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 suspended the operations of more than 1,000 miners of coal, tin and other minerals due to a failure to submit their 2022 work plans, according to a document issued by the Minerals and Coal Directorate General of the mining ministry.
The Southeast Asian country has been seeking to improve the oversight of its rich resources sector and President Joko Widodo last month revoked the permits of more than 2,000 companies due to poor compliance.
Sony Heru Prasetyo, an official at the minerals and coal directorate, said on Friday that before the temporary suspension of operations was imposed the companies had been given a warning but had failed to submit their 2022 work plans.
The document, which was verified by Sony, showed the suspended miners included around 80 coal companies, more than a dozen tin miners and several nickel miners. Three bauxite miners in West Kalimantan were also suspended, as well as some gold and manganese companies.
The miners have 60 days to submit their 2022 work plans.
“If within that period the companies still have not submitted their work plan then they will be given a strict sanction of permit revocation,” Sony said.
The official said he did not have an estimate of how much the companies typically produced annually.
Indonesia is the world’s top exporter of thermal coal and a major producer of nickel metals, copper and refined tin.
The country rattled global energy markets in January when it banned exports of coal to shore up supply for domestic power generators.
(By Bernadette Christina, Sudharshan Varadhan and Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by Ed Davies)
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