"Indonesia Will Stop Exports Ilmintar June", Need Investments Of IDR 1.3 Trillion

Illustration of mining dredging (Photo; Doc Antara)

Minister of Industry (Menperin) Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita said Indonesia would again ban the export of one of its commodities, namely Ilmin. Ilmin is a mineral that contains precious metals.

According to the plan, the ban on the export of these commodities will be carried out starting next June.

"To support the implementation of a ban on exports of raw materials, including Ilmin in June 2023, it is necessary to have an investment in last-minute processing that we have calculated the investment needs of 85.8 million US dollars (equivalent to Rp1.3 trillion at an exchange rate of Rp15,178 per US dollar)," said Minister of Industry Agus in a Working Meeting with Commission VII DPR RI in Jakarta, Tuesday, February 14.

According to Agus, the investment requirement has been based on investment figures in other countries for a number of commodities.

Later, the investment will be used to produce downstream products from self-immunity commodities, such as the need for the titanium slag industry with a capacity of 33,000 tons per year and for the hydrode white pigment industry with a capacity of 33,000 per year.

"Ilmetics are crisis minerals resulting from lead processing of zircons and iron sand that contains very, very valuable metals, namely titanium," said Agus.

Minister of Industry Agus assessed that so far Indonesia has only exported raw impetus and re-imported its derivative products with a large enough value, so that it is considered a burden on the state budget.

"Indonesia has been exporting raw and funny imporing back its derivative products with large values, such as titanium dioxide and white pigment with imported value imported into Indonesia amounting to Rp272 million US dollars, (based on) data in 2022," he added.