JAKARTA, March 17 (Reuters) - Indonesia will issue Freeport Indonesia a six-month permit to export copper concentrate while its smelter is repaired, which will also ensure the government continues to receive royalty payments, the energy minister said on Monday.
Freeport has been seeking the permit after it was forced to stop copper cathode production at its new smelter in Gresik, in East Java province, after a fire damaged the plant last October.
"We are giving six months so that they can expeditiously fix the smelter so that Indonesia can get state revenues from the royalties," Energy Minister Bahlil Lahadalia said.
The company obtained a quota of about 1.27 million metric tons to export its copper concentrate, chief executive Tony Wenas was quoted by news membuat website database Bisnis.com as saying, adding the company will now seek a formal export permit from the country's trade ministry.
A trade ministry spokesperson said Freeport Indonesia had submitted its request to them.
Freeport has not exported copper concentrate since its last permit expired at the end of 2024. It has said its mining operation was running at 40% capacity due to a rising stockpile of copper concentrate, which has reached 400,000 metric tons.
Last week, Freeport said it would seek to export 1.2 million tons of concentrate.
Freeport Indonesia and Indonesia's energy ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Resource-rich Indonesia has imposed an export ban on unprocessed minerals, such as copper and nickel, to promote the development of a domestic processing industry.
Bahlil was speaking on Monday at the launch of Freeport Indonesia's precious metals refinery, which is in the Gresik smelter complex.
The $630 million refinery processes gold, silver, platinum and palladium, according to the presentation shown at the livestreamed event. (Reporting by Stanley Widianto, Dewi Kurniawati, Bernadette Christina and Stefanno Sulaiman; Editing by John Mair and Louise Heavens)
