Indonesia nickel smelter group says exports still delayed by rare earth checks
Indonesia's nickel smelter group FINI said on Wednesday that exporters were still waiting for about 120 surveyor reports to be issued in order to resume shipments, despite a pledge by the presidential staff office to resolve abottleneck caused by new rare earth content checks.
Exports have been held up after a mandatory testing programme for rare earth elements was introduced earlier this month, FINI said.
In a meeting organised by the Presidential Staff Office on Monday, businesses received confirmation that previously delayed shipments of processed mining products, including nickel and bauxite, would be allowed to proceed, FINI said.
However, as of Wednesday, around 120 surveyor reports were yet to be issued across multiple commodities from various mining hubs across the archipelago including nickel-producing Sulawesi, the tin mining zone of Bangka Belitung and the bauxite-rich West Kalimantan.
FINI said in a statement that the testing could not be conducted because of regulatory and governance issues, as well as unreadiness on the ground and a lack of testing equipment.
The new mandatory checks were introduced after the Indonesian attorney general's office identified three suspects in a corruption case on July 7.
The group said it supported mandatory testing to identify the country's rare earth resources, but warned that the presence of REE as a by-product should not automatically result in export restrictions on nickel products that are otherwise allowed to be shipped overseas.
"The extraction and purification process of rare earth elements which are contained in the products resulting from nickel processing or refining still requires further research and study both from a technological and economic perspective," FINI said.
Indonesia exports intermediate nickel products such as nickel pig iron, ferronickel, nickel matte and mixed hydroxide precipitate.
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