Indonesian tropical island torn apart by tin mining
SUNGHIN, Indonesia (Reuters) - The coconut palms on the tropical beaches of the Indonesian island of Bangka open up to reveal a landscape so devastated by mining that it bears an eerie resemblance to the surface of the moon.
Deep craters as big as football fields pockmark the land. Smaller craters filled with turquoise water glitters deceptively in the tropical sun. The water is highly acidic.
Welcome to the tin mines of Bangka where miners dig deep into the earth in search of tin ore -- the raw material for the metal used in coating soft drink cans and solders for computer chips.
Battling with malaria and constantly facing the risks of accidents such as drowning and landslides, dozens of miners have set up camps in Sunghin village in the jungles of Indonesia as they forage for tin deposits in disused mines.
Tight global supplies have propelled the price of the silvery and malleable metal to a record high above $14,000 a tonne on the London Metal Exchange where it is traded.
Yet, the miners of Bangka see little of the riches as they eke out a living on their tropical paradise.
Many locals have taken up mining after abandoning pepper farming due to low prices for the spice on the world market.
"I don't have money to start a business. I didn't even finish school," said Suhandri as he puffed a cigarette under a makeshift shelter after spending hours partially submerged in one of the small craters in Sunghin in search of ore.
The heavy machinery digging new mine shafts are a grim reminder of the devastation the rampant mining is taking on the landscape of Bangka, east of the island of Sumatra.
"Tell me what else I can do?" asked Suhandri, a 49-year-old father of five.
Indonesia is the world's second-largest tin producer after China, accounting for some 40 percent of global tin supplies.
The world's largest integrated tin miner, PT Timah Tbk, once owned the mines at Sunghin. The company refilled the craters with earth and planted acacia and cashew nut trees when it wrapped up operations in the early 1990s.
But locals began digging up the old mines in 1998 at the height of the economic crisis in Indonesia.
MINERS MISS OUT ON PROFITS
Using pans and a constant flow of water, miners search for the grey-black tin ore which they filter out of the sand taken from the craters. The water becomes highly acidic when it is mixed with the grey-black tin ore extracted from the earth. Continued...
