Raras Cahyafitri, Jakarta – The Supreme Court's ruling ordering the revocation of a decree restricting the export of unprocessed ore issued by the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources in February 2012 will have no impact on the government policy because the decree has already been revised, an official has said.
The ministry's spokesman Saleh Abdurrahman said in Jakarta on Thursday that the decree restricting the export of unprocessed ore had been revised with the issuance of ministry regulation No. 20/2013. Under the revised regulation, export of unprocessed ore is allowed, albeit with certain conditions, he said.
The Supreme Court's ruling was released on the court's official website on Thursday. The court ruled against the Energy and Mineral Resources Minister in a legal suit challenging ministerial decree No. 7/2012 on the restriction of unprocessed iron ore exports.
Under the regulation, which went into effect May 2012, raw minerals must be processed domestically before being shipped overseas. According to the court, the regulation violated Mining Law No. 4/2009, and thus the court ordered the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources to revoke the decree. The suit was filed in May 2012 by a bauxite miner named Wello.
In his plea, Wello asked the court to revoke the decree because it would be impossible for miners to build smelters only three months after the issuance of the regulation.
Prior to Wello's suit, several others also filed challenges with the court, including the Nickel Association. The court also ruled in favor of its plea.
A director for the Indonesian Minerals Businessmen Association (Apemindo) and bauxite and iron ore miner, Ladjiman Damanik, said that the court ruling had no impact at all. "However, the court's ruling indicated that mining officials issued the decree carelessly," Ladjiman said.
The government had issued the ministerial decree as part of an attempt to combat what it considered the over-exploitation of mineral resources ahead of the implementation of a ban on unprocessed mineral exports stipulated in the 2009 Mining Law.
The ban in the Mining Law, which is set to go ahead next year, faces uncertainty as only a few processing facilities have thus far been built and will be operational next year.
The government has said that it wanted to fully implement the ban, but the country's poor trade balance, due to declining commodity prices has forced the government consider relaxing the law to help shore up the widening deficit.
"The Mining Law itself mentions nothing about prohibiting unprocessed ore exports. It only talks about an obligation to build smelters," Ladjiman said, adding that he was attending a meeting in Bali on Thursday with staff from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and other related institutions to discuss the regulation.
He added that the government was preparing to issue a revision of the ministerial decree No. 20/2013, which would regulate the export of unprocessed ore after January 2014.
"They are aiming to finalize it by the end of this month," Ladjiman said, adding that participants also suggested the central government establish better coordination with local administration on mining regulations.