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PrintWhile foreign miners already operating in Indonesia are lamenting the mineral export ban scheduled for next year, Glencore Xstrata, one of the world’s biggest diversified natural resource companies, but which has no physical assets in the country, is looking to steal the show.
Industry Minister MS Hidayat told reporters on Tuesday that Ivan Glasenberg, the chief executive of the Swiss-based company, has expressed interest in investing in a mineral processing facility in the eastern part of Indonesia. Hidayat and Glasenberg held a meeting at the ministry’s headquarters in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Hidayat, however, said Glencore asked whether the mining law, which will ban export of raw mineral commodities by January 12, 2014, would be implemented.
“I told them that the government, according to the law, must implement the export ban,” said Hidayat after the meeting, adding that the Glencore executive agreed that such a policy would suit the company’s plan to forge ahead with its investment plans.
Hidayat said that Glencore Xstrata had conducted a feasibility study for the investment plan.
“They didn’t talk numbers [investment amount], but I estimate that it would be more than $1 billion,” he said, adding that he was optimistic Glencore is serious about its investment plan.
The processing facilities that would be built are for bauxite (aluminium) and nickel, the minister said.
Currently, Glencore Xstrata has no physical mining assets in Indonesia and its Indonesian operation is being represented through its trading arm, which deals in coal.
Its main Indonesian trading partner is Harum Energy, a coal miner, whose owner Kiki Barki accompanied Glasenberg in the meeting with Hidayat.
Many analysts and industry players are closely watching Indonesia’s mining sector in relation to the upcoming ban. While miners are concerned that it would lead to the loss of earnings from exports, an export ban from a major mineral-producing nation would drive up prices in the commodity market which is entering a lackluster period after the so-called commodity super-cycle.
Indonesia is a major producer of nickel and bauxite. According to data from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, nickel production in Indonesia reached 40.3 million tons for the first nine months this year, and the government expects it will reach 52.2 million tons by the end of the year.
Output of bauxite, used to produce aluminum, is estimated to top 51.6 million tons by the end of the year, an official at the ministry said.
Glasenberg said on Tuesday he expected nickel ore exports from Indonesia to reach 60 million tons this year. He once told a gathering of analysts that Indonesia’s mineral export ban is a “game-changer” and that the company was watching closely.
Intriguingly, the minister also held a meeting Tuesday with Marzuki Darusman, president commissioner of Freeport Indonesia, a mining giant which has repeatedly refused to invest in new value-added facilities.
Asked which of the two contradicting mining industry positions he supported, Hidayat smiled, and refused to answer.
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