Indonesian parliament set to vote on amendment to mining law

INDONESIA’S parliament is set to vote on Tuesday (Feb 18) on a bill to revise the country’s mining law to boost the development of domestic mineral processing industries and regulate mining permits for religious groups and universities.

The amendment aims to encourage participations of smaller-scale businesses in mining sectors and to ensure ore supply security for mineral processing industries, as resource-rich Indonesia seeks to further develop its domestic metals sector.

A draft bill was approved in a meeting late on Monday between a key parliamentary body and the government and is expected to be formally endorsed in a wider vote during a plenary meeting on Tuesday. The new mining law will grant priority access to mining concessions for companies that aim to build processing facilities.

Religious groups and universities, through a business unit under their control, will also be given priority access to certain mining areas to give them a source of income.

In the past, such priority has only been given to state-owned companies.

“This amendment to the law also provides us with certainty as we try to reorganise our mining licensing,” Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia told the meeting on Monday.

The law revision was also to satisfy a 2021 constitutional court order to revise a number of articles related to mining that the court said were unconstitutional. REUTERS

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