Indonesia plans tax or quota on ore exports

Reuters reports Indonesia may impose a tax or quota on mineral ore exports ahead of a planned regulation to ban all exports of raw minerals by 2014, the industry ministry said on Wednesday.

The planned ban is part of a mining and coal law introduced in 2009 that requires miners to process minerals into higher value products before exporting them. The move would negatively impact copper miners Newmont and Freeport as currently only 30% of output is processed domestically and comes on top of news that workers at Freeport’s massive Grasberg mine in the Papua province plan a second strike next week after wages negotiations broke down.

Reuters quotes a ministerial spokesperson: “Some of the options for transitional regulations are taxes as high as possible on mining products like iron ore, bauxite, and other metals like nickel and copper.”

Bloomberg reports Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Grasberg mine in Papua province and Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE:NEM) Batu Hijau mine in West Nusa Tenggara are the biggest and second-largest producers of copper in Indonesia.

Bloomberg reports Freeport and Grasberg mine’s labor union ended talks over 2011-2013 contract terms on Aug. 26 after failing to reach an agreement on wage increases. The two sides started negotiations on July 20 after about 8,000 workers put down tools for eight days to July 11, disrupting production and helping to drive up copper prices.

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