Government to decide fate of ?problematic? miners next month
Friday, August 11 2017 - 04:18 AM WIB
Petromindo|Lucky
The government will decide next month the fate of ?problematic? mineral and coal miners, whose IUP mining licenses have yet to meet the so-called clean and clear (C&C) status, Bisnis Indonesia reported Friday.
The paper quoted Director General of Mineral and Coal at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Bambang Gatot Ariyono as saying that the ministry will evaluate the non-C&C IUP licenses together with the provincial administrations and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), the result of which may end up with the revocation of the non-C&C IUPs.
The government for the past few years has been struggling to clean up the country?s messy mining sector resulting from the aggressive issuance of IUP mining licenses by local governments in the past often in breach of existing regulations such as issuing licenses for new concessions that are actually located in protected or conservation forest areas, or overlap with concessions already owned by other miners or companies. The issuance of the licenses have also often lack the proper required documents, and many of the miners have failed to pay financial obligations to the state, prompting the entry of the KPK into the affairs. These miners are categorized by the ministry to hold non-C&C licenses.
The government has repeatedly missed the target to resolve the non-C&C IUP mining licenses, with the government recently set a new deadline to finally revoke by the end of this year the IUP licenses which remains in non-C&C status.
Bambang said that the ministry will take into consideration the recommendations made by the provincial administration in deciding for the fate of the non-C&C miners.
As per July 2017, out of the total 9,370 IUP mining licenses, 3,168 are still categorized as non-C&C. Provincial administrations have recently recommended to the ministry for 1,352 IUPs to get the C&C status, but Bambang said recently that only around 800 IUPs meet the requirements to get the C&C status.
Some miners reportedly have threated to file lawsuit against the government if their mining licenses are revoked. (*)