Non-C&C mining permits to be revoked next year: Official

By Thomas R. Sembiring

After previously failing to realize its threat several times, the government this time said that it would start next year revoking IUP mining permits which fail to meet the so-called clean and clear (C&C).

Director General of Mineral and Coal at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Bambang Gatot Ariyono said Wednesday that a ministerial regulation on the revocation of non-C&C IUP mining business permits will be issued, hopefully by the end of this year.

He said that the ministry, in cooperation with the Ministry of Home Affairs, is currently drafting the new regulation on how to deal with the non-C&C IUP mining permits, under which the authority to revoke the permits would be given to provincial administrations.

There are currently a total of 10,364 IUP mining permits including mineral and coal. As per November, 6,404 IUP permits have obtained the C&C status, Bambang said.

Thousands of the IUP mining permits, issued aggressively by local regency/mayoralty administrations in the past to help finance their greater autonomy power, have been saddled with various problems including overlapping of permits, and breaching of various government regulations including on forestry.

Indian Metal and Ferro Alloys Ltd (IMFA) has filed a lawsuit against the Indonesian government with an arbitration court in The Hague after the company failed to carry out mining operations at its concession in Kalimantan due to overlapping permits. The company also demanded compensation worth US$581 million (about Rp 7.7 trillion).

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has recommended the government to revoke the problematic IUP mining permits.

The government has previously threatened to revoke the non-C&C IUP mining permits, but the deadlines have been consistently missed.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak