Waste pouring out of a tin
mining ship as it dredges the sea
bed off the coast in the District
Payung area, Bangka, Indonesia.
State-owned PT Timah runs the
world’s largest offshore mining
fleet of 21 dredgers, which works
several kilometres offshore to
a depth of about 50m, mining
more than 3.5 million tonnes of
material a month.
As the first world obsession continues to grow for high-tech gadgets like smart phones and computers, tin has suddenly shot from just being the ordinary tin can to a high-tech mineral. But resistance is growing as the environment and local communities are placed at great risk with seabed mining of tin. A recent report released by Friends of the Earth UK exposed unregulated tin mining in Indonesia depends on child labour, wrecks the environment and kills an estimated 150 miners every year. Meanwhile in Cornwall in the UK, envronmentalists, surfers and local communities are opposed to the mining of tin tailings which were washed down there from the old mines into Cornwall seabeds.
Friends of the Earth;s ‘Make it Better‘ campaign is calling for Europe-wide legislation that would require companies to report on their products’ full human and social impacts – from accidents and pollution to how much water, land and raw materials they use.
29 May 2013, BBC
Cornwall tin mining plans create deep divisions
19 November 2012, The Telegraph UK
New tin mines in Cornwall threaten surfers’ paradise
Friends of the Earth:
Mining for Smart Phones: The True Cost of Tin
DOWNLOAD Friends of the Earth report
The Guardian
Death metal: tin mining in Indonesia
