The province may ask the company to surrender some of its stake when the full regional autonomy law is implemented in January, said the deputy governor, J.R.G. Djopari. PT Indocopper Investama Corp. Indocopper is 49 percent owned by Freeport-McMoran and 50.48 percent by Nusamba Mineral Industries, a company linked to Mr. Suharto. The Indonesian environment minister, Sonny Keraf, said recently that the mining contract between the government and Freeport remained open to change, pending the results of an environmental audit of its operations in the rugged mountains of West Papua. The official audit is due to be completed in the next couple of months. A district court ruled in January that Newmont Minahasa must pay tax on overburden from its mine.
Overburden is the soil and minerals that are removed in the mining process.
The court also ordered the mine to close, even though the company says the materials are dumped and not sold commercially. Newmont Minahasa last month agreed with local authorities to audit the materials used in its mine to try to settle the dispute. Under their contracts, the independent producers were to sell electricity to PLN at prices officials now say were inflated by corruption and collusion. The prices became unaffordably high when Indonesia's growth collapsed after the financial crisis. PLN is seeking to restructure the contracts and cancel some where power plants are not yet completed.