The Indonesian government has issued a regulation allowing mineral companies to export unprocessed ore in force majeure situations, the energy ministry said on Thursday.
Indonesia banned exports of raw minerals in 2023 to encourage metals processing at home, but has made some exemptions, including to miner PT Freeport Indonesia, which was granted a permit last year to export copper concentrate until repairs at its Manyar smelter are completed.
Freeport Indonesia was forced to stop copper cathode output at its $3.7 billion copper smelter in Gresik, East Java province after a fire broke out at its gas cleaning unit in October 2023.
The smelter has annual input capacity of 1.7 million metric tons of copper concentrate, which could produce around 900,000 tons of copper cathode, 50 tons of gold and 210 tons of silver a year.
Freeport has asked the government for a new export licence after its previous one lapsed at the end of last year.
Dadan Kusdiana, secretary general of the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, said export permits are valid for six months after the ministry issues a recommendation they be granted.
Dadan told Reuters that Freeport Indonesia had yet to request a new export licence for copper concentrate. Freeport Indonesia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Deputy Energy Minister Yuliot Tanjung told Reuters that export permits would require companies to ensure sufficiency of raw materials for domestic use and that the improvement of mineral refining facilities is carried out within a certain period of time.
He also said the regulation is needed to avoid layoffs and optimise state revenue.
(Reporting by Fransisca Nangoy, Bernadette Christiana, Ananda Teresia and Dewi Kurniawati; Editing by Martin Petty, Kirsten Donovan)
