WHEN King Tin was in his pomp, the world’s three main centers of production were the bleak altiplano of Bolivia in South America, Indonesia’s Bangka Island and the Kinta Valley in Perak state, Malaysia.

At the heart of the Kinta is the bustling town of Ipoh. These days most of the tin workings are exhausted as they are in more southerly Selangor but Ipoh with its history of rugged miners lives