Buton, Island with Nearly 700 Million Tonnes of Asphalt Reserves

Indonesia is the owner of the world’s largest natural asphalt reserves. Uniquely, this natural asphalt mine is concentrated solely on Buton Island, Southeast Sulawesi. The Ministry of Public Works records that Indonesia’s natural asphalt reserves on Buton Island reach 694 million tonnes. Mathematically, this mining treasure is capable of supplying national road needs for centuries to come. These natural asphalt reserves refer to data released through the SIMPK (Construction Materials and Equipment Information System) of the Ministry of Public Works. Previously, the Minister of Public Works, Dody Hanggodo, revealed the vast potential of Buton Asphalt reserves, or Asbuton, which remains overlooked, as its utilisation is very small compared to the total national asphalt needs. Field realities show that the use of this material only reaches around 40,000 to 50,000 tonnes per year, in stark contrast to import figures that burden the country’s foreign exchange. “Dependence is a risk. In national development, risks must be managed very disciplined so that costs do not explode,” Dody emphasised, quoted on Thursday (7/5/2026). He stated that dependence on imported oil-based asphalt heavily burdens the state budget. Every time global oil prices surge, road construction costs in the remotest parts of the Archipelago also swell. Meanwhile, Asphalt and Road Pavement Expert, as well as former Director of Technical Bina Marga at the Ministry of Public Works, Purnomo, reminds that the Buton Asphalt reserves released by the government have not been verified. Purnomo emphasised that the figure is still at the suspected status. In the mining industry, this status indicates a low level of confidence because it has not undergone confirmation through in-depth exploration. “The deposit estimate is suspected, not confirmed. That data has not gone through adequate confirmation processes via comprehensive exploration,” said Purnomo. Potential lands are fragmented into small permits owned by many parties, but almost none conduct serious exploration activities to ensure the quality and quantity of reserves. Purnomo explained that another issue with using Buton Asphalt is the lack of strict quality standardisation. According to him, the main problem with Asbuton so far is not availability, but the inconsistency of the product that has not been fully verified on a massive scale.