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’s ministry is trying to address delays in approving new mining volume quotas, an official at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry said on Monday.
The ministry sofarhas issued approvals for quotas, known by the Indonesian acronym RKAB, for 145 million metric tons of nickel ore and 14 million tons of bauxite, said Tri Winarno, the ministry’s director of mineral business development, adding that the focus is currently on RKAB approvals for nickel and tin mining.
Indonesia this year extended the validity of RKAB to three years from one year to reduce the frequency that companies needed to apply for the quotas, but Tri specified that the volumes approved so far are only for 2024.
“This (volume) is for this year. We continue to accelerate the approval process,” he said.
Tri did not specify how many companies have acquired the RKAB approvals.
Miners and smelting companies have been concerned by delays in the approvals, without which they cannot conduct mining activities.
In January, exports of Indonesia’s tin products dropped 99% because of the delay.
Tri said Indonesia’s largest tin miner, state-controlled PT Timah, has been granted its mining quotas, as well as a number of private tin companies.
(By Bernadette Christina Munthe and Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by Martin Petty and Christian Schmollinger)
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