NGOs to challenges export permit for PT Freeport
Wednesday, April 26 2017 - 03:54 AM WIB
The paper quoted Ahmad Redi, spokesman of KMS as saying that the issuance of the export permit for PT Freeport, a local subsidiary of US Freeport McMoRan Inc, is in breach of existing regulations and law. He said that the KMS is preparing to file the law suit within the next 21 days.
The NGOs also complained of the special treatment given by the government to PT Freeport, which has recently obtained permit from the Ministry of Trade to export 1.1 million tons of copper concentrates until February 2018. They said that other firms such as gold and copper mining firm PT Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara was not give similar special treatment.
The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) has recently issued a temporary IUPK business license for PT Freeport to allow the company to resume export, which has been suspended since February. But at the same time, the company still retains its mining contract of work (COW) permit status. The ministry has also issued recommendation letter for PT Freeport to obtain the export permit from the Ministry of Trade.
According to a new government regulation issued in January, miners can resume export of mineral concentrates for another five years on certain conditions including converting their COW into IUPK. Freeport agrees to convert into IUPK as long as it can still retain similar fiscal and legal terms set out in the COW, a request rejected by the government, trigging the current dispute and lengthy negotiations between the government and the company. To help resolve the short term issue of export, the ministry then issued a temporary IUPK for PT Freeport, valid until October, by which time ongoing negotiations between the two are expected to have been completed. (*)