Tin

To better understand the situation and the potential ways for downstream companies to take constructive action to improve sustainable tin mining practices in Bangka-Belitung, in 2013 the IDH Indonesian Tin Working Group commissioned a situational analysis and sustainability assessment. The analysis and assessment has aided the Group’s understanding of the local situation as a starting point for exploring ways to support sustainable growth through responsible sourcing.

Together with local stakeholders the TWG developed the Roadmap of Sustainable Tin Mining Operations in Indonesia. This 4-year plan towards more sustainable tin mining, includes programmatic interventions with the following goals:

• Collaborate with the Government of Indonesia (GoI) towards harmonizing the legal and policy framework as the foundation of good governance, particularly to address the challenges around artisanal and small scale miners.
• Develop and implement guidelines or standards of responsible mining industry practices as well as assurance mechanisms
• Work towards improved equitable revenue governance from tin mining to support responsible practices, including land management during reclamation and community capacity strengthening.
• Work towards environmentally responsible mining and smelting, minimizing the environmental impact from mining and smelting.
• Enable the socioeconomic development of the community in Bangka Belitung Province through responsible business practices, and to lessen their dependency on tin

In 2016, the TWG partnered with two Implemented partners (co-funded by IDH together individual TWG members) to facilitate and coordinate the roadmap implementation in 2016:

• Kemitraan, a local NGO to engage with the Government of Indonesia on the harmonization and transparency of the legal and policy framework. The objective is to work toward the development of a foundation of good governance by fostering inter-ministerial coordination.
• Sita Supomo, as the local representative of the TWG in Indonesia, to coordinate the efforts of the industry partners towards the implementation of the roadmap and piloting of responsible practices.

Finally, The TWG launched two pilots to support some of the initial work of the 2020 Roadmap, relating to impact areas and enable the local industry to gain a sharper direction by prototyping best practices which in turn can be replicated nationally and recognized by the international industry. These pilots have been co-funded by IDH and by TWG members.

The TWG received official written endorsement of relevant Indonesian Ministries to start the engagement with the local industry (Ministry of Trade, Mining and Mineral Resources, Marine affairs and fisheries, Environment and Forestry). A significant part of the Indonesian mining industry is under direct control of the government (public companies), therefore this government endorsement is crucial.

The TWG partnered with Kemitraan, a local NGO with a long-standing experience of working with government, to facilitate multi-stakeholders dialogue address the need to harmonize policies and regulation and increase transparency of the legal framework. The result of these consultations is formulated as a policy instrument on sustainable tin mining governance, with key recommendations by Kemitraan. This policy instrument has been submitted to the President’s Executive Office and the Ministry of Mining and Energy as an input for the revision of Mineral and Coal Law. In additions Kemitraan looked at the governance of revenue sharing management.

To this date, mined land is hardly being reclaimed in Babel and there has been almost no successful reclamation process and completed projects to inspire industry, community and government. One of the key issue is that reclamation needs to further incentivized. This applies not just to mining companies, but to the community as whole: providing alternative livelihood to ASM miners and communities is needed to create a more sustainable future and disincentive re-mining of land.

In order to support the local industry to address such a salient issue (in line with the 2016-2020 Roadmap of Sustainable Tin Mining Operations in Indonesia) the TWG commissioned Fred Phillips Consulting, to work with the local industry and develop a state of the art conceptual design of reclamation practice including Better Management Practices. Such practices and design guidelines can be adopted by other mining companies and be replicated across Bangka, creating a shared vision within the industry and set the benchmark. The design has been carried out in collaboration with Telepak (a local NGO), and for enabling the private sector mining company PT. Bangka Belitung Timah Sejahtera (PT BBTS) to redesign its reclamation plan. Consultations with industry stakeholders have also be carried out (including among others AETI, UBB, Provincial and Federal Government, various regional/local experts).

The mining company PT BBTS has committed to implement the conceptual design conceptual design which as should be implemented on their 10ha land. Additionally, through the work of the project partners and the TWG local representative, other AETI members are considering replicating these best management practices within their reclamation plans. PT. Refined Bangka Tin (RBT) for instance, plans to start the reclamation process in 2017.

For more details and access to the reclamation design guidelines, please download the documents here.

In 2015, 75% of national production was from artisanal small-scale mining (ASM). This largely informal sector carries with it a number of risks, ranging from severe to manageable. Landslides are the top health and safety concern in the onshore sector, and hygiene and sanitation issues are widespread. While the incremental reform of the policy and regulatory environment is crucial to create a pathway toward legalization of artisanal small-scale miners, the TWG seeks to help the local industry understand better what the specific health and safety issues are and what type of activities can be carried out to address them.

The TWG has commissioned PACT, an international non-profit organization, to observe the occupational health and safety risks for artisanal and small-scale miners in Indonesia’s tin mines of Bangka-Belitung province and propose the design of a future program to improve the health and wealth of Bangka-Belitung’s tin miners. Pact is collaborating with local non-governmental organization Telapak on this work, which will conclude in April 2017. The project has identified key priority topics for the Indonesian cassiterite sector, including miner and community health, safety, and environmental rehabilitation. By coupling its experience and insights of the Indonesian sector, Pact conducted a Training Needs Assessment and Situational Analysis as a foundation for developing an Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Toolkit that captures recommendations for how to approach similar ASM OHS challenges in other contexts and minerals.

Finally, Pact will create an implementation plan for capacity building and  improving occupational health and safety in Bangka-Belitung with recommendations for the type of financial and other support necessary for successful implementation.  Such work will enable the industry to define the minimum acceptable practices for addressing the issues of health and safety, creating functional value to the companies and to the supply chain actors for embedding better practices.

For more details and access to the reclamation design guidelines, please download the documents here.

Mining is a matter of supply and demand, and there is an increasing demand for responsible mining. To encourage the sustainable tin mining economy, mining companies and countries are exploring business models and regulations that go beyond a focus on extraction only, including also environmental and social aspects.

After outreach from downstream companies via the IDH TWG, tin mining and smelting companies in Indonesia are now working on the implementation of a roadmap, a long-term plan to transform the Indonesian tin industry into a more environmentally and socially responsible business.

Companies that use tin in their products (tin users) can add value to that plan, and incentivize its implementation, by making their contribution and future role more explicit.

The TWG Incentives Guide lists different incentives that midstream and downstream tin users can implement to support a lasting tin industry transformation.

The goal of these incentives is to support, engage and drive the upstream industry in Indonesia towards more responsible practices, in addition to and in support of the efforts already underway within the roadmap. In this document the term “responsible mining” is used to cover a broad scope of mining related activities, including mining, smelting, as well as pre- and post-mining activities including land rehabilitation.

The different approaches to create incentives are grouped under three headings

1. Approaches for international coordination and support
2. Approaches for supply chain policy and transparency
3. Approaches for direct management.

Where applicable a distinction between mid & downstream industry has been made to reflect the different approaches available to companies depending on their position in the supply chain.

For each approach we indicated whether it is an incentive that can be implemented by all TWG members, or whether it is an incentive that might not be applicable or feasible for each of the TWG members due to the nature of their business, products, supply chain or other reasons.

The members of the TWG have endorsed the principles of this incentives guide and are committed to a shared direction to aspire too and implementing below approaches in their company and supply chain in a way that is appropriate and feasible taking into account each company’s unique characteristics. In February 2016 the TWG consists of the following members: Alpha, Arcelor Mittal, ASUS, Apple, BlackBerry, Dell, HP, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Philips, Samsung, Sony, Huawei, Tata Steel.

In 2016 IDH committed to extend its engagement with Indonesia tin mining industry and maintain the international convening of the Tin Working Group. The purpose of the revised strategy was to work on strengthening the buy-in of the local industry towards the 2016-2020 Roadmap for Responsible Mining (including government commitment, and key industry player(s)), while working on developing best practices via field level pilot projects.

In March 2017, the international convening role for the Indonesia Tin Working Group (TWG) will transfer from IDH to the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC). Upon taking on the international convener role, the EICC has worked with IDH and the TWG members and stakeholders to understand the TWG’s current activity scope and participation/funding model as well as future priorities and opportunities to encourage a responsible tin supply in Indonesia. EICC will continue to conduct outreach to current TWG members and TWG stakeholders to develop a strategic plan that builds on TWG’s past work, complements other initiatives, engages local businesses and stakeholders, and establishes reasonable implementation approaches. The strategic plan  for the next phase of TWG will include seeking external funding to support international and local convening activities, on-the-ground mitigation projects, research, and guidance development. For more information , please contact Leah Butler at lbutler@eiccoalition.org.