Govt takes steps to follow up presidential decree
Thursday, March 7 2013 - 02:33 AM WIB
Coordinating Minister for economy Hatta Rajasa said on Tuesday that the government has taken measures to follow up Presidential Instruction No 3, 2013, on the acceleration to increase the added value through processing and smelting of mineral ores.
The minister said that data on mineral reserves and its distribution has been made available to support the building of smelters.
With such new data, Minister Hatta said that there are some changes on the initial plan for building the processing units, including the location and the number of smelters.
?There has been progress (on the implementation of instruction), and there have been changes (on the plans). There are smelters that will be built in Surabaya, Sulawesi, Maluku, Papua, and Sumatra," Hatta said on Tuesday evening at Coordinating Minister for Economy office.
Minister Hatta stressed that miners do not need to worry about the supply of mineral ores as it would be sufficient.
In terms of number of the smelters, he said that it would be less than the initial plan of 27.
Editing by Adianto P. Simamora