Director of Eramet Indonesia, Bruno Faour said that developing a domestic supply chain is one strategy that Indonesia can implement to enter the European and United States (US) electric vehicle (EV) market.Meanwhile, the European and US EV markets place a high emphasis on products with traceable sources. However, most of the intermediate products from nickel ore refined in Indonesia are exported overseas, such as to China, making traceability of these products difficult. “That’s why traceability is difficult, because when you move from one country to another, it makes things more complicated,” Faour said in an interview with Bloomberg Technoz.In addition, he continued, Indonesia must carry out mining and downstream practices using international standards to be able to enter the European and US EV markets. In this regard, Bruno said the challenge of nickel downstreaming in Indonesia is the willingness of miners to produce greener nickel. In addition, nickel downstreaming is also considered not yet at the best international standards. As a result, Indonesia must move forward, especially in the era of energy transition. Moreover, Faour said, currently Indonesia does not have many players that have achieved the level of sustainability and product traceability appropriate to enter the international EV market, such as Europe and the US. “I don’t want to say that everything is bad, that’s not the case, it’s just that we are currently, if I talk globally about the new nickel industry, not at the best international standards,” he said. According to Faour, Eramet as a French company can also contribute to improving sustainability and traceability.Moreover, Eramet has decided to try to comply with the Initiative for Responsible mining Assurance [IRMA] standards, which are known as the most demanding standards regarding mining activities in the world. Currently, Eramet is also in the process of complying with IRMA for the PT Weda Bay Nickel mine, which is a joint venture between Eramet, Tsingshan Group and PT Antam. "So, with the willingness of the government, plus the commitment of several big players such as Eramet, I think this makes me optimistic about Indonesia's ability to answer this challenge," he added. Sonic BayOn that occasion, Bruno also denied that Eramet's departure from Sonic Bay was due to traceability issues from Europe, which have been the main problem with Indonesian nickel. According to him, Sonic Bay is actually the answer so that nickel downstreaming in Indonesia can be traced, namely by utilizing nickel and refining it domestically. However, the many projects in the Indonesian industrial area Weda Bay Industrial Park (IWIP) are the reason for the European investors to leave. This is because the situation has the potential to raise issues related to land, water, and nickel ore supply. “If you have a lot of high-pressure acid leach [HPAL] smelters in the same place, it can be a bit complicated. The projects require a lot of water, and we don’t have a big lake with a big water resource there. The ore is the same, there’s a lot of ore, but there are a lot of projects as well,” Bruno said.Previously, Executive Director of the Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios) Bhima Yudhistira said there were indications that the cause of the departure was related to regulations in developed countries such as the EU, which issued the European Union Due Diligence regulation. The regulation will track the flow of the supply chain, which has been a weakness of nickel in Indonesia.Thus, the EU will have difficulty tracing the origin of nickel in Indonesia due to the lack of data collection. In addition, there are concerns that Indonesian nickel does not comply with established standards, from the environment to worker safety.Thus, Bhima assessed that the Indonesian government must improve the entire management of nickel downstreaming."This is a crucial momentum. There must be no more work accidents, especially those that result in loss of life or death of workers," said Bhima.
Source https://djakarta-miningclub.com