Not Seatractive Nickel, Former Executive Director Of IMA: Bauxite Is A Little Different

Nickel (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Vice Chairman of the Committee of Mineral and Coal of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce (Kadin), Djoko Widajatno, said that the bauxite industry business does not meet nickel.

"The business of the bauxite industry is somewhat different," he said in the Mining Zone quoted on Tuesday, June 25.

This refers to the construction of bauxite smelters which are considered slower than other mineral industries such as nickel. From the construction of 12 bauxite smelters, it is known that only 4 have been tested while the other 8 are still under construction and only 1 smelter shows that the progress of the other Dann7 is still in the form of a buildingless field.

Djoko said that while he was still the Executive Director of the Indonesia Mining Association (IMA), he asked questions to the bauxite industry players regarding the problems faced when building a smelter.

"(He said) Nothing. Money also exists, and so on. But it turns out that financial problems are the main problems that form the purification of bauxite so alumina," continued Djoko.

In fact, Djoko continued, the most expensive process is the construction of a smelter because it requires large infrastructure such as the need for electricity and so on which Indonesia currently does not have.

"In general, we face problems because the location of this smelter is spread and there are proposals at the beginning, what if we create a cluster to build an infrastructure easily. But it is not easy to equalize the opinion of government policies to facilitate the formation of cluster smelters," he explained.

Djoko also said that currently many investors want to enter and invest in the bauxite refining industry but are still hampered by regulatory certainty.

"This morning a discussion at the Processing Committee at IMA and its chairman said investors were waiting and hopefully this could actually be realized by investment entering through BKPM and the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries," concluded Djoko.