The governor of Papua province in Indonesia has told the mining giant Freeport that it should leave the province if it won't build a smelter there.
Lukas Enembe told the Jakarta Post the company cannot take the natural wealth of the remote Indonesian province and impoverish the people.
Mr Enembe says he discussed the matter with the President, Joko Widodo, in Jakarta last week, saying all Papuans opposed the company's plan to build the smelter in Gresik in East Java.
Freeport's Grasberg mine in Papua, Indonesia. Photo: AFP
Governor Enembe says the provincial administration is drawing up a bylaw to protect all the resources in Papua, be they forestry, marine or mineral.
PT Freeport Indonesia is majority owned by the Arizona-based Freeport McMoRan, and operates the world's second biggest copper and gold mine at Grasberg, Papua.
