Govt to revise regulation on mining permits
Saturday, March 16 2013 - 02:17 AM WIB
Director General of Coal and Mineral at the Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Thamrin Sihite said in Jakarta on Thursday that in order to curb the overlapping problems of mining areas, the new regulation would include classification of mining areas, the size of mining areas for each mining permit, and the establishment standard operating procedures in the issuance of mining permits.
He said that the classification would include the area of mining business, the area for state reserves and the areas of people?s mines. The areas for mining business will be offered to investors through an auction like in the issuance of contracts for oil and gas concession areas.
Thamrin said the mines allocated for small holders would cover an area of a maximum of 25 hectares. ?The permit for peoples? mine will be issued by the local government,? he said.
Meanwhile, areas to be used for the state reserves will be determined by the central government. Land reserves should be used for strategic national interests, the sizes of which should be approved by the House of Representatives.
According to Thamrin, the government would also determine the maximum size of areas to be allocated for each mining permits. The central government will coordinate with the local authorities in setting up the size of the mining areas.
In order to prevent overlapping of mining areas, the government will also issue standard operating procedures in the issuance of mining permits. At present, overlapping of mining areas occur due to the lack of coordination among related government agencies.
Overlapping occurred because the government issued more than one mining permits on the same mining areas. Different institutions such as the forestry ministry and energy and mineral resources ministry also often issued different permits for different purposes in the same area. (*)