MEMR suspends contract renegotiation with five mining firms

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) has suspended contract renegotiation with five mining firms including three holders of mining contracts of work (KK) and two holders of coal contracts of work (PKP2B), Kontan daily reported on Wednesday.

The paper quoted Director General of Coal and Mineral at the ministry R. Sukhyar as saying that three KK holders are PT Nabire Bakti Mining, PT Irja Eastern Mineral and PT Koba Tin, while the PKP2B holders are PT Sarwa Sembada Karya Bumi and PT Intitirta Primasakti.

The contract renegotiations, aimed at revising the mining contracts to be in line with the 2009 Mining Law, with Nabire Bakti and Irja Eastern were stopped because the contracts of the two firms have been terminated as the two faced financial difficulties in continuing with their exploration works. The contract of Koba Tin has expired.

The renegotiation with Sarwa Sembada was suspended pending the resolution of overlapping permit. Meanwhile, Intirta was excluded from the list of contracts to be renegotiated because the company has just won its case at the State Administrative Court, reactivating its concession in January of this year.

The paper said that the government will only process contract renegotiation with 107 mining firms, of which 39 have agreed on entire points of renegotiation proposed by the government. Sukhyar is confident that other firms will finally reach agreement with the government in November of this year. (*)