Indonesian prosecutors have identified five tin mining companies accused of illegal mining

The companies allegedly colluded with former PT Timah executives between 2018 and 2019 to accommodate illegal tin mining activities in the Timah concession and created false smelting transactions, according to the statement.

Any formal charges will be filed at a later date, under the Indonesian legal system.

Calls to RBT offices were not returned. Tinindo did not immediately respond to an email request for comment. It was not immediately possible to contact the other three companies, as well as the legal representatives of all the companies.

In the same case, an Indonesian court last December sentenced a former CEO of RBT and a former CEO of Timah to eight years in prison, local media reported, without providing precise details.

The state’s losses from suspected illegal mining include about 29 trillion rupiah ($1.79 billion) due to bogus ore sales and smelting services, the prosecutor’s office said.

She added that suspected illegal mining also caused environmental damage worth 271 trillion rupiah ($16.7 billion).

($1 = 16,190 rupees)

(Writing by Francisca Nanjoy, Editing by Barbara Lewis)