Forestry minister waiting for police probe on Jorong Barutama and Bukit Kendi
Monday, March 22 2010 - 02:24 AM WIB
Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan told the press last week that the police was still investigating the two companies?due to an allegation that they had been operating illegally without having a land use permit from the forestry ministry.
PT Jorong Barutama Greston is a subsidiary of IDX-listed coal miner PT Indo Tambangraya Megah (ITM), which is controlled by Thai energy conglomerate Banpu PCL, and PT Batubara Bukit Kendi is a subsidiary of PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam Tbk.
?We?re waiting for the Police investigation. If they are found violating the law then their mining projects should be processed according to the prevailing legal procedure. We cannot allow them to resume operations without the recommendation from the Police. We have to follow by the legal procedure,? he said in Jakarta over the weekend..
He noted that the managements of the two mining businesses told him that they had been long trying to get permission from the forestry ministry but until now they still could not get it. ?Without a permission, they should not operate their mining businesses. That?s against the law. We cannot tolerate such violation although one of them is the subsidiary of Bukit Asam,? he said.
Bukit Asam?s spokesman Achmad Sudarta said that they had been trying to get permission for the mining project since 2009. ?But we haven?t yet got such permission until now,? he said.
Previously, Bukit Asam had stated that it had stopped temporaroily the operation of its subsidiary Bukit Kendi as it had no land use permit yet. Due to such condition, Bukit Kendi?s total production of 800,000 tons may not be realized.
The temporary cease of Jorong ?s operation will slightly affect ITM's coal production this year as the coal output from Jorong Mine is accounted for around 1.97 million tons or 8.6 percent of total production of 23 million tons targeted for 2010. (*)