Jakarta. The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry has granted an extension permit to Newmont Nusa Tenggara, the local unit of US mining giant Newmont Mining, to export copper concentrate for the next six months, after the company joined Freeport Indonesia in its bid to build a new smelter in East Java.

The director general for minerals and coal, R. Sukhyar, said the ministry signed  its recommendation for Newmont to get the export extension permit on Wednesday — the day Newmont’s most recent export permit, issued in September last year, expired.

“We have forwarded the recommendation to the Trade Ministry for Newmont to acquire the export permit [extension],” Sukhyar told reporters in Jakarta.

“Newmont’s export quota for the next six months is around 477,000 tons of concentrate.”

He said the recommendation was issued after Newmont fulfilled all requirements for the permit extension.

The company has extended a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Freeport to build a copper smelting and processing facility in Gresik, East Java.

“Martiono [Newmont’s president director] has given us [a copy] of the partnership MoU, which states that Newmont is ready to contribute and participate in building the smelter,” Sukhyar said, adding that no details on the contribution had been disclosed yet.

Freeport secured a six-month extension for its export permit in January after the company agreed to rent land from state-owned Petrokimia Gresik in Gresik to build its own copper smelter.

The export quota from the government is based on Newmont’s production rate.

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Source: The Jakarta Globe