Indonesia and Australia to Develop Rare-Earth Mineral Processing Tech

The Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Ministry is collaborating with several Australian companies to develop a technology to process rare-earth minerals commonly found across Indonesia. The ministry's head of the geological agency Eko Budi Lelono said that Indonesian rare-earth metals could be used in battery, turbine, combat vehicle, tank, and weapon manufacturing. "Rare-earth minerals allow for lighter and faster coating. Batteries also need that," Budi said.

Currently, the development of rare-earth minerals in Indonesia is still in the early exploration stage, such as mapping, georadar-geomagnetism, and reserve estimation. To expand the exploration stage, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry is also teaming up with domestic and foreign companies, considering the rare-earth mineral processing technology is more complicated than other commodities.