Tin Trouble

Indonesia is the world’s biggest tin exporter but for poverty stricken miners, the costs are deadly.


It is nightfall and Rusdanila is on his way to meet an illegal tin dealer. Carrying almost 4kg of tin in a bucket, the product of a hard day’s work, he goes to the first collector, hoping that the metal will fetch at least $3.50 per kilogramme.

Here in the little island of Bangka, east of Sumatra, miners like Rusdanila are at the mercy of the price of ore determined thousands of miles away at the London Metal Exchange.

But in Indonesia, this precious mineral is largely mined illegally.

In 2012, the country exported 98,000 tons of tin, supplying 40 percent of international demand. Major electronics consumer brands like Samsung, Apple and Philips rely heavily on Indonesia’s tin. Each mobile phone contains seven grams of the mineral.

Currently, tin rakes in around $28m a year for Indonesia but the human and environmental toll is proving costly.