Indonesia goes quiet on dispute with Churchill Mining

(ShareCast News) - The long-running dispute between AIM-listed Churchill Mining and the Indonesian government over a coal project took another turn on Wednesday when the company reported that its opponent had failed to make its latest payment in the arbitration process.The case is being handled at the Washington-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.Churchill said Indonesia had also failed to state whether it was continuing with arbitration, noting it was "strange" that it had "defaulted on a payment requested to cover the costs of its own application"."It is also surprising that, despite our express request, Indonesia has now failed to confirm that it is still participating in the arbitration. Indonesia's continued silence suggests that it may have decided to withdraw from the arbitration proceedings," said chairman David Quinliven."While there is still time for Indonesia to re-appear in the arbitration, if it does not do so that will not stop the arbitration. Churchill remains committed to the resolution of its dispute with Indonesia through the....process and will do whatever has to be done to ensure that the arbitration progresses to its natural conclusion."The dispute, which has been running since 2012, is over the licensing of an East Kalimantan coal project is estimated by the firm to contain 2.73bn tonnes of reserves. Churchill claims the Indonesian government unlawfully revoked mining licences that had been awarded to the miner for its East Kutai project.