Around 2,000 small-scale traditional miners held a rally today in front of PT Timah’s head office in Pangkalpinang, Bangka island, Bloomberg reported. The demonstration seems to have been in response to one by PT Timah workers calling for action to halt illegal mining at the Bangka-Belitung provincial government headquarters on 22 May. The latest rally was addressed by Hidayat Arsani, chairman of Indonesian Tin Mining Association, who claimed that small mines in Bangka had stopped operating in the last week because of fears that police will raid their operations.
It is not clear whether there is any significant loss of production at the moment, but there are clearly growing tensions between the state tin company and independent operators as the deadline for the planned introduction of tighter controls on exports from 1 July approaches.
