A police crackdown on illegal tin mining in Indonesia, including in Bangka-Belitung islands, has cut ore supplies. Analysts maintain the current crack down may not be as severe as the one in 2006, which halted tin production at small smelters for months, mainly because the government has tightened tin export rules. Moreover, PT Timah Tbk and PT Koba Tin, a unit of Malaysian Smelting Corp, were not affected by the crackdown.
Lots of positive sentiment in the air. Rio Tinto, the world's second-largest miner, said it saw signs of recovery in China and it expected aluminum AL-FT prices to rise in the second half of 2009. Indonesia's tin consortium, Bangka Belitung Timah Sejahtera too expects a 20-30 per cent increase in its monthly production of 2,000 tonnes during the Muslim fasting season which starts on Saturday.
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