Amman?s exploration plan may be hampered by new mining permit status
Monday, April 3 2017 - 02:45 AM WIB
The paper quoted Director General of Mineral and Coal at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Bambang Gatot Ariyono as saying that by converting its mining permit status to special mining business license (or IUPK) from mining contract of work (COW), the company is required to follow the requirement to reduce its mining concession area to 25,000 ha.
Bambang said that exploration activities must be held within the designated 25,000 ha concession area. The paper said that the Elang block is located outside the reduced concession area. ?If Amman wants to carry out mine activities, it must be within the concession area of 25,000 ha,? he said.
AMNT could not be immediately reached for comment.
The company has earlier agreed to convert its mining permit status to IUPK as part of conditions set under the new government policy for it to be able to resume export of copper concentrates produced from its Batu Hijau mine in Sumbawa. The company has also agreed to develop the required domestic copper smelter.
As has been previously reported, AMN plans to invest a total of US$9 billion to finance the development of copper smelter and mines.
Bambang said on March 15, the company has submitted to the ministry its long-term investment plan, which will be realized starting this year. He said that the smelter project will cost about $1 billion, while the remaining $8 billion will be used to finance mine development including exploration at Elang block, and to develop facility to process ores into concentrates.
He said that AMNT, formerly known as PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara, plans to develop a copper smelter in Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara Province, with a capacity of 1 million ? 1.5 million tons of copper concentrates per year, enough to refine the entire copper concentrates output of the company.
AMNT in February obtained a one year permit to export copper concentrates with an export quota of 675,000 tons following conversion of its COW into IUPK. (*)