Foreign investors suspend mining projects

A number of foreign investors, mostly partners of state owned mining company PT Aneka Tambang have decided their projects worth over US$1.5 billion in eastern part of Indonesia due to uncertainty in forestry regulation.

Aneka Tambang?s president Aditya Sumanegara said in Jakarta on Thursday that most of the foreign investors were concerned on the uncertainty in the regulation related to open-mining activities in forestry areas.

Speaking to reporters following a meeting with Vice President Hamzah Has, Aditya said that the suspension directly affected Aneka Tambang?s operation because most of the foreign investors were the company?s partners in mining expansion projects.

The suspension, according to him, affected Aneka Tambang's plan to open a massive nickel mining operation on Gag island, Papua, which is expected to absorb investment of at least $1 billion, and a bauxite-mining project worth between $200 million to $500 million in West Kalimantan. (*)