Indonesia will allow miners Freeport Indonesia and Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara to continue exporting copper concentrate until next 2024, despite a ban starting this June, to allow for their smelters to be completed.

Gold mine: President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (right) speaks with Richard Adkerson (left), director of the Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold company at the Grassberg mine in Mimika during Jokowi’s visit on Sept. 1, 2022. In 2018, Indonesia acquired Freeport, a giant US company operating in the country. (Photo:AFP/VNA)

Earlier, the country’s government is due to ban exports of raw minerals like copper and bauxite from June as part of the efforts to attract investment into its metals processing industry and boost the value of its exports.

Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Arifin Tasrif said delays to copper smelter construction caused by the pandemic prompted the government to temporarily exempt some firms from the ban.

He said his ministry is pushing so these smelters development can be concluded as soon as possible. The smelters are expected to be completed in May 2024.

He said Freeport and Amman will therefore be allowed to export until May 2024. The ministry will issue a regulation detailing requirements for the export leniency for copper.

Freeport Indonesia spokesperson Katri Krisnati said the company has not received an official notice regarding the export policy, adding that the company appreciates support from the government to help ensure its operational and investment continuity.

The minister said that the government and Freeport have also started discussing extending the company's permit to continue operating the Grasberg mine in Papua. Freeport's current permit will expire in 2041.

Speaking at a briefing earlier, investment minister Bahlil Lahadalia affirmed that while it will likely allow the extension, the government may want to increase its stake in the company.

Through a state company, Indonesia currently controls 51% of the Indonesian unit of the US mining giant Freeport-McMoRan, and the government wants to expand that by around 10%, he said.

Freeport is building a 3 billion USD copper smelter in East Java to process 1.7 million tonnes copper concentrate, while Amman's smelter in West Nusa Tenggara will have an input capacity of 900,000 tonnes.

Asked about the bauxite export ban, Arifin suggested there could be no leniency for bauxite, the most common raw material used in the production of aluminium.

The country banned exports of nickel in 2020 and has since attracted huge investment into nickel processing, much of it from China.

Source: VNA