Tin Mining Devastation: Bangka: Sumatra

Bangka lies east of Sumatra and is separated from the mainland by the Bangka Strait. The province was formerly part of South Sumatra, and became an independent province in 2000. The island is the largest producers of tin in Indonesia and so you can imagine if the coconut palms on the tropical beaches of the Indonesian island of Bangka open up to reveal a landscape so devastated by mining that it bears an eerie resemblance to the surface of the moon. Deep craters as big as football fields pockmark the land. Smaller craters filled with turquoise water glitters deceptively in the tropical sun. The water is highly acidic.

Welcome to the tin mines of Bangka where miners dig deep into the earth in search of tin ore — the raw material for the metal used in coating soft drink cans and solders for computer chips. The Indonesian Government has this habit [and has done for decades] of destroying the environment without consequence just for the sake of money. It’s okay to trade but do it sensibly and without the resulting devastation of the natural beauty the country posses’.