JAKARTA -- Indonesia's nationalization of a major copper and gold mine formerly run by U.S. metals company Freeport-McMoRan is a win for Indonesian President Joko Widodo who has been calling for the reclamation of strategic resources. But the lack of consensus over future investments puts one of the world's biggest sources of the red metal on shaky grounds.
According to the agreement spelling out the terms signed July 12, Freeport and Anglo-Australian peer Rio Tinto will sell their shares and interests in the local joint venture Freeport Indonesia, which runs the Grasberg mine, to state-owned resources company Indonesia Asahan Aluminum, or Inalum.
