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Tin mining is big business in Indonesia. Here's why miners risk their lives for $13 a day.https://www.businessinsider.in/international/news/tin-mining-is-big-business-in-indonesia-hereaposs-why-miners-risk-their-lives-for-13-a-day-/slidelist/98837149.cms2023-03-21T03:57:41+05:30

Tin mining is big business in Indonesia. Here's why miners risk their lives for $13 a day.

Ryan Flynn,Olivia NemecMar 21, 2023, 03:57 IST

Indonesia is the world's biggest exporter of tin, and more than 90% of the country's supply comes from the islands of Bangka and Belitung. But the deposits on land are almost gone, so unlicensed miners risk their lives to search for the precious metal on the seafloor.

Small crews spend long hours on these makeshift pontoons sifting through sand to find tin, which is used in phones, food cans, cosmetics, paints, and fuel.

Joko Tingkir, a tin miner, dives 65 feet underwater three or four times a day. An injury caused by diving makes him walk with a limp.

He spends hours searching the ocean floor for tin so he can feed his four children. He used to be a fisherman, but he left the trade because tin mining pays better.

The only safety equipment Joko uses is a diving suit and a scuba mask.

He breathes through a narrow oxygen tube, which is connected to an air compressor aboard the pontoon.

The tube can easily become tangled or break.

The air compressor can also leak toxic gases into Joko's air supply if it isn't filtered properly, leading to nitrogen poisoning, which could put Joko in a coma.

The compressor shut off once while Joko was underwater. He had to resurface quickly — a move that in some cases can trigger decompression, causing a diver's legs and arms to go numb.

When he reaches the seabed, Joko plants the blue suction tube firmly into the sand. He vacuums up a mixture of sand and water.

The crew aboard the pontoon checks it to make sure there's tin mixed in.

When they find tin, they briefly cut off Joko's air supply by bending his oxygen tube, signaling that he should hold the vacuum in place.

He stays underwater holding the vacuum for up to four hours a dive.

Workers mine all day and all night if they find a spot with a lot of tin. They say they can't risk leaving any behind.

The crew gets ready to collect the tin by laying down mats on the boat.

They run the water and sand Joko sucks up over the mats.

Tin is heavier than sand, so it sinks into the holes of the mat.

The leftover sand and water flow over the mats and back into the sea.

Next, crew members wash out the captured tin from the mats in basins on the side of the boat.

They drain the water from the basin and scoop the tin into bowls.

At the end of the day, the miners divide the tin among themselves so they can sell it individually. Joko takes the most, because his job is the riskiest.

Joko mines illegally because he can't afford a mining license. It's hard for unlicensed miners to find buyers, because the tin they mine is illegal.

Buyers that take the risk say they usually pay unlicensed miners 10% below tin's standard market price. Joko earns just $13 a day for his share.

PT Timah, a company owned by the Indonesian government, controls over a million acres of tin-mining territory in Bangka and Belitung.

The company has already extracted most of the tin on Bangka and Belitung, leaving behind massive craters of exposed rock that contain sulfide minerals. The sulfides react with the air and water, creating brightly colored toxic lakes.

The toxic acids that make these lakes so blue are contaminating waterways all over Bangka and Belitung.

PT Timah estimates about 16,000 tons of tin remain in its over 1 million acres of land reserves. But company data show 265,000 tons of tin can be found underwater around the islands.

Joko says he'll keep diving as long as there's tin left.

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