Court rules in favor of C. Sulawesi governor in mining lawsuits
Tuesday, December 20 2016 - 07:07 AM WIB
The State Administrative Court in Central Sulawesi Province ruled on Monday in favor of provincial Governor Longki Djanggola in lawsuits filed by two mining firms.
The court rejected a lawsuit filed by mining firm PT Morindo Bangun Sejahtera (MBS) against the governor for reducing the company?s mining concession area, according to a copy of the ruling, obtained by Petromindo.com on Tuesday. The court also rejected an intervention filed by mining firm PT Bintang Delapan Wahana (BDW).
The court said that the governor?s policy to cut down the size of the mining concessions of the two firms is valid and are not in breach of existing regulations.
MBS and BDW, together with four other companies, filed lawsuits in September against the Central Sulawesi Governor following the administration?s decision to cut down the size of the concessions of the firms as part of efforts to resolve the problem of overlapping concession between BDW and five other firms.
The four other firms which filed the lawsuits include PT Daya Inti Mineral, PT Artha Bumi Mining, PT Daya Sumber Mining, and PT Persadatama Inti Jaya Mandiri. The court has yet to rule on the lawsuits filed by the four firms.
According to information gathered by Petromindo.com, as has been previously reported, the IUP mining concession of BDW overlaps with the concessions of the five other mining firms. To help resolve the overlapping problem, the governor then reduced the size of the concessions. PT Persadatama Inti Jaya Mandiri saw its concession cut down from 1,333 Ha to 1,070 Ha. Meanwhile, the concession of PT Morindo Bangun Sejahtera was reduced from 1,379 Ha to 897.4 Ha.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak