Module 18 Natural Resources Industry

Level 3
Module 18, Natural Resources Industry
11.03
110.04

a.
A) Contribution of petroleum to Malaysia;- Petroleum had been a main contributor to the revenue of Malaysia ever since it was discovered in Terengganu , Sabah and Sarawak. The production and demand of petroleum from international community had made Malaysia’s revenue to increases. With the increases of this revenue , it will provide sufficient financial sources for Malaysian government to upgrade infrastructure of the country. A good evidence is the Petronas Twin Tower which houses the PETRONAS, which is the backbone company of managing the country’s petroleum resources. It will provide a better balance in our country’s book to ensure that our financial sources are sufficient to support future imports from abroad. The revenue derived from petroleum export will provide financial sources to the Malaysian government to undertake certain projects for the benefit of the Malaysian people such education, health and other public amenities.

B) Role of PETRONAS and its establishment; - PETRONAS is Malaysia’s national oil company which had an exclusive rights to the petroleum resources in Malaysia. It operates as a company with business entity and a fully integrated multinational gas and oil company. PETRONAS now had exceeded business interest in more than 30 countries in the world. It’s fully integrated involved in exploration and production, refining, gas processing and transmission, gas liquefaction, manufacturing of petrochemical products, marketing and trading. PETRONAS was established with a common objective of developing gas reserves from export and production activities to realizes its value for the benefit to the country and monetization of its gas reserves. PETRONAS, abbreviation for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian-owned oil and gas company that was founded and establish on 17 August, 1974.

Wholly owned by the Government, the corporation is vested with the entire oil and gas resources in Malaysia and is entrusted with the responsibility of developing and adding value to these resources. PETRONAS was established and operates under the terms of the Petroleum Development Act passed in October 1974. It was modeled on Pertamina, the Indonesian state oil and gas company founded in 1971 in succession to Permina, which had been set up in 1958. According to the 1971 plan, PETRONAS’s goals would be to safeguard national sovereignty over oil and gas reserves, to plan for both present and future national need for oil and gas, to take part in distributing and marketing petroleum and petrochemical products at reasonable prices, to encourage provision of plant, equipment, and services by Malaysian companies, to produce nitrogenous fertilizers, and to spread the benefits of the petroleum industry throughout the nation.



2. The decline of tin in the Malaysian economic activity

a. The history of tin in Malaysia;- It all began in 1840s with the discovery of large deposits in the Peninsula states of Perak and Selangor of the Malay Peninsula .These states contained substantial deposits of tin namely Larut and Kinta Valley district , in the state of Perak which was discovered in 1883 . With the demand for tin rose progressively in the nineteenth century due to the discovery of a more efficient method for producing tinplate which is used for canned food. Due to such it had attracted large numbers of Chinese migrants who dominated the industry in the nineteenth century bringing new technology which improved ore recovery and water control, facilitating mining to greater progress.
By the end of the 19th century Malayan tin exports supplied just over half the world output which accounted for about 55% of the world’s tin. Singapore was a major center for smelting and refining the ore into ingots. Tin mining also attracted attention from European, mainly British, investors who again introduced new technology such as high-pressure hoses to wash out the ore, the steam pump and, from 1912, the bucket dredge floating in its own pond, which could operate to even deeper levels. These innovations required substantial capital for which the chosen vehicle was the public joint stock company, usually registered in Britain. Since no major new ore deposits were found, the emphasis was on increased efficiency in production. European operators’ majority British employing mostly Chinese wage labor enjoyed a technical advantage here and by 1929 accounted for 61 percent of Malayan output. British intervention and domination and with the injection of foreign funds and expertise had since put Malaysia in world map of tin producing countries.

b. Methods of mining ;-


Mining methods can be divided to 3 categories;-
I. Dredging also known as the “kapal korek” in Malay
II. Gravel pumping
III. Opencast

The dredging method can be considered a floating processing plant. It performs 3 operations which is excavating the tin bearing ground and lifting it up to the dredge, treating the ground to separate the tin ore from the waste material and finally dumping the washed waste back.

The gravel method is using of high pressure water to break the ground and then the slury is pumped up into the “palong” or sluice boxes where the heavy tin ore is trapped at the bottom. The “palong” is then clean up and the heavy ore is collected and removed from the “palong” for further cleaning and processing.

Opencast which is the dry excavation method in which lorries are used to transport the tin bearing ground to washing plant. The treatment is similar on the “palong” as in gravel pumping.

c. Uses of Tin; - tin is for canning (food packaging), industry, plating, advertising signage, toys, kitchen ware, gas meter, containers and others. It is also used in electronic industry such as joining metals found in radio, television, computers, and mobile phones. also used as engineering alloys, dental amalgams, and as an anti-corrosion and engineering coatings. It is most popular made into pewter gifts and souvenirs.