BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company, has officially told the government it would divest all of its assets in Indonesia, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said Thursday.
“BHP have sent us a letter saying they will divest their assets in Indonesia,” Purnomo said.
“The divestment will be done on a case-by-case basis, between BHP and any interested parties,” he added.
Witoro Soelarno, secretary-general at the directorate general for minerals, coal and geothermal energy at the ministry, said BHP’s plan to pull out from Indonesia had nothing to do with the country’s policies in the sector.
“They told us this is ‘an internal business matter’,” Witoro said, without elaborating further.
Early June, BHP announced that, while it was evaluating the possibility of pulling out of Indonesia, it had decided to stop the development of the Haju trial mine, one of seven mines under the company’s Maruwai coal project in Central Kalimantan.
BHP said the Haju trial mine was not suitable with its long-term investment strategy.
BHP initially planned to spend US$100 million in capital investment for the development of the Haju mine. The company had expected the mine to begin its first production in mid-year 2009.
The Haju mine is one of the mines in BHP’s Maruwai project. Maruwai is the generic name given to a large, high quality metallurgical coal deposit in Central and East Kalimantan.
BHP’s Maruwai coal project consists of seven Coal Contract of Works (CCOW) locally known as PKP2B. The project has a total area of 330,000 hectares.
BHP also decided to cease activities in six other areas within the project.
In November last year, BHP decided to drop its $4.5 billion nickel laterite project in the Buli area of North Molucca.
Initially, BHP had planned to develop the area with state nickel company PT Aneka Tambang (Antam), the country’s second largest nickel producer.
The joint venture ownership was envisioned as a 50:50 partnership between Antam and BHP Billiton.
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