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old and copper mining giant Freeport Indonesia has yet to realize its commitment to build a smelter in Indonesia in support of the government’s downstream industry push, triggering lawmakers to demand the government cancel the company’s export permit.

Freeport Indonesia, a subsidiary of United States giant Freeport McMoRan Inc., said Wednesday that it would only build a new smelter if the government could grant an early extension of the company’s contract, which is due to expire in 2021. The earliest miners can renegotiate contracts is two years before they expire, according to a local regulation.

The smelter development is compliant with a local mining law that bans raw mineral exports, slated to take full effect on Jan. 12, 2017, to encourage smelter development in the country and strengthen the processing sector.

“The point is, Freeport Indonesia is committed to building the new smelter. Nonetheless, there are some considerations that need to be addressed first, including the assurance of our contract extension,” said the newly appointed Freeport Indonesia president director Chappy Hakim during a hearing with the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

“We need funds to build the smelter and such funds can be secured if we have extended our contract,” said Chappy, a retired Indonesian Air Force chief of staff.

Lawmakers of Commission VII overseeing energy affairs bombarded the company with criticism, saying it was just buying time until it gets clearance to extend its contract in 2019.

“We have talked about this over and over again, but it seems like there’s no progress at all with Freeport’s new smelter development. So it looks like such a commitment is only the company’s trick to extend its export permit,” said Endre Saifoel of the NasDem Party.

The progress of the new smelter development is crucial for Freeport Indonesia, as it is currently seeking a recommendation from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry’s mineral and coal directorate general for an extension of its export permit for copper concentrate, which will expire on January 12, 2017.

“It’s been around 40 years since Freeport first operated here, and considering the profit you guys have made since then, the development of new smelter should not be a problem at all. It’s not like you want to build a whole new country. It’s only a smelter,” said Mat Nasir from the Democratic Party.

Hence, House Commission VII concluded the hearing by urging the ministry’s mineral and coal directorate general not to give a recommendation for Freeport Indonesia’s export permit extension as long as the company was yet to show real commitment to the new smelter development.

“Whatever decision made by the government later is to ensure the smelter development in Indonesia,” the ministry’s mineral and coal director general Bambang Gatot Ariyono said in response to lawmakers’ calls for export permit stoppage.

At present, Freeport Indonesia sells most of the copper concentrate produced from its Grasberg operation overseas and sends roughly 40 percent of its production to PT Smelting Gresik, which operates the only copper smelter in the country. Freeport Indonesia has a 25-percent stake in Smelting Gresik.

On the other hand, it has allocated US$2.2 billion in capital expenditure for the new smelter development, even though only $212.9 million of it has been disbursed, including $115 million as collateral to the government and $50 million for preparing the smelter’s environmental impact analysis (Amdal) document, early works and basic engineering.

Even so, the company is yet to decide where the new smelter will be located, mulling a land plot owned by state-owned fertilizer maker Petrokimia Gresik and the industrial estate Java Integrated Industrial and Port Estate (JIIPE) operated by Berkah Kawasan Manyar Sejahtera. Both are located in Gresik, East Java.