Indonesia’s state-controlled tin company PT Timah expects refined tin output to drop to 29.000 -30,000 tonnes this year and remain steady in 2013 as it limits production to boost profits amid weak tin prices, President Director Sukrisno told news agencies and the Jakarta Post.
The company aims to reduce production costs next year to around $15,000 a tonne from $16,000-$18,000 this year. Timah’s first deep water bucket wheel dredge is about to start operation and two more vessels of the same type could be commissioned next year of the first one proves successful. The company is also expanding its ore processing capacity to allow better recovery of by-product minerals.
Announced investment plans include the Rp450 billion development of an industrial zone in Bangka, which will not only host Timah’s second tin chemicals facility, but also a coal-fired power station. “We will cooperate with state-owned PT Bukit Asam for the power plant project,” Sukrisno, who previously served as Bukit Asam’s president director, told Reuters.
He also said that the company has gained permission in principle to explore a 10,000-hectare tin site in south Myanmar with potential reserves similar to Indonesia’s main tin producing region of Bangka Belitung and which could be operational in 2014.
