JAKARTA, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Indonesia's trade ministry

would support allowing PT Freeport Indonesia to continue

exporting copper concentrate after a cost-and-benefit analysis,

a deputy minister said on Friday.

Resource-rich Indonesia has banned exports of copper

concentrate, asking miners to process their output onshore and

export higher value products instead, under a policy known as

"commodity downstreaming".

The trade ministry is only one of a number of government

agencies that have to sign off on reopening copper concentrate

exports for Freeport, with the mining, finance and coordinating

economic affairs ministries also involved.

Freeport's last export permit expired at the end of 2024,

but the company has requested it can continue selling copper

concentrate abroad because its local copper smelter was in

repair after a fire in October last year.

"The trade ministry supports a plan to relax the export

policy after weighing the cost and benefit analysis ... while

also observing the sustainability of the government's natural

resource downstreaming policy," deputy minister Dyah Roro Esti

said in a statement.

Freeport Indonesia did not immediately respond to request for

comment. Freeport-McMoran's ( FCX ) executives last month said Jakarta

has indicated to the company it would support allowing copper

concentrate exports in 2025.