Jokowi Inaugurates First Bauxite Injection SGAR Luxury

Inauguration of SGAR Luxury by President Jokowi (photo: Maria Trisnawati/VOI)

MEMPAWAH - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) inaugurated the first bauxite injection at the Smelter Grade Alumina Refinery (SGAR) owned by PT Borneo Alumina Indonesia (BAI).

Smelter, located in Mempawah Regency, West Kalimantan Province, is a national strategic project (PSN) from the MIND Mining BUMN Holding through a subsidiary of PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminum (Inalum) and PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (ANTM).

"By saying Bismillahirrahmanirrahim this morning I inaugurate the first injection of the Smelter Grade Alumina Refinery (SGAR) PT Borneo Alumina Indonesia," Jokowi said in his remarks, Tuesday, September 24.

In his remarks, Jokowi said that the need for aluminum in Indonesia is known to be 1.2 million tons and 56 percent is still imported from abroad. For this reason, he asked to stop imports of bauxite and start advancing domestic production so that Indonesia does not lose foreign exchange,

"So we don't lose foreign exchange because we have to go out of USD 3.5 bilion every year. The figure is very large. More than IDR 50 trillion foreign exchange is lost due to aluminum imports," Jokowi continued.

With the first injection of bauxite into this smelter, Jokowi said he was happy because the upstream and downstream ecosystem of the aluminum industry, which is integrated with phase 1, has been completed with raw materials derived from Antam's Tbang located in Tayan.

"So alumina was sent via Kijing Harbor to Kuala Tanjung and processed by Inalum," he said briefly.

According to Jokowi, with an investment of IDR 16 trillion, Indonesia has started a new chapter as an industrial country

For information, this smelter is expected to start operating in the first quarter of 2025, with a full production target in the second quarter of the same year. The project will use the bauxite supply of PT Antam's mine and the results will be sent to an aluminum factory owned by PT Inalum located in Asahan, North Sumatra.

The project cost an investment of at least US$941 million with a production capacity of 1 million tons per year.