Government delays revoking problematic IUP mining licenses

Petromindo|Lucky

The government has delayed revoking non-clean and clear (non-C&C) IUP mining business licenses as many miners whose IUP has been declared to be categorized as non-C&C have filed lawsuit with the court, Kontan reported on Monday.

The paper quoted Director General of Mineral and Coal at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Bambang Gatot Ariyono as saying that revoking the problematic IUPs can only be made once the court ruling has been issued.

The government has initially set a target to conclude by January of this year the cleaning up of the country?s messy mining sector due to problematic IUPs issued in the past by local administrations without proper regards to existing regulations. Many of the IUP mines do not have the required proper legal documentations, have failed to pay financial obligations to the state properly, and in overlapping condition including with forest areas. For the past few years, the government has given time to the miners to resolve the problems, assigning local government to evaluate which mines are categorized as C&C and which are categorized as non-C&C. The non-C&C IUP mines recommended by the provincial administrations will have their licenses revoked.

But Bambang said that IUP miners which have gone to the court to challenge their non-C&C status can?t have their licenses immediately revoked pending the issuance of the court ruling.

Bambang, however, said that the government hopes to conclude the problematic IUP mines by the end of this year.

As per October of this year, of the total 9,370 IUPs, 3,312 are categorized to be non-C&C status. (*)