JAKARTA: The chief executive of Freeport McMoRan Inc’s Indonesian unit, Maroef Sjamsuddin, has resigned, a spokesman said on Monday, less than a month after the chairman of the US mining giant stepped down.
Freeport, which operates one of the world’s largest copper and gold mines in Indonesia’s far-eastern Papua region, is a key source of resource revenue for the country, and the issue of its operations and contract are politically sensitive.
Sjamsuddin’s resignation follows an inquiry into the Indonesian parliamentary speaker that he spearheaded, which saw the speaker forced to resign amid corruption allegations in December. The matter is still being investigated by the attorney general’s office.
“He resigned, that’s all I can say,” Freeport Indonesia spokesman Riza Pratama told Reuters, declining to give further details.
Sjamsuddin, a retired Air Vice Marshal of the Indonesian Air Force and deputy chief of the National Intelligence Agency (BIN), was picked by former Freeport chairman James Moffett to head the Indonesian unit in January 2015, despite his apparent lack of experience in mining.
At the time, Sjamsuddin said he would enhance cooperation with the government and other stakeholders to support the company’s long-term programme to operate gold and copper mines in Papua.
Freeport, the world’s top copper and molybdenum producer, is negotiating with the government for an extension of its Grasberg contract, which is due to expire in 2021. The company, looking to invest US$18bil (RM79.1bil) to transition the Grasberg complex from open pit to underground mining in late 2017, wants to finalise an extension before it signs off on the expansion.
The Indonesian government is looking to increase its ownership of Freeport Indonesia, recently valued at US$16.2bil (RM71.2bil), to 20% from a current 9.36%. A further 10% must be divested to the government by the end of 2019.
According to Said Didu, a special staff to the energy minister, Sjamsuddin had worked well with the government.
“I don’t know exactly how the process will go from here. That will depend on his replacement,” Didu said, noting that he didn’t know who had been appointed to replace Sjamsuddin yet.
The Arizona-based mining firm’s global chairman, James Moffett, who played a central role in the establishment of the vast Grasberg complex, stepped down on Dec 28 after three decades in charge. - Reuters
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