Court maintains export ban policy

The Constitutional Court upheld the government?s mineral ores export ban policy after it rejected on Wednesday a judicial review of the 2009 Mining Law, the legal basis for the policy.

?(The court) rejected entirely the appeals of the applicants,? said Chief Justice Hamdan Zoelva.

Mining firms under the Indonesian Mineral Entrepreneurs Association (Apemindo) filed for a judicial review of the 2009 Mining Law, specifically chapter 102 and 103, which the group argued do not require the export ban of mineral ores.

The government on January 12 of this year introduced the export ban policy on mineral ores in a bid to generate greater value added from the country?s mining commodities by pushing for the development of domestic smelters. (*)