According to recent reports, SugengSuparwoto, Chairman of the Energy Committee of the Indonesian Parliament, said, “We ask all parties to urge the government to comply with HPM (Mineral Reference Prices). So far this regulation has not worked.” SugenSuparwoto also said that in addition to monitoring actions, it is possible A special committee (Pansus) is formed and the government is urged to comply with the regulations outlined. For example, there is a requirement that smelters must absorb nickel ore with a nickel content of less than 1.7%.
Irwandy Arief, a special staff member of the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, also said that the Indonesian government has set up a special working group for nickel ore benchmark prices to provide justice for the fairness between mining companies and smelters. All mining and smelting companies must abide by this rule. If the purchase of low nickel ore prices does not comply with the regulations, actions will be taken in accordance with the regulations, from the withdrawal of financial arrangements to the withdrawal of business licenses.
Earlier, Yunus Saefulhak, Director of Mineral Development and Business of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, stated that the HPM set by the government was lower than the international market price. The purpose is to invest in the domestic smelting industry. However, this does not mean that the price is too low, because this is to protect the sustainability and profitability of the miner’s business.
Djoko Widajatno, executive director of the Indonesian Mining Association (IMA), said that the widespread practice of buying and selling nickel ore between miners and smelter owners at prices lower than HPM would obviously be detrimental to the financial situation of miners because of their production costs. Roughly the same as the sales price, or even lower. So far, nickel miners who have been forced to sell their nickel ore products at prices lower than HPM are small and medium-sized miners. On the other hand, entrepreneurs or large miners usually have their own smelters, so they are relatively unaffected by this practice.
It is reported that the metal HPM is the lower limit price for calculating the production and operation IUP and the holder of the production and operation IUPK to pay the production cost obligation. This metal HPM is also a reference for the price of nickel ore sold by IUP and IUPK holders. However, if the transaction price is lower than the HPM of the metal, it can be sold according to HPM. The maximum difference with HPM is 3%. The nickel contract after the establishment of the HPM working group is the contract with nickel content of 1.9% and 2%. The price is in line with HPM, but there are many conditions.
These requirements include a penalty for nickel content, that is, when the nickel smelter's level is 0.1% higher than the contract record level, the price will fall by $7. The water content (moisture content/MC) means that if the MC exceeds 30%, a fine of 5% per wet metric ton (wmt) will be imposed. Therefore, if the initial contract price is US$37 per ton, the actual price received by the miner may be only half, or about US$15 per ton.
ABOUT PUDA
PUDA is a 28-year’s leading, growth-focused manufacturer of packing equipment and custom-engineered and integrated plant-wide system for dry bulk powders, flakes, and granules! PUDA-International Inc. is a Canadian based company located in Great Vancouver, Canada in 2004. Puda owns world famous partners like Southern Copper Corp. Rio Tinto Group, Zijin Group, LG China, OT Group, FL Smith, MCC,KAZ Minerals PLC and E.Mix and ECUACORRIENTE S.A.
PUDA has made many sets of big bag packing machines for nickle concentrate.








