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GRNlive correspondent Simon Roughneen in Jakarta says:

Indonesia’s speaker of Parliament stepped down this week after being accused of trying to cajole Freeport — the American mining giant that has a huge copper & gold mine in Indonesia, to give him a 20% stake worth nearly $2bn -- in exchange for him helping to extend Freeport's contract to keep operating one of the world’s biggest mines - a controversial project in Indonesian-run Papua. The speaker was recorded saying this in a meeting with Freeport during the summer, details of which dripped out over the last couple of weeks.

This resignation is a bit of a face-saver too, as the parliament was probably going to censure the speaker and there may well be other charges against him after this.

For its part, Freeport wants to keep mining in Indonesia after the current deadline of 2021 — and this saga comes ahead of a possibly difficult contract renegotiation and calls in Indonesia either for the operating contract not to be extended, or for Indonesia to receive more money from the mine.