JAKARTA (Reuters) -Indonesia’s Attorney General has confiscated 42,000 tons of tin sands from miners linked to a corruption case at state tin mining firm PT Timah, an official said on Friday.
The tin sands, which may also contain zircon and monazite, were found in four warehouses on the Bangka Island tin hub linked to a convicted tin miner in the case, state media Antara reported late on Thursday.
“The value is around 200 billion rupiah ($12.10 million), according to an early estimation,” Attorney General spokesperson Anang Supriatna said by phone on Friday.
Meanwhile, local media reported that miners on Bangka Island planned to stage a protest on Monday to demand better buying prices for ore from Timah.
Indonesia is intensifying efforts to improve governance of mining activities, including a clampdown on unlawful mining.
President Prabowo Subianto has said he has ordered a thousand illegal tin mines to be shut down and would stop boats smuggling tin out of Bangka Island.
($1 = 16,530.0000 rupiah)
(Reporting by Fransiska NangoyEditing by Mark Potter)
