Indonesia's Mineral Wealth Not Yet Fully Utilised Directly by SOEs

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - The mining holding company MIND ID has highlighted that much of the country’s mineral resource wealth has not yet been able to be utilised directly by state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

MIND ID President Director Maroef Sjamsoeddin said this condition was one of the things he discovered when he first received the mandate to lead the mining holding company.

“In the early days of receiving our mandate as MIND ID President Director, we felt strongly that there was a great deal of mineral resource wealth that could not be utilised directly by us as SOEs,” Maroef said at the Mindialogue 2026: Minerals for Indonesia’s Economic Stability event on Wednesday (12/8/2026).

According to him, Indonesia’s mineral resource wealth has in fact been utilised more by other parties. Moreover, a number of these parties possess technological capabilities that allow them to process and utilise Indonesia’s mineral resources more optimally.

“It is utilised more by other parties, including SOEs—and it can be easily traced—but those are SOEs with excellent technology, state-like entities of other countries, not our SOEs here,” Maroef said.

As is known, Indonesia ranks among the countries with the largest gold reserves in the world. Based on data from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in the Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, Indonesia’s gold reserves in 2025 are estimated to reach 3,600 tonnes.

With that amount, Indonesia ranks fourth in the world in terms of gold reserves, behind Australia, Russia, and South Africa. The USGS estimates total world gold reserves in 2025 at around 66,000 tonnes.

In detail, Australia is the country with the largest gold reserves in the world at 13,000 tonnes, followed by Russia at 12,000 tonnes and South Africa at 5,000 tonnes. Indonesia is in fourth place with reserves of 3,600 tonnes.