Ruling on mineral independent auditor expected soon
Monday, March 6 2017 - 02:21 PM WIB
Petromindo|Thomas
The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources expects regulation to appoint independent auditors to facilitate the implementation of a recently-introduced new policy that allows the export of mineral concentrates, low grade nickel ores and washed bauxite to be concluded soon.
?I received reports that these coming weeks it will be concluded so that miners will not be hampered from making export,? said Director for Mineral and Coal Management and Development at the ministry, Bambang Susigit on Friday.
He said that discussions are still in progress to among others decide criteria in selecting the independent auditors which would verify whether miners have met certain criteria and requirements in making the export.
The government in January issued new Government Regulation No 1/2017 among others allowing miners to export mineral concentrates for another five years but must meet certain conditions including commitment to build domestic smelter. The government will audit every six months, via the independent auditors, the progress of the miners smelter projects. Those failing to meet certain progress will risk their export permit revoked.
The new regulation also allows miners to export low grade nickel ores with purity of less than 1.7 percent and washed bauxite with purity of less than 42 percent. Export will only be allowed after meeting a third of domestic smelter capacity.
The new policy is expected to benefit nickel miners particularly IDX-listed mining giant PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (Antam), which has been unable to sell its low grade nickel ores at home since the government banned export of mineral ores in early 2014 due to limited demand.
Japanese nickel smelters, which process low grade nickel ores, will also benefit from the policy as many of the smelters have been left idle since the introduction of the Indonesian export ban policy as they primarily sourced their raw materials from Indonesia.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak