Indonesia identifies eight blocks with large rare earth reserve potential

Indonesia has identified eight mining blocks with large potential for rare earth elements and plans to launch two research projects to develop rare earth processing technology, the head of a government mineral industry agency said on Monday.

Indonesia, an archipelago and the largest economy of Southeast Asia, has large reserves of a number of critical minerals as well as deposits of rare earth elements. Rare earths are a group of 17 elements including 15 silvery-white metals used to make magnets – which in turn power motion for electric vehicles, cell phones and missile systems.

The archipelago is also the world’s largest producer of nickel products as well as the biggest exporter of tin.

Mineral Industry Agency chair Brian Yuliarto said that the eight mining blocks with significant potential for rare earth elements and other strategic minerals were identified in places such as Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Bangka Belitung islands.

“Apart from rare earths, some of these blocks also contain several other minerals, namely tungsten, tantalum and antimony, which play a very large role in the defence industry,” Yuliarto told members of parliament.

The blocks will be mined by the new state-owned miner Perminas, he added.

Yuliarto declined to give details on the estimated reserves for the minerals but said they had “promising enough” reserves to compete with other countries.

He said his agency planned to launch the two research projects “in the near future” in Mamuju, West Sulawesi in the centre of Indonesia, adding that the research projects will be done in parallel with preparations for mining exploration of the rare earth elements.

(By Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)