Indonesia may impose tax or quota on ore exports

JAKARTA, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Indonesia may impose a tax or quota on mineral ore exports ahead of a planned regulation to ban all exports of raw minerals by 2014, the industry ministry said on Wednesday.

The industry ministry has proposed this as a transition before the export ban, in a move that could hurt nickel firms INCO and Antam and copper miners Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold and Newmont Corp .

"Some of the options for transitional regulations are taxes as high as possible on mining products like iron ore, bauxite, and other metals like nickel and copper," the ministry's spokesman Hartono said.

This could also take the form of an obligation to sell part of firms' output to the domestic market, he said, without giving further details or timing.

New government regulations are regularly mooted in Indonesia but often take a long time to be approved or fail to materialise.

The planned 2014 export ban is part of a mining and coal law introduced in 2009 that requires miners to process coal and minerals into higher value products before exporting them, as the country seeks to boost revenue from the mining sector.

Indonesia, the world's largest tin and thermal coal exporter, said last month it is looking to revise its royalty payments made on all domestic tin shipments, to close a tax loophole and bring these in-line with existing charges on exports.

Analysts have said a string of recent comments by politicians to increase resource royalties suggested a rising tide of nationalism aimed at shoring up domestic political support. (Reporting by Yayat Supriatna; Writing by Neil Chatterjee)