SBY: Newmont Damages Sense of Justice
25 July 2014 05:26 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that US-based miner Newmont Mining Corp.--working in Indonesia as Newmont Nusa tenggasa--has damaged the Indonesian people's sense of justice by filing an international arbitration against the government.
The lawsuit, Yudhoyono said, shows that Newmont is unappreciative despite working on Indonesian soil.
"That is how the president expressed his disappointment," Coordinating Minister for the Economy Chairul Tanjung said at the State Palace, Thursday, July 24.
The President on Thursday held a closed meeting to discuss Newmont's report and contract renegotiation. In a meeting that lasted more than two hours, Chairul said, SBY issued five instructions on mineral and coal issues, including how the country must respond and resist to Newmont's lawsuit.
One of the instructions is for the government to take firm and stern actions against Newmont. Yudhoyono even signed a Presidential Decree appointing a team that will face Newmont in the arbitration court.
"The president's mandate is to look for the best lawyer and ensure that the government wins against Newmont," Chairul said.
Newmont filed a lawsuit to the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) after the Indonesian government issued a ban on the export of raw mineral policy in early 2014. In June, Newmont declared force majeur because its 80,000-ton storage facilities are at full capacity since the company had difficulties exporting.
In an attempt to encourage miners to build smelters and processing plants, Indonesia imposes a tax of 25 percent that will escalate to 60 percent in the second half of 2016, before imposing a total concentrate export ban in 2017. Newmont and fellow US miner Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. argued they should be exempted from the tax.
FRANSISCO ROSARIANS