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After receiving two warnings from the Ministry of Forestry, PT Freeport Indonesia has indicated that it may be open to acquiring permits to mine in a protected forest area where it has been mining for years.

In a statement on Wednesday, company spokesman Budiman Moerdijat said Freeport Indonesia, a subsidiary of giant US miner Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, was willing to discuss acquiring a “borrow-use permit for lands in some areas of the mining contract of work.”

Freeport began mining at the huge Grasberg copper and gold mine in a protected forest area in Papua in 1988. The government claims Freeport has effectively been mining illegally since 2004, when a regulation in lieu of law (perppu) exempted 13 miners, including Freeport, from a 1999 prohibition on mining in protected forests provided that they acquired “borrow-use permits” from the ministry.

Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan told lawmakers on Monday that the ministry had issued two warnings to the miner for not obtaining a permit to mine in such areas.

Budiman said Freeport was willing to negotiate with the ministry, but reminded it that Freeport’s mining contract of work was signed before the 1999 forestry law was passed and that the 2004 perppu states that all permits for mining activity or mining deals that existed before the release of the perppu and the 1999 law would remain effective.

When contacted by the Jakarta Globe, Budiman declined to elaborate on why the company would be open to negotiations.

However, he said the Ministry of Forestry’s criticisms had not hurt the company.

“The production process is running normally,” he said.

On Wednesday, Zulkifli said: “We’ll wait [for Freeport’s proposal], since they must propose the permit if they want to use the forest area.”

Meanwhile, Firman Soebagyo, vice chairman of House of Representatives Commission IV, which oversees forestry and agriculture, said the commission planned to visit the Freeport mining area next month to evaluate whether the company had conducted reclamation of its former mining area to avoid environmental damage.