Govt warns 4,800 miners of permit termination

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources has warned over 4,800 miners in the country holding the so-called IUP mining permits to resolve the various problems in their mining operations by year end or risk their permits being revoked.

Director General of Mineral and Coal at the ministry, R. Sukhyar said that of the total 10,776 IUP mining permits, only 5,969 permits have obtained the clean & clear (C&C) certification from the ministry, while the remainders remain in non-C&C status due to various problems including overlapping of permits.

?It has been agreed that this must be resolved by year-end. If not, then the non-C&C IUP permits will be revoked. I will report this to the minister, and submit it to the House of Representatives,? Sukhyar said as quoted by Investor Daily.

The government over the past few years has been trying to sort out the problematic mining permits resulting from the aggressive issuance of permits by local governments in the past. (*)