Govt to push smelter development next year: Sudirman

By Adianto P. Simamora

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Sudirman Said insisted that his office would continue pushing for the development of domestic mineral processing and refining facilities in 2016 to increase added value of the country?s mineral commodities.

?We want to protect the consistency of downstream policy on mineral industry,? Sudirman told Petromindo?s team in a special interview at his office on Thursday.

The government banned export of mineral ores in early 2014 to help push for the development of domestic smelters in a bid to generate greater value from the country?s mineral commodities.

Some mineral companies have repeatedly asked the government to ease the export ban policy by allowing them to resume export to help raise money to build the smelters.

Data from Sudirman?s paper showed during the interview that currently there are six smelters already in operation in the country, and 47 units are under development with progress of more than 30 percent.

Sudirman said that the government would still need to calculate the ideal number of smelters based on the supply of mineral ores.

?What we will do is to recalculate the need of smelters. The most important is that the smelters could absorb the national capacity of mineral ores,? he said.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak