SGAR Luxury Called Unable To Solve The Problem Of Absorption Of West Kalimantan Bauxite Products

Smelter Mempawah (Photo: Antara/HO-Inalum)

The establishment of Smelter Grade Alumina Refinery (SGAR) Luxury belonging to PT Aneka threshold (Antam) and PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminum (Inalum) is said to have not been able to solve the problem of absorption of bauxite commodities around West Kalimantan.

Deputy Commission VII of the Indonesian House of Representatives from the Golkar faction, Maman Abdurahman, said that this smelter does not necessarily absorb all domestically produced basicles. He detailed that the total bauxite produced in a year reaches 10 million tons, while what can be absorbed by SGAR Mempawah only reaches 2 million tons per year.

"With the construction of SGAR in Mempawah, this has not been able to solve the problem of becoming a place for the sale of produced bauxites in West Kalimantan," he said when met in Mempawah, quoted Monday, September 30.

For this reason, Maman asked the government, in this case the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) and the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) to encourage entrepreneurs to immediately realize the construction of the bauxite refining industry that can absorb the production of bauxite.

"From that, commission 7 encourages the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, the Ministry of SOEs and the Ministry of Industry to immediately encourage investors, entrepreneurs to immediately realize the construction of their smelters in West Kalimantan," he continued.

The push for the construction of this bauxite smelter, he said, is needed so that the stock of bauxite produced by companies around West Kalimantan can be absorbed by existing smelters.

Furthermore, Maman said, while waiting for the construction of a bauxite smelter by other bauxite entrepreneurs, Maman said Commission VII also asked the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources to review the possibility of opening the tap for bauxite exports with a limited quota of requirements. The requirement that is required is the commitment to build a smelter within a certain period of time.

"So it's limited. Yes, what kind of company, I think who is really going to commit to building a smelter," he continued.

He gave an example of granting copper concentrate export permits to Amman Mineral and Freeport under the agreement to establish a copper refining industry.

"We have to lock it properly with several orders so that miners are serious about building smelters. In order to encourage an increase in the added value of the commodity products, right," said Maman.