A group consisting of law experts and environmental activists plans to file a request for a judicial review with the Supreme Court against new regulations extending a relaxation of an export ban on mineral ores, which, it says, have violated the law.

The government issued a fourth revision of Government Regulation No. 23/2010 on the management of mineral and coal businesses on Jan. 11, allowing miners to continue exporting copper concentrates, certain amounts of low-grade nickel ore and washed bauxite.

On the same day, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry issued ministerial regulations No. 5/2017 and No. 6/2017 that relaxed the export ban for the next five years and required miners to convert their contracts of work (CoW) into special mining licenses (IUPK).

“We will file for a judicial review of those regulations, which obviously contravene the 2009 Mining Law, particularly articles 102, 103 and 170 that mandate all holders of mining licenses to process their mineral ores domestically,” said Ahmad Redi, a law expert from Tarumanagara University, on Wednesday.

Under the Civil Society Coalition umbrella, he and activists from at least 20 institutions were collecting testimonies from various experts to be documented for the lawsuit that will be submitted to the Supreme Court next week. (ags)

Sumber: Activists apply for judicial review of relaxation of mineral export ban