The Indonesian Ministry of Trade supports the plan to extend the export license for Freeport's copper concentrates.

According to Webstock Inc., citing Reuters on February 7, Indonesian Deputy Trade Minister Dyah Roro Esti stated on Friday that after conducting a cost-benefit analysis, the Indonesian Trade Ministry will support Freeport Indonesia in continuing its copper concentrate exports.

Resource-rich Indonesia has banned copper concentrate exports, requiring miners to process the material domestically and export higher-value products instead, as part of a policy known as "commodity downstreaming."

The Trade Ministry is just one of several government agencies that must sign off on reopening Freeport's copper concentrate exports, with the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, the Ministry of Finance, and the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs also involved.

Freeport's last export permit expired at the end of 2024, but the company has requested to continue selling copper concentrates overseas due to a fire at its local copper smelter last October, which is still under repair.

In a statement, Deputy Trade Minister Dyah Roro Esti said: "After weighing the cost and benefit analysis, the Trade Ministry supports the plan to ease export policies... while also observing the sustainability of the government's natural resource downstreaming policy."

Executives from Freeport-McMoRan stated last month that the Indonesian government had indicated its support for allowing copper concentrate exports in 2025.