A total of 874 IUP mining permits revoked

The government has begun to take strong action against mining firms failing to meet the so-called clean and clear (C&C) criteria for their IUP mining business permits as a total of 874 non-C&C mining permits have been revoked.

Secretary General of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Teguh Pamudji was quoted by Bisnis Indonesia as saying Friday that some of the IUP mining licenses, covering 1.37 million hectares of concession areas were overlapping with forest conservation areas, and another 4.93 million-ha were overlapping with protected forest areas.

Other problems include the miners failing to pay financial obligations such as taxes and reclamation and post-mining funds to the state properly. ?About 75 percent of the IUPs did not pay reclamation and post-mining guarantee funds worth Rp 25 trillion to the state,? Teguh said in a statement.

The government for years had been pushing miners to meet the C&C criteria including by paying financial obligations to the state properly, having the required administrative documents, and complying with existing regulations including on environment. The concession areas must also not be in overlapping status including with forest areas or concessions of other miners.

Teguh said that the revocation of the IUP mining permits, which is based on Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Regulation No 43/2015, is based on recommendations made by local provincial administrations.

He added that the governors are given until May 12 of this year to submit to the ministry the results of evaluation of the IUP mining permits in their respective administrative regions.

As per February 2016, the ministry noted there are a total of 10,331 IUP mining business permits, about 6,365 of which have obtained the C&C status, while the remainders have yet to get the C&C certification. (*)