Ministry faces lawsuit filed by 20 mining firms

Petromindo|Lucky

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources is ready to face lawsuits filed by 20 mining firms holding the so-called IUP mining business permits, Kontan reported on Tuesday.

The paper quoted ministry Spokesman Sujatmiko as saying that the 20 mining firms filed the lawsuits after their IUPs were revoked by the government last year. The IUPs were among of the 534 IUPs revoked last year among others because their concessions overlapped with protected forest areas.

He said that the ministry is making coordination with governors in provinces in case the miners filed lawsuit against the provincial administration with local state administrative court.

The ministry, through Ministerial Regulation No 43/2015, gives authority to the governors to recommend which IUPs can be given clean and clear (C&C) status, and which IUPs should be given non-C&C status, thus must be revoked, as part of efforts to help clean up the country?s messy mining sector from problematic mining permits resulting from aggressive issuance of IUPs in the past by regency administrations sometimes without properly observing existing regulations, causing among others overlapping of permits including with forest areas.

Hendra Sinadia, Deputy Executive Director at the Indonesian Coal Mining Association, said that the miners filed the lawsuit because they have obtained the IUPs legally, and that they were not aware that their concessions overlap with other miners or forest areas, and that it should be the responsibility of the regency administration which issued the permits. (*)