Export of Tin Blocks to be Banned, Chinese Investors Interested in Tin Downstreaming in Bangka Belitung

PANGKALPINANG - Director General of Mineral and Coal of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Ridwan Djamaluddin, said investors from China are interested in investing in developing the tin downstream industry in the Bangka Belitung Islands Province.

"Currently, only two investors from China want to invest in building the tin downstream industry", said Ridwan Djamaluddin, quoted by Antara, Wednesday, September 28.

He said Indonesia is the second largest tin producer in the world, where 91 percent of the tin comes from the Bangka Belitung Islands with 99.9 percent refining, and downstream in the mining sector is an opportunity to drive the economy directly to the community.

"In encouraging the tin downstream industry, the government will issue a policy of banning the export of tin blocks and continue to encourage domestic and foreign investors to invest in this tin downstream", he said.

According to him, building the downstream tin industry requires an investment of trillions of rupiah and a long time, because there will be studies on the development of this industry such as Amdal and others according to applicable regulations.

"Technically, it will take two years to build this tin downstream industry", he said.

Ridwan Djamaluddin as well as the Acting Governor of the Babylon Islands emphasized that the tin downstream industry was a follow-up to the downstream policy by President Joko Widodo to encourage national and regional economic growth.

"Downstreaming in the mining sector is a great opportunity to directly drive the Babylonian economy, considering that this industry has made a significant contribution to this region", he said.