Indonesia Guidelines for Application, Evaluation, and Business and Special Business Permit for Mining Territory Expansion in the context of Mineral and Coal Conservation

Last updated: 12 December 2023

Energy Ministry Decree No.375.K/MB.01/MEM.B/2023 Regarding Guidelines for Application, Evaluation, and Business and Special Business Permit for Mining Territory Expansion in the context of Mineral and Coal Conservation (the decree) oversees the application, evaluation and process to expand mining territory in business activity. Through this decree, business licence holders could submit their application to expand the mining areas. 
The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources in Indonesia issued the decree to provide guidelines for Business License (WIUP) and Special Business License (WIUPK) Areas for the Conservation of Minerals and Coal. It revokes the previous Ministry Decree No.266k/MB.01/MEM.B/2022, deemed insufficient in providing guidelines for WIUP or WIUPK expansion that prioritize the optimisation of mineral or coal reserves and/or indications of marginal mineral deposits or coal for mineral and coal conservation. 
The decree includes additional point regarding the purpose of WIUP or WIUPK expansion applications. First, it aims at optimising the potential of mineral or coal reserves in the requested expansion area. Second, it focuses on optimising indications of marginal mineral deposits in the requested expansion area. The maximum area for WIUP mineral metals is set at 25 000 hectares and for WIUP coal, it is set at 15 000 hectares. WIUPK areas are determined on ministerial evaluation.
Criteria for areas eligible for WIUP or WIUPK expansion include those bordering initial WIUP or WIUPK areas with proven potential for the continuation of coal layers or characteristics of mineral deposits, as evidenced by exploration data. Additionally, areas between two or more WIUP or WIUPK (corridor regions) with similar potential are considered. The specified regions must not overlap with other WIUP or WIUPK of the same commodity, state reserve areas, people's mining areas, proposed WIUP mineral metal, coal or WIUPK areas, areas in the process of issuing/registration, revoked IUP or IUPK areas under evaluation, ongoing or approved WIUP or WIUPK expansion areas and areas designated for investigation and research for WIUP or WIUPK preparation for coal development or utilisation.
Criteria for IUP or IUPK holders eligible to apply for WIUP or WIUPK expansion include being listed in the IUP database, having a minimum of three consecutive years of production with good conservation performance, conducting detailed exploration across the initial WIUP or WIUPK area and submitting exploration data to the Exploration Data Warehouse (EDW).
Before applying for WIUP and WIUPK expansion, business owners or companies must obtain approval for the expansion plan from the Director General of Minerals and Coal by following the application system that meets the specified requirements.

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