TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The government is giving US-based miner Freeport Indonesia an extension for the company`s Special Mining Business License (IUPK) to operate and produce until July 31, 2018.
The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry's Coal and Mineral Director General Bambang Gatot said here on Wednesday that the extension was made by amending the Energy Minister's Decree no.143/2017.
Read: Sri Mulyani Assures Freeport Divestment based on Pancasila
Freeport's IUPK was supposed to expire today on July 4, 2018. Earlier, President Joko Widodo said that the government will still obtain at least 51 percent of Freeport's share.
Widodo remarked that in the last 10 years, Indonesia has only gotten 9.3 percent stake in the gold mining company that operates in Papua.
He asserted that Indonesia "must not lose" in the negotiation, no matter how protracted it is.
The president added that in August last year, Energy Minister Ignasius Jonan and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati met with Freeport CEO McMoran Richard Adkerson to talk about the share divestment.
