Freeport Sanctions Have Not Been Decided, Bahlil: Wait For Audit Results

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Bahlil Lahadalia. (Photo: Theresia Agatha/VOI)

JAKARTA - Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Bahlil Lahadalia admitted that he could not decide on the sanctions to be given to PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) for the incident of landslides in underground mines in the Grassberg Block Cave (GBC) area, Tembagapura.

"The sanctions are after the audit results. We can't punish something without any basis, right? We'll first audit what the problem is, what's the cause. After that we can provide recommendations," said Bahlil when met at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Office, Friday, October 10.

The chairman of the Golkar Party emphasized that it is important to conduct an audit process so that similar incidents do not occur in the future. For this reason, Bahlil also ensured that the audit process was carried out carefully and not in a hurry.

"And that requires various steps related to the civil technique, the mining technique. And this is my team continuing to carry out the audit process there," he said.

Sejalan dengan proses audit, Bahlil menyebut proses produksi tembaga juga dihentikan untuk sementara.

“Sekarang belum ada yang bisa dilakukan produksi. Tetapi kita lagi lakukan audit sampai kemudian kita bisa menemukan apa faktor penyebabnya,” tandas Bahlil.

In line with the audit process, Bahlil said the copper production process was also temporarily suspended.

"Now nothing can be produced. But we are still conducting an audit until then we can find out what the cause factor is," said Bahlil.