Govt to meet House over mining on protected forest

The ministry of energy and mineral resources is scheduled to meet with the House of Representatives commissions III on forestry affairs and commission VIII on mining and energy affairs on Wednesday to help seek resolution to problems faced by mining concessions in protected forest area. Secretary of the directorate general of geology and mineral resources R. Sukhyar told Petromindo.com Tuesday that the meeting was expected to be able to help seek resolution to the problem.

He said that the director general will attend the meeting. He added that priority would be focused to resolve the problem faced by 22 mining concessions in the protected forest.

The government launched forestry law No. 41/1999, which bans open pit mining in protected forest. But the law has caused trouble to mining companies (Godang)