Regarding The Vital Mineral Critical Role, The Ministry Of Energy And Mineral Resources Says This

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Director of Mineral and Coal Programs of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), Tri Winarno, said that critical minerals will play a very vital and strategic role for all countries to support the energy transition era from fossil energy to renewable energy.

"Mineral Critically as raw material for the solar panel manufacturing industry, wind turbines, and battery industries used for electric vehicles, as well as storage for New Renewable Energy (EBT) plants," said Tri, Monday, August 28.

According to him, critical minerals also have very high values because they are difficult to find, are extracted in economic quantities, and are not easily replaced by metal or other materials.

With the vital and high value of the critical mineral, Tri said, critical mineral demand will increase significantly. So that a challenge arises in terms of providing critical mineral supplies at the global level.

"Another challenge is where we can explore further the existing critical mineral resources, with geological configurations in the ASEAN Region," said Tri.

According to Tri, mineral downstreaming in ASEAN is also another challenge where ASEAN countries must master mineral refining technology to help develop downstreaming in the future.

To deal with this, collaboration of countries in ASEAN is needed, considering that ASEAN member countries are countries that are known to have a wide variety of mineral deposits and enormous potentials, to share the best policy practices, identify key areas, maximize their natural resources and reserves.

"As well as discussing greater regional cooperation opportunities, with the aim of opening up potential critical minerals in the ASEAN region," Tri continued.

On the same occasion, MIND ID President Director Hendi Prio Santoso said that MIND ID as the Holding BUMN mining industry in Indonesia, was assigned by the government to manage and downstream mineral mineral resources, as well as to be part of the energy transition, by maintaining the supply chain of commodities produced from critical minerals, which are raw materials in the development of EBT.

Therefore, the challenges that exist in managing critical minerals must be used as a great opportunity to realize energy resilience in the future.

"In facing geographical and technological challenges from critical minerals and the circular economy for total extraction, collaboration and/or alliance of countries rich in minerals and technology are needed to build a resilient and sustainable clean energy industry," concluded Hendi.