Spatial Planning Issue Blocks Amman's Smelter Development
Jakarta. Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara, a mining subsidiary of Medco Energi Internasional, has hit a regulatory roadblock in its smelter development, jeopardizing the company's ability to continue exporting some of its gold and copper concentrates.
Amman's $1 billion smelter development in West Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara, is located in an area designated as farmland, which is an apparent violation of the region's spatial plan.
"Amman is building a smelter but it violates spatial planning because it is on farmland," Ahmad Bastian Halim, extractive industries deputy assistant at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, said on Thursday (16/11).
He said the Amman case is one of "many examples of large investments in mining that are hampered by spatial planning regulations."
He said the government is looking at ways to review spatial planning regulations across the country, but in Amman's case, at least for now, the existing spatial plan would take precedence over the company's interests.
Amman spokesman Rubi Purnomo was not immediately available for comment.
The company started clearing land for the smelter in April, after securing a one-year export permit from the government in February. The permit allows the company to export 675,000 wet metric tons of ore.
The permit extension next February would depend on the company's ability to come up with an environmental impact analysis, which Amman seeks to complete by the end of this year.
Amman's current plan is to build a smelter with an annual capacity of 1 million tons of copper concentrate, which can be upgraded to double the capacity. The smelter will process concentrates from the company's Batu Hijau and Elang mines. The latter is currently still in the exploration phase.
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