•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   
•    EYEWITNESS   

A day after the central government offered a slice of its 7 percent stake in Newmont Nusa Tenggara to the province where the miner was based, one local administration said it would accept the deal while another said the shares should be free.

West Nusa Tenggara Governor Muhammad Zainul Majdi said on Wednesday that the offer to purchase a 1.75 percent share — worth around $61.7 million — was “absurd” because the region could not afford it.

“If the finance minister is offering the shares out of goodwill, he should have just granted the shares to us,” Zainul said. “Is it appropriate for the government to make that offer knowing that we cannot afford it?”

Zulkifli Muhaldy, the head of West Sumbawa, the site of NNT’s massive Batu Hijau gold and copper mine, said the district would buy the stake “on its own.”

West Sumbawa officials invited Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo to discuss a deal on Tuesday. However, the district’s representatives failed to show up because they missed their flight.

The central government’s latest move was seen as a softening of its stance after a bitter battle with the region over the 7 percent stake, valued at $246.8 million.

Agus said on Tuesday that the local governments could purchase the 1.75 percent stake in installments through dividend payments from NNT.

He said district and provincial officials should decide if they wanted to purchase the stake jointly or separately.

However, provincial representatives criticized the government’s decision to sell to different tiers of West Nusa Tenggara’s government, calling the move “divisive.”

“The province and district were united in their stance,” said Suryadi Jaya Purnama, a member of the provincial legislative council. “Then the central government made the offer to both of us. It gave a bad impression that it is trying to divide us.”

Lalu Sujirman, chairman of the legislative council, said West Sumbawa’s stance on purchasing the shares independently defied a unity agreement with the provincial administration.

“We went to Jakarta in March and met with the central government. At that time, we were united in rejecting the central government’s plan,” he said.

State Investment Agency (PIP) president director Soritaon Siregar was not available for comment. The PIP is tasked with buying the 7 percent stake.

NNT, a unit of US-based Newmont Mining, was required to divest 51 percent of its shares to Indonesian entities by 2010 under a 1986 working contract.

Domestic companies now hold 44 percent of the miner’s Indonesian unit.

Once Newmont’s divestment leaves it with only minority ownership, NNT plans to sell a 10 percent stake in itself to the public, raising $500 million to expand its gold-mining operations at Batu Hijau.