Freeport should share more revenue with Indonesia: VP
Friday, February 10 2006 - 08:53 AM WIB
Soaring mineral prices on the global market justify a revision of the government's profit-sharing agreement with U.S. mining giant Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX), Vice President Jusuf Kalla was quoted by Dow Jones as saying on Friday.
"Prices of gold and nickel are currently high, (and) based on this, profit sharing should be increased by two-to-three times from the previous figures," Kalla told reporters, without elaborating on the terms of the government's current profit sharing deal.
Kalla said his desire to gain a bigger slice of the profits from Freeport-McMoRan's massive Grasberg mine in remote Papua province was motivated by concern for Papuan residents rather a bid to boost desperately-needed government revenues.
"This is for the sake of Papuan people, because 70% of profit sharing (from Freeport-McMoRan's operations) will be given to the Papuan people," he said, without elaborating. (*)