Indonesian minister slams deal to extend Freeport's contract

Jakarta

A SENIOR Indonesian minister has criticised an agreement to extend the operating contract of the local unit of US mining giant Freeport McMoRan, suggesting it failed to win sufficient backing of the Cabinet before it was announced.

President Joko Widodo's coordinating minister for resources, Rizal Ramli, said an agreement in June that would let Freeport Indonesia continue at its Grasberg copper-gold mine in Papua was the result of a lobbying effort of every Indonesian "elite" and was "unfair".