The administration of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has officially granted relaxation of metal mineral exports for copper, iron, lead or zinc commodities until May 31, 2024.
This relaxation is regulated in the Regulation of the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Number 7 of 2023 concerning the Continuation of Development of Domestic Metal Mineral Refining Facilities which was promulgated on June 9, 2023.
It is explained in the policy that the provision of opportunities to sell processed products abroad until May 31, 2024 is in order to encourage certainty of the completion of the construction of refining facilities (smelters) which are being carried out by holders of mining business permits/special mining business permits (IUP/IUPK) for the production operation stage commodity metal minerals copper, iron, lead, or zinc.
In Article 3 paragraph (2) the provisions that are permitted to export are specified, including:
a. has produced processed products;
b. the physical progress of the construction of the purification facility has reached at least 50 percent on January 31, 2023 from the previous planned physical progress of the construction of the purification facility which is calculated cumulatively up to the last 1 month by an independent verifier;
c. pay the export duty in accordance with the provisions of the legislation;
d. and meet the minimum processing limits in accordance with the provisions of laws and regulations.
In addition, the holder of an IUPK for the copper commodity metal mineral production operation stage; or permits for processing and/or refining business activities issued by the minister in charge of government affairs in the industrial sector which has produced by-products or residue from the refining of copper metal mineral mining commodities in the form of anode mud, may sell anode mud abroad in a certain amount by use postal tariffs/HS in accordance with the provisions of laws and regulations until May 31, 2024.
This Ministerial Regulation was stipulated by the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif and came into force from 11 June 2023.
Based on data from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, there are five business entities that have progress in concentrate refining facilities above 51 percent. The five business entities are PT Freeport Indonesia (copper), PT Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara (copper), PT Sebuku Iron Lateritic Ores (iron), and two smelters belonging to PT Kapuas Prima Coal, namely PT Kapuas Prima Citra (lead) and PT Kobar Lamandau Mineral (zinc).
In detail, the physical progress of the US$3 billion Freeport smelter project construction in January 2023 has reached 54.52 percent with investment realization reaching US$1.68 billion and the Amman Mineral smelter worth US$983 million has reached 51.63 percent with an investment realization of US$507 .53 million.
Then, the Sebuku Iron Lateritic Ores smelter valued at US$51.5 million, its physical progress has reached 89.79 percent with a realized investment of US$46.27 million as of February 2023.
Meanwhile, the Kapuas Prima Citra smelter valued at US$10 million has achieved 100 percent physical progress as of May 2022. For the Kobar Lamandau Mineral smelter valued at US$22.53 million, the achievement has been 89.65 percent with investment realization of US$20.2 million as of February 2023.
