Mini production suction dredge for small scale tin mining in Bangka Belitung Island Indonesia

Abstract

Mini Production Suction Dredge (MPSD) has been made for the people of Bangka Belitung Province Indonesia which is known as a cheap, safe and straightforward technology ship to mine tin sand from surface land under the sea level. This MPSD creates more safe production operation since the previous ships by using a traditional small boat for catching the fish. The main reason why this MPSD was created because there is no diving activity for an operator to drive the suction pipe flexibly under the sea which in some cases make the divers have problems and get injured seriously or fatality. The MPSD is a welded construction of 4 x 10 meters ship which is equipped with the suction unit, 24 HP diesel engines to drive two suction pumps, the tin separation jig and the steering winch. The basic construction of the dredge consists of 2 sides of 0.8-meter diameters x 10 metersof the steel pontoon. It operates on the sea waves which take the sand up to 15 meters deep from the mean sea level and allows no diving activity in 1 mile away from the coastline. Through its operation, the MPSD operated more stable and safer than the previous operation.

Unveiling the Diversity of Bangka Island’s Mangroves: A Baseline for Effective Conservation and Restoration

“…A total of 21 species of true mangrove and two associates (sensu Kitamura et al 1997) [54] were identified from various sampling sites on Bangka Island (Table 1). By considering the findings from previous studies on Bangka Island (Table 2), these data include approximately 70% of the species known to exist in Indonesia [60], and hence the island is representative at that level for the area with the second highest mangrove species richness worldwide (26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35), as compiled by [2]. Notably, our findings indicate that there are no specific species (assemblages) restricted to either the southern or northern, the western or eastern parts of Bangka Island.…”

“…Open-pit mining is one of the tin extraction techniques utilised in the Bangka Islands [32]. This method involves the use of water guns and gravel pumps to extract tin sand from land surfaces or alluvial deposits [33]. Alluvial tin deposits, specifically with cassiterite (SnO 2 ), are exposed by removing vegetation and non-tin deposit overburden [34].…”