Miners may kick off construction of smelters in Indonesia

JAKARTA, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian Energy and Mineral Resouces Ministry will complete evaluation on the proposals to build smelters by the end of this year, which means the construction of processing plant can begin next year, a senior official said here Wednesday.

At present, as many as 159 proposals with investment commitment of 42 billion U.S. dollars have been accepted by the ministry, said Tatang Sabaruddin, director for mineral and coal at the ministry said.

A task force at the ministry has evaluated the miners' plans on the aspects of environment, economy, regulation and others, said Tatang.

"All the evaluation is due to be completed this year," he told reporters.

The director said that the team would determine the number of smelters to be built.

Indonesia currently has 7 smelters nationwide.

The Indonesian government has imposed 20 percent export tax on 65 unprocessed ores since May, a policy aims at restricting export of raw mining products.

Indonesia aims to ban all unprocessed mining products in 2014.

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