Minister of Investment /Head of Investment Coordinating Board. Bahlil Lahadalia, has confirmed that the government would grantpermit extension for PT. Freeport Indonesia in June 2024.
He said that if President Joko Widodo had suggested that the extension of permit will be given in June 2024 and as an assistant to the President, he would follow the president’s order.
“I will do what the President says,” Bahlil said during the Idul Fitri celebration at his official residence on Friday, April 12, 2024.
He said that as an asistant to the president, he should not move beyond the limit of his authority. So if president has ordered that the permit be given in June 2024, it is mandatory for him to execute it.
Bahlil said negotiation for the extension of Freeport’s permit was tough because the government requested the company to build a smelter in Papua. So far, the company only built smelters outside Papua, even though its mining site is in Papua.
“We want economic equality for Papua,” he said.
In addition to the smelter construction in Papua, the government also requests for an additional 10 percent share divestent of Freeport McMoran shares in PT Freeport Indonesia.
Currently Indonesia has 51 percent shares in the company. When the permit expires in 2041, Indonesia will have an additional 10 percent of shares and will have a total shares of 61 percent.
“So PTFI is no longer owned by Freeport McMoran. It is Freeport Indonesia. So if we want to extend the permit of our own company, why do we trouble ourselves?” Bahlil said.
He said Freeport McMoran has to agree with the 10-percent share divestment as a condition for permit extension.
The Indonesian government is finalizing the revision of Government Regulation No. 96/2021 that will allow PT Freeport Indonesia to secure early extension of its special mining business permit after 2041.
PTFI signed the Contract of Work (CoW) in 1976 for 30 years and should have ended in 1997. Before the contract expired, PTFI discovered a bigger gold reserve at Grasberg mine. The company then submitted a second contract extension in 1991. The second contract has a clausal on divestment of 51 percent of the company’s shares to the Indonesian government.
After a long negotiation, in 2018, Freeport-McMoRan announced that it divested its ownership in PTFI so that Indonesia could own 51 percent shares of the company. In return, the CoW was replaced by a Special Mining Business License (IUPK) with the mining right to 2041 and Freeport will build a new smelter by 2022.
Grasberg mine has three mining operations: Open pit, the Deep Ore Zone underground mine and the Big Gossan underground mine. According to former Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Ignasius Jonan, the Grasberg gold mine has 23.2 million ounces of gold reserves per December 31, 2017.
