Indonesia temporarily revokes nickel ore and bauxite export permits of four miners

According to a Reuters report, Indonesian government has temporarily revoked nickel ore and bauxite export permits of four mining companies. The government cited zero progress in smelter development by those miners as the ground for revoking the licence. This was shown by energy ministry data on Thursday. 

According to the data, the governmnnet revoked export permits for a combined 4,222,119 tonnes of nickel ore from PT Surya Saga Utama, PT Modern Cahaya Makmur and PT Integra Mining Nusantara. The government has also temporarily revoked permit for PT Lobindo Nusa Persada which was permitted to export 1.5 million tonnes of bauxite annually. 

Indonesia approved mineral ore export permits to companies on condition that they would be building smelters in the country to generate value from the ore. The government was supposed to review the constructions every six months. The export ban caused a huge drop in the government revenues leading to the partial lift on export of bauxite and nickel ore.

Throughout 2017, the Indonesian government issued permits to export more than 22 million tonnes of nickel ore and nearly 15 million tonnes of bauxite. The government as a standard issues permits for one year and companies are allowed to renew them based on their commitments to the terms.