Government to publish mineral reference price

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources plans to publish this month a new mineral reference price (or HMA) that would be used among others as a basis for the government in determining royalty from the country?s mineral commodities, Kontan reported on Friday.

The paper quoted ministry spokesman Sujatmiko (one name) as saying that the HMA would be based on domestic metal prices, replacing the mineral benchmark price (or HPM), which is based on international prices particularly those of the London Metal Exchange.

The paper said that the HMA would cover eight groups of commodities including nickel and cobalt, lead and zinc, bauxite, iron, gold and silver, tin, copper, and manganese and chrome. (*)