REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Energy and Mineral Resources Minister (ESDM) Sudirman Said expressed the hope that plan to step down of James R. Moffett, a founder and top leader of U.S. mining giant Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold would bring about new atmosphere.
"I always positively welcome change as any change would bring about new atmosphere," the minister said here on Tuesday.
He did not specify what he meant by new atmosphere, whether he was hinting about relations between the company and the Indonesian government.
He did say that the planned resignation of Moffett, who is also known as James Bob, was an internal affairs of Freeport.
The sentiment for PT Freeport Indonesia, its Indonesian unit in the country, was negative lately marked with growing call for not extending its contract, which will expire in 2021 .
PT Freeport Indonesia is in the center of controversy over report of House Speaker Setya Novanto holding secret meetings with the company's leader and asking for a share in it in exchange of support for extension of its contract.
PT Freeport Indonesia, which has large copper and gold mines in Papua, was seeking extension of its contract and Novanto offered help to secure approval for the contract extension.
Report of the meetings by Sudirman to the House Ethical Tribunal ended with the fall in disgrace of the House Speaker, who was charged with violation of the House ethical code.
The minister said new leader of Freeport would certainly come up with new working system.
"New leader of Freeport would certainly bring about new working method that we could anticipate , but it is their internal affairs," he said.
He refused to speculate the effects of the expected change on relations between Freeport and the Indonesian government.
Moffet has announced one of the reasons for his resignation was sharp fall in the price of commodities forcing the company to lay off many of its workers and cut production.
The price of copper plunged more than 26 percent with no indication that China would recover from the economic slowdown.
China, the world's second largest economy has been one of the main buyer of primary commodities.
In the U.S. stock market on Monday, the price of the Freeport shares plunged 8.1 percent to 6.95 U.S. dollar each.
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