Indonesian police had detained 91 containers of tin from 9 September but will now allow 82 to be shipped if they have export documents and customs clearance, Muhammad Firman, a deputy director at Bangka Belitung Police told Bloomberg. However the police are still detaining 9 containers and two people have been named as suspects for alleged illegal tin exports he said. Surveying companies, customs officials and cargo owners will be summoned for questioning this week as the investigation continues.
ITRI understands that executives of a smelter which owned 7 of the remaining containers and whose mining licence had expired have been detained and the smelter closed down. All private smelters may now face further scrutiny of their ore sourcing.
