E. Kalimantan to close down 809 mining firms

The East Kalimantan provincial administration plans to close down the operations of 809 coal and mineral mining companies in the province either because their licenses have expired and not extended, or because they have breached existing regulations.

East Kalimantan Governor Awang Faroek said in a statement Tuesday that the administration will submit recommendation to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources to revoke the licenses of miners who have breached the regulations (categorized as non-clear and clean/non-C&C licenses).

He said that miners who have breached the regulations have caused damage to the environment. The governor issued the statement following evaluation meeting of mining licenses in the province.

Meanwhile, Secretary of the East Kalimantan provincial administration, Rusmadi said that that the affected 809 miners comprise of 419 firms holding exploration IUP mining business license (291 C&C and 200 non-C&C), 154 firms holding Production Operation IUP (114 C&C and 40 non-C&C), and 164 miners holding the KP mining rights (1 C&C) and 163 non-C&C).

There are currently a total of 1,404 IUP mining business license holders in East Kalimantan, the statement said.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak