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Legal and illegal Blurred

Update on tin production for consumer electronics in Indonesia

Publication

P. Pöyhönen

1 June 2009

In 2007, makeITfair reported that the global electronics industry utilises a significant proportion of the supply of metals, such as tin, part of which is mined under harsh conditions in developing countries. The majority of electronics companies were unaware of their importance as metal consumers. MakeITfair has called on these companies to take responsibility for their supply chain, including the extraction of the metals. This FinnWatch update to the makeITfair project adds to the report 1 published in 2007 on the social and environmental conditions on Indonesia’s tin mining island. The 2007 report described how tin has scarred two Indonesian islands, namely Bangka and Belitung, producing ghost towns and moonscapes, the effects of mining on the environment, and how farmers became miners, etc. The information was based on a desk study by the Indonesian Jatam Mining Advocacy Network.