Freeport gets export quota of 1.4m tons
Wednesday, August 10 2016 - 12:56 AM WIB
Director General of Mineral and Coal at the ministry Bambang Gatot Ariyono said on Tuesday that the company has met the requirements to get the export recommendation letter from the ministry, which is necessary for getting the export permit from the Ministry of Trade. ?It (export recommendation letter) will be issued tomorrow (Wednesday),? he said.
PT Freeport?s six-month export permit expired on Monday. The new export permit, however, will only be valid for five months from August 10, 2016-January 11, 2017, instead of the usual six-month period as existing regulation stipulates the export of copper concentrates will no longer be allowed starting January 12, 2017, which is part of a government policy announced in early 2014 to push miners to develop domestic smelters.
Bambang, however, said that there has been no significant development in the company?s planned copper smelter project, thus the company will be subject to a 5 percent export tariff.
PT Freeport plans to develop a US$2.1 billion copper smelter in Gresik, East Java. Bambang said that progress of the smelter project has so far reached only about 14 percent, as spending the company has made into the project remains relatively small at around $168 million.
Bambang also said that there has been uncertainty over the location of PT Freeport?s planned smelter. While the company in 2015 had signed an MoU with PT Petrokimia Gresik to lease the latter?s 80 hectares land in Gresik for the smelter project, there has been indication that the company would move the project to another location, he said.
This portal reported earlier in August that IDX-listed logistics company PT AKR Corporindo Tbk had signed a land lease agreement with PT Freeport for the use of land within the former?s Java Integrated Industrial Ports and Estate (JIIPE) in Gresik as location for the smelter project. This was said by AKR Director Suresh Vembu.(*)