Ministry denies planning to relax mineral ores export ban
Tuesday, March 8 2016 - 01:17 AM WIB
Director General of Mineral and Coal at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Bambang Gatot Ariyono denied reports suggesting that the ministry was planning to relax the current mineral ores export ban policy.
?There?s no relaxation (plan),? Bambang told reporters on Monday.
He said that the government is currently evaluating the various domestic smelter projects to look into possibility of providing incentives to help miners and investors complete their smelter projects.
He said that out of the 77 planned smelter projects, only about 33 which are near completion, mostly comprising of nickel smelters. One bauxite smelter and one manganese smelter are expected to be completed in 2019.
On February 19, Sujatmiko, Head of Public Communications Center at the ministry, said that the ministry was planning to relax the current mineral ores export ban policy amid the lingering downturn in commodity prices.
He said that the plan has been included in the government?s draft of the revised 2009 Mining Law. He did not provide clear reasons as to why the mineral ore export ban policy has to be relaxed, only saying that it has been demanded by the industry players, and the government has to be ?smart in responding to the current changing global market dynamics.?
A number of miners have previously urged the government to allow them to resume export of ores to help raise revenue to finance their smelter projects.
The previous government imposed in early 2014 the export ban policy on mineral ores in a bid to generate greater value from the country?s mineral resources by pushing miners to develop domestic smelters. However, export of mineral concentrates are still allowed until 2017, by which time concentrates producers such as PT Freeport Indonesia must already built the required domestic smelter.
On March 6, Deputy Chairman of the Indonesia Refinery and Smelter Companies Association (AP3I) Jonathan Handojo warned the government that Indonesia is set to lose a combined US$12 billion worth of new investment in domestic smelter projects if the government proceeds with its plan to relax the current mineral ores export ban policy.
He said that the association plans to meet with President Joko Widodo to persuade the government to proceed with the planned relaxation policy.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak