Last year Newmont Mining Corp (NYSE:NEM) were barred from exporting copper and gold concentrate from its operations in Indonesia for a full nine months.
Like its US peer Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX), Newmont’s local unit, PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara, had to ceased shipments when a new rule took effect banning the export of unrefined minerals and punitive export taxes were levied.
Exports from the Batu Hijau copper and gold mine in Sumbawa Island and from Freeport’s Grasberg mine in Papua province resumed about a year ago.
But now Reuters reports Newmont’s Indonesian copper export permit, which expired on Tuesday, will not be renewed because the company failed to meet government stipulations for developing a domestic smelter, government officials said.
Chief Executive Gary Goldberg said on Tuesday Newmont is in talks with the Indonesian government and he said he expected it would take “a couple of weeks” to sort out,” according to the report:
“In the meantime we continue to operate at full capacity. The last export shipment was earlier today,” Goldberg said in an interview at an industry conference in Denver.
Newmont, the country’s number two exporter behind Freeport, is forecast by the Indonesian government to produce 500,000 tonnes of copper and gold concentrate in 2015.
4 Comments
Ken
It is about time Australia started down a path of ‘value added ‘ processing after the basic recovery of the minerals.
There are plenty of minerals as we all know, and there are PLENTY of sources of energy to take the base product to the next stage as a very minimum. By taking such steps, the value of product sold would be higher for mining companies, provide many more jobs, use some of the products internally, generate more ‘value’ recovery in country.
JohnG
Really Ken? What about all the labor/greens influenced restrictions on cheap coal energy (of which Australia has plenty) and their fight to the death to destroy coal mining and mining in general? ? ? What about Malcolm’s (who is the greens’ and virtual reality traders’ Manchurian candidate into the conservative parties) commitments to replace and plentiful electricity with extremely expensive and unreliable solar and wind? Do you really think that a smelter can operate on wind and solar panels ?
Fossil69
We are too stupid Ken
miner
Again Ken, you are non-union scab, rat, miners!!!!!!!!!!! The profits all go to the stockholders.