Govt to finish draft mining bill this week

The inter-ministerial team tasked with preparing the draft mining bill is expected to submit it to President Megawati Soekarnoputri this week, while the House of Representatives (DPR) may start deliberating the bill in mid-September, a senior government official told Petromindo.Com on Wednesday.

TA Nur Winakun, head of the legal and mass communications section at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, said Minister of Forestry AM Prakosa had yet to sign the draft bill before being handed over to the President for approval. Other ministers including Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro and State Minister of Environment Nabiel Makarim had signed the draft bill, Nur Winakun said.

?The government will submit the bill to DPR immediately after the President puts her signature on it,? Nur Winakun said.

Nur Winakun said they expected the House to start deliberating the bill in mid-September.

If passed, the new law will replace the current law which was issued in 1967, Law No. 11/1967.

Unlike the 1967 law, the bill does not discriminate against foreign investors among others because they are allowed to obtain both mining permits and mining contracts, which are the two categories of mining concessions stipulated in the bill.

The bill does not differentiate between groups of minerals, and obliges mining investors to incorporate community development into their programs.

While stressing the authority of local administrations to issue mining concessions, the bill says the central government has legal rights to sanction mining contracts.

The bill gives particular attention to small-scale mining.

Another senior official at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, R. Sukhyar, said recently they expected DPR to pass the mining bill into law before the end of this year. (godang)