Column: Electric dreams turn into a nightmare for battery metals
A sector that was once racing to build new supply has been closing mines and deferring projects as low prices bite into the cost curve.
Indonesia has issued mining production quotas of 152.62 million metric tons of nickel ore and 44,481.63 tons of tin so far this year, and is working to accelerate the approval process, a senior mining ministry official told parliament on Tuesday.
Resource-rich Indonesia requires all miners to secure production quotas, known locally as RKAB, before they can start production, but they have faced delays this year amid changes in the approval process.
In total, the government has issued approvals for 191 miners, including for 107 nickel miners, 12 tin miners, two copper miners, among others, ministry director general Bambang Suswantono said.
Production quotas for 99.24 million tons of copper ore and 15.88 million tons of bauxite have also been handed out, he added.
These production quotas were allotted for 2024, Bambang said.
In 2023, Indonesia produced 193.5 million tons of nickel ore, and ore output this year was estimated to increase by 5% to 10% this year, an official said in January.
More than 500 production proposals for various minerals were still being processed.
Authorities are boosting efforts to accelerate the process, but are also pleading with miners to quickly fulfill the requirements needed to achieve approvals, he added.
Most miners who have not been granted RKAB had unpaid mining royalties, Bambang said.
“We were asked why the RKAB process is very slow, but we need to ask the miners, have they fulfilled their royalty payments,” he told members of parliament.
The backlog has disrupted exports in the first two months of 2024 and boosted prices of nickel and tin in global markets.
Meanwhile, the government has also approved coal production quota totalling 922.14 million tons this year, above the production target of 710 million tons.
(By Fransiska Nangoy and Bernadette Christina; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor, Janane Venkatraman and Louise Heavens)
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