Mariel Grazella, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 06/05/2012 9:48 AM
A decision by the Constitutional Court allowing small-scale miners to obtain exploration permits may do more harm than good by multiplying the chances for multiple abuses, mining experts have said.
The Constitutional Court has paved the way for small-scale miners to obtain the permits by striking down an article in the Minerals and Coal Law that required operators to have mines that were at least 5,000 hectares to secure the permits.
Chief Justice Mahfud MD announced on Monday that Article 52 of the 2009 Minerals and Coal Law, which stated that mining permits (IUP) could be given for mine sites between 5,000 to 100,000 hectares, would no longer be
legally binding.
“The Constitutional Court considers that the 5,000-hectare minimum requirement would potentially take away, or at the very least, diminish, the rights of people to conduct small- and medium-scale mining activities,” Mahfud said.
The chief justice added that the article had failed to provide standards for measuring the environmental impact of mining against the size of site, further blurring the necessity in establishing a minimum size.
“This is because a 3,000 to 4,000 hectare plot could be of sufficient size to carry out exploration, operational and production activities,” Mahfud said.
At least three groups were listed on the request to the Constitutional Court to review Article 52: the Indonesian Tin Miners Association (APTI), the Bangka provincial branch of the Indonesian Mining Association (Astrada) and the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi).
Komaidi Notonegoro, a mining expert from ReforMiner Institute, said that the Court’s decision, although well-intended, would be “prone to abuse” once it was implemented in the field.
“The move was made in the spirit of being fair – so that mining would not be a monopoly for big players only,” Komaidi said.
“But the court has failed to see that the mechanisms by which permits have been granted have been riddled with holes,” Komaidi said, adding that certain regional governments had put permits “up for sale”.
According to Komaidi, only one-fourth of the roughly 12,000 mining licenses – mostly for coal – that were granted by regional administrations were properly registered with the central government.
He added that it was “public knowledge that money politics” had tainted the permit process, and that the chance of taking advantage of more lax permit requirements would “become considerably larger” after any firm with a mine was eligible for permits.
“Permits circulate as if they were stocks,” he said, adding that the condition had even caused a failure in documenting the production volume at several mines.
Cases mirroring the mining permit imbroglio have repeatedly surfaced. State-owned mining company PT Aneka Tambang, for example, has filed a lawsuit against Aswad Sulaiman, the former regent of North Konawe, South Sulawesi, for issuing a letter in 2007.
This letter authorized PT Duta Inti Konawe to mine 2,000 hectares that overlapped with Antam’s concession of 6,312 hectares. The regent then issued another letter in 2008 that reduced the land that Antam was authorized to mine to 5,000 hectares.
Following a lawsuit by Antam, the Kendari State Administrative Court revoked the letters in 2008 as legally flawed. However, the Supreme Court granted an appeal by the defendant in 2009 and has subsequently turned down Antam’s request for an appeal in 2010.
Supriatna Suhala, executive director of the Indonesian Coal Mining Association (APBI), said that the Constitutional Court had failed to weigh the technical fallout of mining on small patches of land.
“Mining on small areas of land is inefficient and causes a lot of waste,” he said, claiming that mines tended to be large because certain factors, such as their depth and the angle at which shafts had to be drilled, had to be taken into consideration.
He added that having a myriad of small mines would increase the occurrence of environmental problems.
“This goes back to the question of it being better to have several big players, or a thousand or so smaller players,” he said.
“Allowing many small players may be in accordance to social justice, it is inefficient when it comes to control,” he told the Post.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/06/05/experts-warn-pitfalls-well-intended-mining-law-revision.html
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