Five mineral products will be ready for processing at local smelters

At least five mineral products will be ready to be processed at local smelting plants ahead of the government?s plan to ban export of raw minerals beginning in 2014, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Monday

Director General of Coal and Minerals at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry Thamrin Sihite said in Jakarta last week that a number of miners had agreed to build smelters to process five minerals, which include mangan, bauxite, iron ores and zirconium.

He said that copper miners were among those that were still reluctant to process their copper ores at local smelting plants. ?Copper producers such as Freeport and Newmont have insisted that the construction of a copper smelters is not economically viable,? he said.

But Sihite said that the government did not have any plan to revise the regulation despite the opposition of the two mining giants. He said that the government might require miners to place certain amount of funds as guarantee that they will meet the regulation to build a smelter.

?In order to ensure that miners will follow the government?s downstream program, a holder of a mining permit may in the future be required to provide a guarantee fund,? he said. (*)