Attorney General's Office Reveals PT CNI's Scheme to Manipulate Nickel Content Documents for Export

The Attorney General’s Office (Kejagung) has uncovered alleged corruption regarding the nickel governance of PT CNI in Southeast Sulawesi between 2017 and 2020. PT CNI reportedly manipulated nickel content test results to meet export requirements.

“PT CNI, in collaboration with state officials, arranged the documents such that nickel content values were recorded as less than 1.7% to meet export requirements, which should have been above 1.7%,” stated the Director of Investigation of the Jampidsus at the Attorney General’s Office, Saiful Bahri Siregar, during a press conference at the Attorney General’s Office building, South Jakarta, on Monday (31/8/2026).

Saiful stated that the documents used by PT CNI were essentially invalid for conducting exports. Consequently, this led to significant state financial losses.

“There are state financial losses as per the State Loss Calculation Report from the Audit Board of Indonesia (BPK) amounting to Rp 401,653,737,469.69,” he explained.

He further clarified that while PT CNI held a Mining Business Licence (IUP) for production operations, the company continued to export despite lacking a Work Plan and Budget (RKAB).

“From 2017 to 2019, in Southeast Sulawesi Province, there was a nickel mining company, PT CNI, which held a Mining Business Licence (IUP) for production operations but did not yet have an RKAB, yet had already obtained export recommendations,” he said.

PT CNI has now surrendered funds amounting to Rp 401 billion to the Attorney General’s Office. The money has been seized and deposited into the Other Government Revenue (RPL) account at Bank Mandiri.

“Simply put, the money before us is the surrender from PT CNI related to the illegal nickel production operations. Based on the BPKP loss calculations, we have currently deposited it into Bank Mandiri in the other government revenue account,” he added.