Myanmar has invited expressions of interest from private sector firms to jointly set up tin smelting and refining plants, the Ministry of Mines said last week.
The No.2 Mining Enterprise under the ministry will go into a Private Public Partnership (PPP) for the plants, it said.
The deadline for submitting the letter of Expression of Interest is November 28, the department said.
The move comes as developing nations make a bigger push to capture more value from their mineral wealth by building up their own minerals processing industries before export.
Myanmar supplies virtually all of China’s tin ore import needs. China is the world’s top tin producer, but consumes most of what it uses from its own mines and infrequently exports to world markets.
The creation of a tin processing industry in Myanmar could ease the stranglehold that top exporter Indonesia holds on the world market for refined tin.
