Government to relax rules on mineral ore exports

By Bambang Atmaja

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik said on Friday that Indonesia will issue a governmental regulation (Peraturan Pemerintah or PP) to relax rules on exports of mineral ore before export ban policy take effect on Jan. 12.

The PP would allow miners who have been conducting smelting or processing activities at certain level to continue exporting their ores.

?Firms which have been carrying out smelting or processing activities up to a certain level will be regulated by a special PP. The PP is being prepared and it will be issued before Jan. 12,? he said.

As mandated by the 2009 Mining Law, the government plans to ban the export of mineral ores starting January 12, 2014 in a bid to generate greater value added from mining commodities by forcing miners or investors to build domestic smelters. But copper giants such as PT Freeport Indonesia and PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara have said that building domestic copper smelters would not be economically feasible for them. The two, however, have signed MoUs on copper concentrate supply with three investors planning to build domestic smelters.

But as the planned domestic smelters will need more time to build, while the export ban is set to be implemented on January 12, many miners have urged the government to relax the ban by allowing those which have commitment to build smelters to keep exporting the ores until the smelters are completed.

Sutan Bhatoegana, chairman of the House of Representatives Commission VII on energy, said early this month that the government is welcome to submit proposal for the revision of the mining law to allow miners to continue mineral ores export next year.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon