between Indonesian producers on the development of new mining and smelting technologies.
ITRI View: Active development and testing of borehole mining is currently being planned by several private tin producers in Indonesia with the aim of extracting tin from otherwise inaccessible deep offshore resources. A successful cost-effective method for mining these deposits would be significant for the Indonesian tin industry but still faces technical challenges including an absence of detailed offshore exploration data.
