Govt hopes to sign MoUs on contract renegotiation after April election

By Bambang Atmaja

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Jero Wacik said the government hopes to be able to conclude the ongoing contract renegotiation process with dozens of coal and mineral mining companies in three weeks.

But Jero said that mining giants PT Freeport Indonesia, PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara, and PT Vale Indonesia are not among of the list of companies to sign MoUs with the government on the conclusion of the contract renegotiation.

?It thing it (the signing of the MoUs) will be after the legislative election,? he said on Tuesday.

Indonesia is to hold a direct legislative election on April 9.

Jero said that in the ongoing contract renegotiation process, mandated by the 2009 Mining Law to allow the country to gain greater benefit from mining resources, the government deliberately put priority on the ?easiest? first, as the ?difficult ones? such as with Freeport Indonesia and Newmont would be focused in the later stage.

?We settle those which are easy to address first, but those which are difficult, it will be done later,? said Jero.

On March 7, the energy ministry signed agreement with 25 mining companies, which are holders of contract of works (KK) and contract of works for coal (PKP2B), leaving 87 other mining firms still in renegotiation process.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak