Government delays plan to ease mining contract renewal

Amid growing criticism, the government has decided to delay the revision of a regulation that would ease the requirement for miners such as the giant PT Freeport Indonesia to seek for contract renewal.

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Sudirman Said stated on Wednesday that the planned revision of Government Regulation No 77/2014 has been postponed pending the completion of the revision of Mining Law No 4/2009.

Revision of the mining law may only be completed next year.

Government Regulation No 77/2014 among others stipulates that miners can only apply for a contract renewal two years before the expiry of the contract.

The government previously said that it aimed to revise the regulation to allow miners to request for contract renewal ten years before its expiry, a plan criticized by many as a move to accommodate demand from PT Freeport Indonesia whose contract is set to expire in 2021. The gold and copper giant wants early renewal of its contract as its plans to make billions of dollars of investment to start to start underground mine in Papua and develop domestic smelter in East Java.

The revision of the regulation was supposed to be completed in September, reports have said. (*)