Indonesian Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan has issued a regulation to tighten the export of mining products.
The regulation signed by the minister on May 7 requires mining companies to obtain a recommendation from the Directorate General of Minerals if they wish to conduct exports.
The recommendation, meanwhile, will be given only to companies that have met the three conditions of submitting their working plan on the development of processing and refining plants before 2014, signing integrity pacts and having a clear and clean status.
According to regulation number 29/M-Dag/Per/2012, companies that wish to conduct exports are also required to pay off their royalty and posses a mining permit.
Based on the regulation, mining products are divided into three categories, namely, metal minerals, non-metal minerals and rocks - of which there are 65 categories.
There are 21 types of metal minerals, including iron ore, manganese, copper, nickel, cobalt, aluminium, lead, zinc, chromium, molybdenum, ilmenite, titanium, zirconium, silver, gold, platinum and antimony.
Meanwhile, the 10 non-metal minerals include quartz, kaolin, limestone, feldspar, zirconium silicate, zeolite and diamond.
The rock categories include marble, onyx, granite, topaz, jade, toseki and peridotite.
The regulation is part of the government’s policy to control exports of mining products, in addition to the mineral resources minister’s regulation on increasing value addition through processing and refining minerals and imposing export tariffs.
The government plans to impose a 20 percent export tariff on 14 mining minerals - copper, gold, silver, tin, lead, chromium, platinum, bauxite, iron ore, iron sand, nickel, molybdenum, manganese and antimony.
Meanwhile, the police aim to control mineral exports to prevent excessive mining, meet domestic needs and ensure environment-friendly mining activities.
