TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian government has given an export approval (SPE) to PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara to export copper concentrates. In a letter signed on November 18, the government reduced Newmont's export quota from 477,000 tons in March-September to 430,000 tons for the next six months.
"The quota given matches Newmont's [production] capacity," Bambang Gatot Ariyono, Director General of Mineral and Coal at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, said Tuesday, November 23.
According to Bambang, the export approval is given under the condition that Newmont pays a 7.5-percent duty fee. This is in compliance with the Finance Ministry's Regulation (PMK) No.153/PMK.011/2014, which requires the payment 7.5 percent duty if a company's smelter development fund absorption reaches 0-7.5 percent.
Bambang said that the Finance Ministry will only facilitate Newmont's exports once the miner is committed to build its own smelter.
The export approval for Newmont took quite a while to issues because the miner has not agreed to the contribution for a smelter construction with fellow miner PT Freeport Indonesia.
Newmont has been asking for an export approval since August, but the Energy Ministry rejected the request since there was no progress in the smelter development.
Today, Newmont has agreed to contribute US$3 million for the construction of cathode copper smelter in Gresik, East Java. This fund is only 0.13 percent of the total investment for the joint-project with Freeport.
Freeport Indonesia spokesman Riza Pratama said they will receive any amount of contribution from Newmont. But Riza declined to tell just how much Newmont will be investing on the project.
The Gresik Smelter project initiated by Freeport—targeted for completion in 2017—is estimated to cost US$2.3 billion. Once it operates, the smelting facility is expected to have a processing capacity of 2 million tons of concentrates.
The slow issuance of Newmont's export approval had caused the value of exports of West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) to decline. Throughout October, the province's export value fell 98.76 percent from US$146.18 million to just US$1.81 million. Meanwhile, the company's import value in the same month reached US$23.43 million, a 17.67-percent increase from September's US$19.91 million.
ROBBY IRFANY | SUPRIYANTHO KHAFID (MATARAM)
