Everyone thinks it’s China, but this is the country that holds the key in the electric car battery race

Recently, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said that up to 60% of electric vehicles in the world will depend on the battery ecosystem being built in an integrated way in Indonesia. According to the President, Indonesia has rich resources such as nickel, copper, bauxite and tin – materials that are considered the core of the production of electric vehicles and are available in large quantities.

According to the US Geological Survey, Indonesia and Australia have the largest nickel reserves in the world, about 21 million tons each. However, Indonesia is the top nickel producer, followed by the Philippines and Russia. Russia accounts for nearly 20% of the global supply of grade 1 nickel, the type of nickel needed for batteries. China’s Tsingshan and Brazil’s Vale are major nickel producers in Indonesia.

Indonesian Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia said Jakarta is looking at mechanisms similar to those used by OPEC, a group of 13 major oil producing countries, to manage and regulate the supply of metals. important for energy conversion.

“I see the benefit of creating an organization similar to OPEC to govern the oil trade, ensuring predictability for investors and potential customers.

Any attempt to form a joint action organization to control the global price of nickel will not be straightforward. Russia supplies one-fifth of the world’s production of high-purity nickel, used in electric vehicle batteries, while Canada and Australia are also major producers. However, Indonesia is expected to be the biggest source of growth for nickel in the coming years.

According to Mr. Widodo, what they are lacking is lithium. However, it will accelerate its partnership with Australia to get the lithium supply to support its electric vehicle battery ecosystem.

“Despite the shortfall, we can buy it back from Australia, some of our companies already have mines here and I think this strategy is absolutely right.”

The next core issue is downstream process integration of these natural resources.

“Integrating this product isn’t easy and it’s challenging to make it an ecosystem. This is what I’m working on. I’d love to do this because this is what will bring us to a culture. otherwise,” said Mr. Widodo.

Globally, lithium consumption continues to increase due to 2022 due to the growth of electric vehicles. In nature, lithium is found in varying concentrations in seawater, pegmatites, oil field brine, geothermal brine, and sedimentary rocks (Li-rich clays).

Lithium raw materials can be extracted from primary resources, such as seawater and sea rock, and secondary resources such as used batteries and mined materials.

To this end, efforts to discover and determine the availability of lithium and other mineral raw materials in Indonesia require cooperation between the scientific disciplines and all parties, including universities. college and need a longer period of time.

According to Reuters, Bloomberg