Don't Have Litium As Battery Raw Material, Indonesia Imports From Australia

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Bahlil Lahadalia. (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Bahlil Lahadalia revealed that Indonesia will import lithium commodities from Australia.

For information, lithium is one of the raw materials for electric vehicle batteries other than nickel, cobalt and manganese.

"Now we are working with Australia to import lithium. This is a good thing because Indonesia's EV battery market in the future is quite large," Bahlil said on the International Battery Summit agenda, Tuesday, August 5.

Bahlil said that so far Indonesia has only supplied lithium from several countries on the African continent. With import cooperation from Australia, said Bahlil, Indonesia can cut the cost of transformation because of its closer geographical location.

"So far, we have brought it from several countries in Africa. Now, economically it will be much more economical than Australia because the transportation costs are there," continued Bahlil.

Kendati demikian Bahlil tidak merinci lebih jauh merincikan berapa besar volume impor litium dari Australia.

Namun ia memastikan sejauh ini sudah terdapat beberapa perusahaan yang sudah memasok litium dari negeri kanguru ini.

"Beberapa teman-teman pelaku usaha itu sudah mengambil tambang di sana.," tandas Bahlil.

However, Bahlil did not elaborate further on how much volume of lithium imports from Australia.

However, he confirmed that so far there have been several companies that have supplied lithium from this island.

"Some of the business actors have taken mines there," said Bahlil.