Mineral Industry Agency Discusses Development of Rare Earth Metals in Mamuju

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Mineral Industry Agency (BIM) discussed the development of a rare earth element (REE) mine located in Mamuju, West Sulawesi. “This discussion … Mamuju. This is the kind of development for rare earth elements, more or less,” said the Director General of Minerals and Coal (Dirjen Minerba) of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), Tri Winarno, when met at the SOE Holding Company (BP BUMN) office in Jakarta on Tuesday. Based on ANTARA’s observations at the BP BUMN office, the meeting was attended by the Chairman of the BIM Supervisory Board, who is also the Minister of Defence Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin; BIM Supervisory Board members, including TNI Chief Agus Subiyanto; BIM Head, who is also the Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Technology Brian Yuliarto; and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the Nusantara Future Investment Management Agency (BPI Danantara) Sigit Puji Santosa. Tri Winarno attended the meeting to represent BIM Supervisory Board members and the ESDM Minister Bahlil Lahadalia. The meeting started around 10:00 WIB and ended around 11:00 WIB. Tri stated that there were no other discussions besides rare earth elements in the meeting. “Not (discussing the groundbreaking of downstreaming). Discussing rare earth elements,” Tri said. BIM is tasked with providing support to accelerate research and development to increase the added value of strategic minerals. The strategic minerals in question are types of minerals that play a vital role in the defence and high-tech industries, including radioactive minerals, rare earth metals, and other minerals. Their management applies to both primary products and by-products from mining activities. The Ministry of Transmigration has opened up the potential to utilise Transmigration Land Management Rights (HPL) for coal mining up to rare earth metals (REE), as part of creating new economic growth centres. “From the results of research by 2,000 researchers yesterday, there was also something related to mining like coal. In Mamuju (West Sulawesi), there are rare earth metals. We are also potentiating that,” said the Minister of Transmigration (Mentrans) M Iftitah Sulaiman Suryanagara during a press conference of the SKK Migas Head Meeting with the Minister of Transmigration in Jakarta on Monday (4/5). Iftitah explained that the Ministry of Transmigration is currently truly focused on creating new economic growth points. Thus, he continued, communities that move to those areas can feel comfortable because they have jobs.