Eko Maulana Ali Speaking

Keynote Address
by
Mr. Eko Maulana Ali,
(Governor of the Provence of Bangka-Belitung, Indonesia)
at the 2008 International Tin Conference,
Hong Kong, April 14-17, 2008
_______________

Mr. Chairman,
Distinguished participants,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Allow me first of all, on behalf of my delegation of Bangka Belitung Provincial Government in Indonesia and myself to express my heartfelt gratitude for granting me at this important opportunity to speak before this eminent Conference about the current situation on the tin mining development in Bangka Belitung Archipelago.

Tin deposit in Bangka Belitung archipelago have been discovered firstly by Chinese Explorer since 1710 in the era of Sriwijaya Kingdom. During that period, tin mining had been the main economic activities of the people in Bangka Belitung. At that time, the method and technique of tin mining were still simple practices, namely by digging and washing the tin consentrate in a shallow river or by digging a 3-4 metre well on land area. A hundred year later, at the end of the 19th century, tin deposit had begun to sink deeper and the well was getting wider that it required more people with advanced technique to exploit it. Even though more people worked in the tin mining, yet, the number of tin produced was still very low.

For the first time, in 1920, the tin mining exploitation in Bangka Belitung started to introduce a more developed technique and efficient method, which was by using a dredger. The second dredger operated was in August 23, 1923. There were 21 dredgers operated in Bangka Belitung before the World War II.

In 1997, when Indonesia has faced the monetary and economic crisis, and then turned into multi-dimensional crises, the country entered a new era of “reformasi” (reforms) marked by “democratitation” and the “decentralitation” in political system. Afteward, the “reformasi” era allowed the local government to play a bigger role in making decision and developing their regions. This is in line with the spirit of the promotion of local autonomy. The authority of mining policy and activities started from prospection, exploration, exploitation, transportation, mineral dressing and smelting, as well as marketing, which was before always controlled by the central government in Jakarta, for the time being was transferred to local government (regents and municipal).

The people of Bangka Belitung welcome this new policy and count on their living from tin mining which previously had been the only exploited by of PT Timah and PT Koba Tin. At the of 1997, because of economic recession, so the people of Bangka Belitung started illegally to dig tin concentrate by using very simple equipment operating at the ex mining areas or former wells which are called “tailing” available at the areas of PT Timah and PT Koba Tin, as well as the vicinity of their village. As the spots were limited, the activity widen into outskirts of tailing areas. In two years, the tin deposits begun to depleted. At later stage, that illegal tin mining activities were stretched out to the old river-flow areas (Daerah Aliran SungaiTua) until coastal line areas.

Since 2002, the tin mining activities of the local communities was started to utilize heavy tools such as bulldozers and shovel known as “Caterpillar Production” (CP). In short period, there are approximately 3,000 CPs operated in the province.

So as to have a better understanding on how the tin mining explotation in Bangka Belitung developing, which has been going on for four centuries now, and the impact to the environment, I would like to approach the issue based on the questions on: How the tin mining could affect the local economy of the region and the environment? How much is the contribution of Bangka Belitung’s tin to the world? And, how much is the attention drawn to environmental damage caused by tin mining industry?

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In describing the affect of tin mining to the local economy of the regions, it can be seen from two sectors in Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP), namely mining sector and industry sector. In mining sector, tin is classified as non oil and gas mining. The contribution of this sector, in 2003-2006, reaches 15.80% per year, growing approximately 4.30% each year. According to the industry sector, tin is classified into non oil and gas industry which contributes 15.41% with approximate growth of 5.12% a year. In total, tin contributes 31.21% of total local region’s GRDP. The development of these two sub-sectors has major contribution to the local economic development and supports the growth of other development sectors as well.

Despite the economic advantage of tin mining development, over exploitation and irrational use of tin has caused environmental damage. According to the research study, tin mining have reduced the size of forest area and land which eventually generated erosion. They have also progressively created deforestation. The activities of tin mining have damaged water resources, greatly reduced the river-flow areas and degrading number of water reservoirs which affecting the water quality as a whole. Another identified damage caused by tin mining activities was the degradation of coastal bay areas and contaminated the sea water. The living cycle of coral reefs both in the shallow or deeper sea water, the home of many sea biota, were also dangerously affected. In the end, the degradation of water quality becomes a serious threat to people’s health that depend their lives from the sea.

The local government and PT Timah have put enormous efforts to rehabilitate the damaged area of former tin mining. The total number of recovered land reached 6.455 acres, 4.853 acres in Bangka Island and 1.602 acres in Belitung Island. However, 36.40% equivalent to 2.349.75 acres of the recovered land is re-exploited by PT Timah, which adds the total number of damaged land into 6.055,12 acres.

Besides PT Timah, other company such as PT Koba Tin, which is the largest private mining company in Bangka Belitung, is also responsible for the recovery of land mining. PT Koba Tin, whose mining exploration covers an area of 41.680 acres in Bangka Tengah Municipal and 13.945 acres in Bangka Selatan Municipal. The rest of 8.462 acres are recovered area but has been re-exploited as the area is still rich of tin reserves.

Based on the above-mentioned data, it can be expected that tin mining exploration have caused a big numbers of environmental damage (covering an area of 15.843,1 acres). The number is still increasing due to illegal mining in new reserves areas, the re-exploitation of recovered areas, other damage caused by other type of mining activities, and the incomplete previous reclamation programme. These damages have brought about an accumulated negative impact to environmental condition in Bangka Belitung.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

On the issue of contribution of tin from Bangka Belitung to world’s tin consumption, history has noted that the tin from Bangka Belitung are well-known for its good quality across Asia, Europe and America. In 1847, 83% of Bangka Belitung tin was exported to Amsterdam. The price of Bangka Belitung tin was also more expensive because of its purity. The purity was the main reason why Bangka Belitung tin was used for tinplate industry in Europe. It was also estimated that 25% of Europe’s tin supply was originated from Bangka Belitung. In 2006, the export of tin ingots reached 118.555,26 metric tons and it decreased into 86.304,52 metric tons in 2007.

In 2004 - 2006, the world’s tin industry is relatively stable with world’s tin demand of approximately 3.93% per year. Around 30% of world’s tin consumption is originated form Bangka Belitung. However, if we take a deeper look, the 30% figure is believed not really correct. Unfortunately, due to the illegal tin mining and existence of smuggling activities, it is assumed that a huge amount of raw tin commodity that was produced by some countries was also originated from Indonesia.

On the question of awareness to environmental damage caused by tin mining; firstly, we should recognize that Bangka Belitung Province covers the land area of ± 16,424.14 km2 equivalents to 1,642,414 acres. According to a decree of the Minister of Forest of 2004, as much as 657,510 acres or 40.03% of the area are forestry. Tin mining explorations have brought about ± 2.41% of the forest into damage. This data has not incorporated yet the damaged area caused by illegal tin mining activities.

Unfortunately, the damage of the land and forest is expected to increase if heavy equipments are used in illegal tin mining. Then it is estimated that the forest damage due to tin mining exploration have covered an area of ± 150,000 acres in 2002-2007, which lead to the increase of damaged land and forest into 165,843.12 acres or 25.22% from the total forest area. The damage area will be even worse if we take coastal mining into account.

The government’s spending to finance the recovery of the environmental damage caused by tin mining exploration is still very low compared to the earnings gained from its export. In 2007, revenue of tin export reached US$ 1,235,795,229.67 (Rp.11.122 trillion), and the Royalty alone (3% of the revenue) amounted at US$ 38,011,583.22 (Rp. 342,104 billion) which is 20% of the royalty belong to the Central Government and the rest belonging to the local government (Province, regents and municipal) amounted at about US$ 30,409,266 (Rp. 273.683 billion). Nevertheless, the appropriated fund to take care of the environmental damage is insufficient compared to the revenue the government benefited from the commodity.

Meanwhile, world’s tin consumption is increased to 3% per year and more than 30% of the tin was produced in Bangka Belitung. Although 80% of Bangka Belitung tin was designed to meet the world’s tin demand, however the environmental attention drawn to recover the former mining is still very low.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In concluding, you would agree with me that tin is one of most important commodities of Bangka Belitung Province. However, the environmental damage caused by the development of mining and its exploration activities has brought about a dilemma for the local government. On one hand, Bangka Belitung’s economic development very much depends from its tin mining exploration, which is about 30%, but on the other hand, the people of Bangka Belitung must inevitably bear severe problem of environmental consequences due to, among others, the improper application of technology that damaging land and forest and its wide-range of negative impact to the environment.

The rehabilitation of the former tin mining areas is not the responsibility of the government alone, nor PT Timah or PT Koba Tin only. It is the responsibility of all stakeholders and the people of Bangka Belitung. The local government of Bangka Belitung Province has adopted a firm commitment to rehabilitate the former tin mining land through a programme called “Green Babel”. In order to make the programme successful, however, it requires a great deal of supports from the central government and international community in the form of funding, technical assistance, or expertise.

I believe this very important Conference could share the environmental concern felt by the majority of the people of Bangka Belitung. Tin industry is the back-bone of our economic development. And we, in Bangka Belitung, believe and determine to make our development sustainable. Tin is un-renewable natural resources. But we have vision to make tin as sustainable resources for our economic development and prosperity for all people. For centuries, tin from Bangka Belitung has contributed positively to supply world’s demand on tin industry. And we will continue to do so. At the same time, however, I think it is very high time for world’s tin industries, in any suitable-way or mechanism that will be their preference, to help and support our effort to create harmony between the interests of tin industry and environment in Bangka Belitung. This is a kind of corporate social responsibility, if you like. People in Bangka Belitung are looking for the right ways and means to develop tin mining industry that friendly to nature. In short, this is what we mean “Green Bangka Belitung” or “Green Babel”. The Green Babel Fondation was established on July 26, 2006 which is initiated focusing in the efforts of land rehabilitation, reclamation and empowering the idle-land for farming activities along with stackholders. The motto is Green Babel for green world.

I understand this forum is the world’s foremost authority on tin. Through this distinguished forum, especially the ITRI, as the only organisation dedicated to supporting the tin industry, I invite you to jointly work with people of Bangka Belitung to bring our “Green Babel” into reality. Your primary goal to develop innovative, competitive and sustainable tin based technology is also our goal.

Finally, I wish to express my deep appreciation to the ITRI, for generously inviting me to this Conference and wish you all success with your deliberations. Also I would like to invite all of you to visit Bangka Belitung as an Amazing Granite Paradise Harmony with white sandy beach and beautiful granite landscape. .

I thank you