KONTAN.CO.ID - JAKARTA. Tin has emerged as a leading commodity in the Bangka Belitung Islands Province, contributing significantly to Indonesia's status as the second-largest tin producer and holder of the largest tin reserves after China.

The Bangka Belitung Islands are the largest tin producers in the country, contributing up to 90% of Indonesia's total tin production. Consequently, numerous tin mining companies operate in Bangka Belitung.

Currently, the largest tin mining company, aside from the state-owned PT Timah Tbk (TINS), is PT Mitra Stania Prima (MSP), owned by Hasjim Djojohadikusumo, the brother of Prabowo Subiyanto (the elected President of 2024).

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The Arsari Group (PT Arsari Tambang), owned by Hasjim Djojohadikusumo, has four subsidiaries engaged in exploration, exploitation, mining, processing, smelting, refining, sales, and tin exports in the Bangka Belitung Islands.

Firstly, PT Mitra Stania Prima (MSP) is the third-largest tin mining company in Indonesia. Since 2013, MSP has been actively mining in Mapur, covering an area of 233.5 hectares with a mining potential of 7,071 tons of tin (Sn).

MSP owns and operates tin smelting equipment and refining facilities. MSP's tin smelter has two conventional furnaces with a permitted capacity of 3,600 tons of tin ingots per year. MSP-branded tin ingots are listed on the London Metals Exchange (LME). MSP's current tin metal export earnings are around 3,300 tons of tin metal.

Secondly, PT Mitra Stania Kemingking is an affiliate of PT Mitra Stania Prima. Thirdly, PT Mitra Stania Bembang, which was affiliated with PT Mitra Stania Prima in 2020 and owns an IUP covering 441.5 Ha.

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Fourthly, PT AEGA Prima is an affiliate of PT Arsari Tambang, also engaged in integrated tin mining in the Bangka Belitung Islands.

AEGA Prima has a total IUP area of 28,884.50 Ha spread across Tanjung Sangau Sea, Tanjung Genting Sea, Bubus Sea, Tanjung Mengkudu Sea, and Teluk Kelabat Sea. The 19 IUPs it owns will expire between 2025 and 2031.

KONTAN noted that five mining companies in Bangka Belitung exported tin with verification from Sucofindo during the period from 2019 to mid-2020.

These five companies are PT Timah Tbk, PT Refined Bangka Tin, PT Mitra Stania Prima, PT Menara Cipta Mulia, and PT Artha Cipta Langgeng. Just so you know, there are at least 30 tin exporters in Bangka Belitung, but recently only these five companies have consistently exported using Sucofindo's services.

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Meanwhile, from the Environment and Forestry Office of the Bangka Belitung Islands Province, there are companies and permits owned by PT Rajehan Ariq, PT Senta Tin Indo Sentosa, PT Sentra Tin Indo Cemerlang, PT Sentra Tin Indo Makmur, PT DS Jaya Abadi, PT Premium Tin Indonesia, CV Tiga Sekawan, PT Kijang Jaya Mandiri, PT Stanindo Inti Perkasa, PT Timah Tbk (TINS).

The Secretary-General of the Indonesian Sand Miner and Processing Association (Atomindo), Rudi Syahwani, stated that PT MSP is known to be the only one that has been actively producing and exporting since early 2024, as it was the first to receive RKAB approval from the Director General of Minerba.

Previously, the second position after PT. Timah was PT. Refined Bangka Tin (RBT). But due to ongoing legal proceedings at the Attorney General's Office, and the absence of RKAB approval, it is currently not operating.

The Director of Mineral and Coal Program Development at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Tri Winarno, denied that only Hasjim Djojohadikusumo's company received approval in the RKAB.

"No, we have approved many," said Tri when contacted by KONTAN, on Tuesday (2/4).

Tin Exports Sluggish

Recently, the tin sector in the Bangka Belitung Islands has been sluggish at the beginning of the year. In the Official Statistics News (BRS) report released in March 2024, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) stated that tin exports from the province known as Bumi Serumpun Sebalai were zero in January 2024.

As a result, the total export value of the Bangka Belitung Islands Province plummeted to double digits, both monthly and annually, to the level of US$ 29.79 million. This decline in tin production and exports is due to illegal mining.

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Rudi stated that the current situation is quite affected, the most visible indication can be seen from the BPS export graph which is corrected, experiencing an extraordinary decline.

Then, in the future, Rudi said, there is a possibility that it will increasingly affect the economic conditions of the community because tin and mining (people) are still the largest and easiest income for the community in Bangka Belitung so far.

"With the slowdown in the approval process of RKAB by the Director General of Minerba alone, the community is affected by the difficulty of selling their mining results. Because everything is a chain that has been running so far," Rudi told KONTAN, Monday (1/4).

Rudi explained that so far, ingot export activities are still ongoing. The business actors are PT Timah Tbk (TINS) as a state-owned enterprise and PT MSP as a private actor. They carry out export activities because they were the first to receive RKAB.

"The rest, currently there are none that are active again as exporters," said Rudi.

PT Timah and MSP themselves, are known to also have an active IUP managed. This means that so far they have been able to prove that the tin ore produced and smelted is tin ore that comes from their own IUP.

Meanwhile, the rest, Rudi conveyed, can be said to still be questioned as a company that smelts tin ore that comes from its own IUP. This means that the fear of returning to activity at this time is somewhat worrying along with the legal process regarding the governance of the Tin commodity being investigated by the Attorney General's Office.

Moreover, the absence of tin exports impacts the people of the Bangka Belitung Islands, The tin business in Bangka Belitung is a chain of mutual symbiosis. This means that the community mines, then there are parties who buy and process it until it becomes an export commodity, is a public secret in Bangka Belitung.

Rudi explained another bad impact of this declining export is the possibility of smuggling or smuggling because the geographical conditions in Bangka Belitung are very likely to cause smuggling.

"The indication is that the community continues to mine, if there is no one smelting the tin, it will be a question, where does this tin ore end up," Rudi revealed.

Editor: Syamsul Azhar