Indonesia's Effort to Become a World Leader in Electric Vehicle Batteries Despite Lack of Lithium Reserves

Verda Nano Setiawan, CNBC Indonesia

Wednesday, 02/08/2023 17:40 WIB

Photo: Illustration of a battery in an electric car packaged in a safe component. electrec. co

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The government is getting serious about establishing its intention to become the “king” of the world’s electric vehicle batteries. This follows the abundance of RI’s nickel reserves as raw material for batteries.

Agus Tjahajana Wirakusumah, Special Staff to the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources for the Acceleration of Industrial Development for the ESDM sector, Agus Tjahajana Wirakusumah acknowledged that RI does not have lithium reserves, which is a component of the raw material for electric vehicle batteries.electric vehicle/ EV).

However, the lithium content in the battery is not as large as the nickel and cobalt content. While Indonesia has nickel and cobalt.

He explained that nickel has the largest portion compared to other minerals in the manufacture of batteries, which is 16%. Meanwhile, lithium is only 3% and cobalt is around 4.3%.

“So the factory’s dependence on this material is that far more people are looking for nickel first. Lithium is definitely needed but people also can’t sell lithium without nickel,” Agus said in the CNBC Indonesia Mining Zone event, quoted on Wednesday (2/8/2023).

For this reason, he assessed that nickel has a very important role in boosting the ecosystem of electric vehicles in Indonesia. However, Indonesia does not have lithium reserves.

“So the need for nickel is much greater because nickel is almost 16% for battery raw materials. So it’s huge,” he said.

In addition, Indonesia also has cobalt reserves obtained from the mining process of limonite or low grade nickel ore. As for limonite itself, it used to have no value.

“In the past the nickel processing factory that was taken was called saprolite. Now saprolite is processed to use stainless steel, which is a mixture of steel that becomes stainless. The upper part of the limonite was removed to the side, so actually this limonite was said to have been thrown away, not used, now it is used instead.” ,” he added.

It should be noted, although Indonesia does not have lithium reserves, now Indonesia is building a lithium battery cathode factory in Morowali, Central Sulawesi.

Deputy for Investment and Mining Coordination at the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Kemenko Marves) Septian Hario Seto said that the lithium battery cathode factory will have a production capacity of up to 60 thousand tons.

Seto revealed that the Chinese investor who is building a lithium factory in Indonesia is BTR New Material Group Co Ltd. BTR is currently also building an anode production facility with a capacity of up to 80 thousand tonnes.

“This will be our key to building an EV battery supply chain. Without a lithium battery factory, this will be difficult. The lithium hydroxide factory is currently in the process of construction. This is invested by BTR. BTR is one of the largest anode manufacturers in the world,” he said in a statement. CNBC Indonesia’s “Nickel Conference 2023” event in Jakarta, Tuesday (25/07/2023).

Seto explained, the factory with a capacity of 60 thousand tons of lithium was divided into two types of products, namely lithium hydroxide of 50,000 tons and lithium carbonate of 10,000 tons.

Lithium hydroxide itself can be produced and used for NMC (Nickel, Manganese, Cobalt) battery types. Meanwhile, lithium carbonate can be used for LFP (Lithium, Iron, Phosphate) electric vehicle batteries.

Previously, the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menko Marves) Luhut Binsar Panjaitan said that Australia had no hesitation in agreeing to an additional 60 thousand tons of lithium exports to Indonesia.

Luhut said the Australian Government initially agreed that 60 thousand tons of lithium exported to Indonesia annually would be processed in Morowali starting next year. However, Indonesia asked for an additional 60 thousand tons of lithium exports back from Australia.

However, the difference is that in this additional addition, the Indonesian Government has also requested that Australia be involved in the downstream project for electric vehicle battery production in Indonesia by owning equity. Thus, Indonesia and Australia have equity in the electric vehicle battery project, even though the technology will come from China.

“We have imported 60,000 tons of lithium and we are smelting in Morowali. I think it will start early next year. The smelter process will start early next year. We asked for another 60,000 there yesterday, but you are participating, there is equity too,” Luhut said at the Economic event. Update 2023 CNBC Indonesia, Monday (10/7/2023).

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