Governors start revoking non-C&C mining licenses

Following repeated delays, provincial governors have finally started revoking problematic IUP mining licenses, or better known as non-C&C (non-clear and clean) IUPs, as part of efforts to clean up the country?s mining sector.

Director General of Mineral and Coal Bambang Gatot Ariyono was quoted by Bisnis Indonesia as saying Wednesday that after the May 12 deadline was breached, some governors have started revoking the non-C&C IUPs. ?(Non-C&C IUPs) have started to revoked. But the number is still less than 100,? he said.

The paper said that of the total 10,361 IUPs, 3,997 are still considered as non-C&C. Governors hold the authority in revoking the problematic IUPs. According to the law, regency and mayoralty administrations are obliged to hand over the IUP mining permits to the governors by October 2016 at the latest. The governors will then have 90 days to evaluate the IUPs, whether to revoke the non-C&C licenses, or give the miners opportunity to upgrade their status to become C&C. Many regency/mayoralty administrations have initially been reluctant in handing over the IUP documents to the governors for evaluation.

Non-C&C IUPs refer to licenses which are overlapping, or the miners failed to pay their financial obligations to the state properly.

Some observers said that the government is prone to face lawsuits at the court filed by miners whose IUPs were revoked. (*)