Indonesia's Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Arifin Tasrif, has urged the mining sector to embrace decarbonization. He emphasized the importance of shifting towards the production of low or zero-emission products, particularly as the country remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels, especially coal. Indonesia, with its abundant mineral and coal resources, plays a pivotal role in its economic growth and national industrial self-reliance. The government is actively prioritizing various mineral and coal policies, including expanding exploration of mineral reserve resources, focusing on rare earth metals and critical minerals, post-mining reclamation, ensuring business certainty and investment facilitation, enhancing Domestic Component Levels (TKDN), and increasing value-added while considering environmental aspects. The enhanced value of minerals is crucial for supporting Indonesia's energy transition, as these minerals are essential components for the industry.
Arifin also highlighted the government's efforts to promote mineral processing and smelting, with a focus on key commodities such as nickel, aluminum, copper, tin, iron, and gold-silver. These initiatives emphasize adherence to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles, covering environmental management and monitoring, post-mining reclamation, land transformation for alternative energy sources, and social aspects like community development and empowerment. Furthermore, governance principles are being implemented to regulate IUP holders, share ownership, and organizational structure. The government is committed to improving the mining business environment, promoting national interests, ensuring legal certainty, facilitating investment, and managing environmental concerns, thereby encouraging industry players to invest in downstream mineral and coal processing. The Indonesia Mining Association (IMA) Chairman, Rachmat Makkasau, mentioned that 27 new smelters are operational, with plans for maximum operational capacity by 2024-2025. The government's mineral processing program has been making significant progress with the construction of smelters, and the focus now is on efficient management of raw materials and reserves for this industrialization.
