Govt mulls relaxation of mineral ores export ban

By Bambang Atmaja

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Jero Wacik said the government was considering the requests of miners and other industry stakeholders to relax the planned mineral ores export ban policy.

?The Mining Law must be properly implemented, but the request of the people, miners, and the possibility of layoff, must also be considered. We must weigh both (sides),? Jero said in Bekasi on Tuesday.

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.

Meanwhile, Sutan Bhatoegana, chairman of the House of Representatives Commission VII on energy, said 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 Reiner Simanjuntak