The Ministry Of Energy And Mineral Resources Collaborates With Eramet, Increases Study And Exploration Of Critical Minerals

The excavator is active in the lapindo mud reservoir pool, Porong, Sidoarjo, East Java. (Photo: ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) through the Mineral, Coal, and Geothermal Resources Center (PSDMBP) is exploring cooperation with PT Eramet Indonesia Mining to discuss follow-up to studies and exploration of critical minerals in Indonesia.

PSDMBP Head Agung Pribadi said PSDMBP is working to collaborate with a number of foreign companies, which are focused on in-depth studies related to potential critical minerals.

"The critical military, such as nickel, cobalt, and lithium, is a commodity that is urgently needed in the development of future technology, especially for electric vehicle batteries. With a comprehensive study, it is hoped that new critical mineral reserves will be found that are larger and have high economic value", said Agung, Thursday, October 17.

Agung detailed the cooperation that will be established between PSDMBP and Eramet covering several aspects, including studies and investigations of critical mineral prospects that have not been developed in Indonesia, characterization of ore and nickel-related metallurgical processes, and exploration of lithium from geothermal brine.

This collaboration also opens opportunities for knowledge exchange related to lithium exploration, mineral inventory, and joint scientific publications.

Agung continued, in the near future there will be an agenda for the lithium investigation plan in Grobogan Regency, Central Java, which will begin on October 21, 2024.

This investigation is a follow-up to the lithium brine study which was initiated in 2023 in the Kuwu Bleduk area and its surroundings.

"This activity will involve geophysics and geochemical methods, with PSDMBP and Eramet contributing to the use of different equipment and techniques. In this case, geophysical methods that will be used include gravity, ground magnetic, and magnetoteluric by PSDMBP, as well as geoelectric, self-potential, and passive seismic by Eramet," he said.

The technical preparations for these activities, said Agung, have been carried out since August 2024, and the next step is licensing and socialization to the local government on October 21, 2024.

In addition, the geochemical method in the form of taking waterbrine samples will also be carried out by the PSDMBP team for further analysis in the laboratory.

Furthermore, as part of the implementation of cooperation, delegates from the Geological Agency and PSDMBP are scheduled to visit the R&D Eramet facility in Paris, France, in early December 2024.

This visit aims to study lithium extraction technology from geothermal brine being developed by Eramet, as well as strengthen knowledge transfer in the context of developing the critical mineral industry in Indonesia.