RI officially bans export of mineral ores, allows Freeport, Newmont to continue export
Monday, January 13 2014 - 12:27 AM WIB
The government officially banned on Sunday the export of mineral ores as mandated by the 2009 Mining Law in a bid to push for the development of domestic downstream mining industry and create greater value added for the country.
But in a last minute regulatory changes, the government watered down the export ban policy over the weekend, allowing copper, zinc, lead, and iron ore concentrates for export, thus providing a reprieve for PT Freeport Indonesia and PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara, which account for 97 percent of the country?s copper output.
The government, however, banned the export of bauxite and nickel ores, both of which have export value of about US$2 billion last year, potentially causing thousands of works at smaller bauxite and nickel miners to be laid off.
?Starting today, export of mineral ores has been banned,? Minister of Industry MS Hidayat told reporters Sunday.
Hidayat, however, said that the government would impose export tax on the export of copper, lead, zine and iron ore concentrates, the rate of which would depend on the purity level of the mineral products.
He said that the government has issued new Government Regulation No 1/2014 (a revision of last year?s regulation) and Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Decree No 1/2014 (a revision of last year?s ministerial decree) for the implementation of the export ban. Officials have previously said that the export of the aforementioned mineral products would only be allowed until 2017, when the planned domestic smelters are ready for operation.
Further details about the new policy is expected to be unveiled this week.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak