UPDATE 1-Indonesia gives six firms green light to ship minerals

(Adds details from firms on their status re permits)

By Fergus Jensen

JAKARTA, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Indonesia's trade ministry said it had approved permits for six companies to export processed mineral ore and refined metal, the first group of firms to be allowed to ship under a new mining law that took effect last month.

"As of today, there are six companies that have received acknowledgement from the trade ministry as processed mineral and refined metal registered exporters," Bachrul Chairi, director general of foreign trade at the ministry, told reporters on Thursday.

Around $500 million worth of monthly metal ore and concentrate exports have ground to a halt in Indonesia due to confusion surrounding the implementation of the Jan. 12 mining law, which includes a mineral ore export ban and a progressive tax on concentrate shipments.

Chairi added that one of the firms that had been registered for exports is PT Smelting, Indonesia's only copper smelter which can produce more than 300,000 tonnes of copper cathode. He did not name the other five firms.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc FCX.N currently processes around 40 percent of the ore it mines in Indonesia at PT Smelting, in which it holds a 25 percent stake.

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The largest shareholder in the facility is Mitsubishi Materials Corporation 5711.T with 60.5 percent, along with Mitsubishi Corporation Unimetal Ltd with 9.5 percent and Nippon Mining and Metals Co. Ltd with 5 percent.

Freeport said it was not one of the five other companies that had been registered to export.

Newmont Mining Corp , which processes around 20 to 23 percent of the copper concentrate production from its Batu Hijau mine at PT Smelting, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Freeport and Newmont have both been in high-level talks with the government regarding the new export rules, which include a punitive escalating export tax.

(Reporting by Yayat Supriatna; Writing by Randy Fabi; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Jane Baird)

((Randolph.Fabi@thomsonreuters.com)(+62 21 3199 7170)(Reuters Messaging: randolph.fabi.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

Keywords: INDONESIA MINERALS/PERMITS