Indonesia plans to cut mining quota period back to one year, minister says

Indonesia plans to cut the duration of mining quotas back to one year from the current three years to improve governance in the sector and better control coal and ore supplies, mining minister Bahlil Lahadalia said on Wednesday.

Resource-rich Indonesia extended the validity of mining production quotas, locally known as RKAB, to three years in 2023 to ease red tape.

Miners in Indonesia are required to seek RKAB approval to determine how much ore they may dig out over a period of time.

“Because we allowed three-year RKAB, we could not control the balance between coal production and global demand … Same thing happened to nickel, as well as bauxite,” Bahlil told members of parliament.

The switch back to one year was proposed to the minister by lawmakers overseeing the mining sector.

The move is expected to help underpin prices of coal and ores and boost government revenues, Bahlil added.

(By Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by David Stanway)