Papua Governor, Energy Minister Discuss Freeport Smelter
6 February 2015 17:44 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Papua Governor Lukas Enembe came Friday to the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry office for further talks on the planned construction of a smelting facility by copper giant PT Freeport Indonesia in his province.
“There’s no reason for Freeport to build [the smelter] outside of Papua,” Lukas said.
The governor added the smelter construction in his province would not be stymied by land issues, allowing for the large availability of land plots in Papua. Lukas said he would also discuss the fate of Freeport employees should the subsidiary of US-based giant mining firm PT Freeport McMoran Inc fail to extend its export permits.
Earlier, Freeport’s plans to construct the smelter in an area belonging to state-owned fertilizer producer PT Petrokimia Gresik in East Java had reaped protests from multiple parties, including from lawmakers of the House’s Commission VII overseeing energy and mineral resources.
House lawmakers said constructing the smelter in Papua was the better option as it would help the province boost its economy.
Calls for Freeport to build the smelter in Papua have continued to grow, which would likely result in the delay of the beginning of the construction. Among the key factors to the delay are the absence of preliminary research and the lack of supporting facilities in Papua.
“It [the construction] will be delayed for at least a year,” the executive director of the Indonesian Research Studies (Iress), Marwan Batubara, told Tempo on Thursday.
URSULA FLORENE SONIA
